T. E. Roberts, Instructor II • USF Sarasota-Manatee
Course Evaluations By Students • Fall 2003 through Fall
2017
Page
updated 19 December 2017
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Links are provided
near the bottom of the second column for evaluations from individual
semesters as single PDF files. The most recent are highlighted in yellow.
Except for minor editing for formatting and PDF creation, these match exactly
the content of the original USF evaluation results. Each evaluation
consists of two parts: 1)
statistical results of a questionnaire about the course (“best” = 5.0), and 2)
anonymous comments by individual students. Beginning with the
Summer 2008 evaluations, I sometimes provide a brief response to selected
student comments in order to address a student’s confusion or to correct an
obvious misunderstanding. Certain realities
remain constant through the student comments over the years. The students who
believe they benefited from a course tended to: 1) read and
carefully follow instructions 2) try hard to
improve their work 3) communicate
regularly with the instructor 4) regard instructor
feedback as a professional, not personal, review of their work, and 5) treat the
learning experience, the instructor, and their classmates with respect. A NOTE ABOUT
ANONYMOUS STUDENT COMMENTS Anonymity obviously
is a two-edged sword. It provides confidentiality but may also violate an
individual’s right to due process. Students are asked
to be fair, honest, and unbiased in their appraisals of the course and the
instructor. However, based on research conducted by me and other faculty
members over the years, it is obvious that most students who write negative
appraisals have never sought individual conferences with the instructor. Many
of them are simply disgruntled with the grade they earned and, instead of
taking responsibility for their own performance, like to blame circumstances,
fate, the instructor, or anything else that lets them off the hook. In my judgment, the
university has instituted a well-considered process for the filing of formal
student grievances. The first step is for a student to confer directly and
personally with his or her instructor. This usually results in the settling
of any misunderstanding, and this procedure should in fact apply in any
disagreement between a student and an instructor. In the absence of
such a conference (especially in online courses where most communications
occur via email), it is easy for a student to feel slighted because he or she
is simply unhappy with a grade. This happens occasionally with people who
think of themselves as “A students” but who earn a B+ or other, in their
view, unsatisfactory grade. If such a student has never bothered to discuss
the evaluation of an assignment at the time it is submitted and graded, the
resentment at the end of a term over an “unfair” final grade may lead to an
unfounded negative appraisal of an instructor or a course. In fairness, the student
should first accept individual responsibility for the outcome of his or her
performance in a course. This is one reason that I emphasize that a student EARNS a
grade based on performance. As instructor, I DO NOT “GIVE” a grade. The
following passage from each syllabus should be kept in mind: Advice
About Grades: A grievance will not
automatically or necessarily result in a change of grade for an assignment or
a course. In more than four decades of teaching thousands of college
students, two of my students have filed formal grievances (1974 and
1997), and in both cases my original grade and teaching approach were upheld
by a grievance committee of students and faculty. I take seriously my
duty to be not only a competent and effective teacher but also to help
students succeed, not fail. If you believe I am not meeting your
objectives as a student, talk with me. I will listen to your perspective and
seek a mutually satisfying solution to problems. Any student who writes an
anonymous negative review of my teaching or course content at the end of a
term but who has never talked with me in person, by phone, or by email, about
specific issues lacks credibility. Such a person demonstrates immaturity,
ignorance, and indifference regarding professional and ethical standards of
conduct. The time to focus
on your grade, if you worry about such a thing, is during the term, not at
the end after you receive the final grade calculation. Students who complain
about final grades but who have made little if any sincere effort to excel on
each assignment or to communicate with me individually should not be
surprised at a weak final grade. You have several written assignments and a
final exam to build a satisfactory final grade. You also have the option of
receiving a detailed markup and performing a complete revision of all but the
final assignment. Contrary to many students’
view, a grade is earned by you, not given by me. Your job is to
perform as well as possible. My job is to evaluate your performance fairly,
based on experience, professional judgment, and workplace expectations. There
is nothing personal in this process; it is simply a matter of defining,
applying, and meeting professional criteria. I am not judging your
appearance, gender, sexual preference, ethnicity, philosophy, politics,
religion, personal values, or social status. In fact, because all of my teaching
is conducted online, I am not even aware of most of those characteristics. I
am interested only in your academic performance and your demonstrated
improvement thereof. |
Please don’t ask
for a grade to be “rounded” to a higher mark. The grading system is designed
to record your achievement accurately to three decimal places, so the effect
of rounding has already been considered. Grades are calculated by the Canvas
Learning Management System, but if you believe a mathematical error has
occurred, notify me immediately. Read carefully and
repeatedly the definitions of grades in this syllabus so you have a clear
understanding of the standards that students are expected to meet. If you are
confused, simply ask me for clarification. Don’t substitute guesswork for
knowledge. As a faculty member,
I take neither positive nor negative evaluations personally, but I do try to
use them to improve the course presentations in the future. The following
statement sums up well the shallowness and unscientific nature of course
evaluations by students: “Basing education research and instructor
performance assessment entirely on student evaluations is like basing
clinical drug trials entirely on patient reports of how they feel.” (http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/08/08/carey) USEFUL REFLECTIONS
FROM THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION I recommend the Feb.
20, 2011 article from The Chronicle of Higher Education titled “A
Perfect Storm in Undergraduate Education, Part I,” which discusses student
assessments and student learning challenges (see this link). Another relevant article is this commentary titled “From Students, A Misplaced Sense of Entitlement” (March 27, 2011). This Chronicle article is
similarly useful: “Student
Evaluations, Grade Inflation, and Declining Student Effort” (June 19, 2010). And the most recent Chronicle article
I recommend offers an interesting perspective from a teacher who becomes a
student: “Professor as Student: A Gym
Perspective” (Aug. 9, 2011) -- note
in particular the yellow-highlighted comments following this article; they
sum up a view of teaching that I find very similar to my own. MY JUNIOR-SENIOR COURSES TAUGHT OVER THE YEARS
DOWNLOADABLE
EVALUATIONS BY MY USFSM STUDENTS The compressed
(zipped) file below contains evaluations for every term from Fall 2003
through Fall 2016. The most recent evaluations (Summer 2016, Fall 2016,
Spring 2017, Summer 2017, and Fall 2017) are highlighted in yellow. Fall03-thru-Fall17.zip (44.8MB, posted 19
Dec 2017) MOST RECENT: NOTE: For numeric
evaluation scores of all USF faculty, see: https://fair.usf.edu/EvaluationMart/ For evaluations of Mr. Roberts at RateMyProfessors.com, see To
contact Mr. Roberts, please send email to tr[at]sar.usf.edu. ©
2017, T. E. Roberts (tr[at]sar.usf.edu). All rights reserved. Updated 17 Dec
2017. Duplication, copying, or re-posting of any text or links on this page
requires explicit written permission from T. E. Roberts, Instructor II, Univ.
of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. |