Online And Paper Course Evaluations

The purpose of this study is to compare the results of paper and online evaluations. The following analysis examines data from six departments of the School of Business Administration during a programmed switch from paper to online evaluations. The courses that participated in this study were divided and compared in the following manner: advanced and core classes, large and small sections, and courses taught by full-time and part-time faculty. The data was collected over a one-year period and contrasts the Spring 2008 and 2009 semesters, during which a total of 4,424 evaluations were reviewed.  In addition, data on the years from 2005 to 2008 are provided as a comparison benchmark of typical responses collected when paper evaluations were used. The conclusions of this study show that while a drop in response rate did occur when the switch was made, no significant change in instructor and course ratings was observed. Furthermore, the students who did complete online evaluations provided lengthier and more numerous comments

Engaging Students in the Undergraduate Analytical Decision Making Course

There are many voices today discussing the necessity of changing the ways we teach, for example, Gen Y studies about the way students learn, employers’ lists of skills they say current graduates need, and colleges that desire to always improve how they deliver information. These have led to classes where the learning styles are more hand-on, less lecture-focused, and more engaging for the Gen Y learner. The purpose of this paper is to give an illustration of how an analytics class can be restructured to address these issues. We develop an undergraduate class that focuses not only on analytical methods, but also on presentation, writing, and team skills. These are all developed within the framework of an original student research project.

Online Course Evaluations Response Rates

This paper studies the reasons for low response rates in online evaluations. Survey data are collected from the students to understand factors that might affect student participation in the course evaluation process. When course evaluations were opened to the student body, an email announcement was sent to all students, and a reminder email was sent a week later. Our study showed that participation rates increased not only when emails were sent, but also when faculty used in-class time to emphasize the importance of completing the evaluations

Changing The Culture Of A School: The Effect Of Larger Class Size On Instructor And Student Performance

Over time, each school builds its own culture and approach to education.  Students, faculty, and alumni become accustomed to the style and pace of their university setting and expect it to continue.  Thus, deliberate changes to this culture are not undertaken lightly and the effects of such changes are watched closely.   This paper discusses the process and results of a change initiated by the School of Business Administration (SBA) at Loyola University Chicago.  The change involved the increase of the maximum class size on the undergraduate level.  In the fall of 2006, it was increased by 50 percent.   The effect of this change was tracked in two ways:  both student results, as measured by the grade point average, and faculty results, as measured by instructor evaluations, were collected and are reported here for a period of three years.  This study uses data collected over the three years and includes results from 833 sections representing 23,247 student evaluations. For all terms in this period, data from the traditional and larger sized classes were compared and no significant difference was found either in instructor or student performance