How Our Instructors Can Be Graded Just as Much as Their Students
By Sharan Paul, Metro staff reporter
If you have ever had a class that was excellent, or one that was incredibly awful, what do you do? Most Tri-C students tell their classmates, or complain to other professors. Nearly all students are unsure of where to go, or who to talk to about their concerns with class content, curriculum or professors. Tri-C is about to change that with a new evaluation program.
Evaluation is the most effective way of assessing the performance of instructors. Presently, Tri-C evaluates all instructors internally at the end of each term. However, those evaluations do not include comments or concerns from students.
“The new system will begin with a focus group of students from all campuses,” said Sandra McKnight, associate vice president of faculty affairs.
These students will participate in the selection of questions on the evaluation form, as well as, areas that are covered on the questionnaire.
Once the forms are complete, Tri-C will distribute them and use the upcoming summer session as a pilot for the program. 2014 fall semester will be the initiation of the program. A town hall meeting was held April 1st to introduce the program to the faculty.
The evaluation program will have at least three separate questionnaires. The instructor evaluation will be given to each student, in every class, at the end of the term. Also included in the evaluation process will be questionnaires for students to evaluate library staff and counselors. All of these forms are designed to gather the opinions of students, and efficiently evaluate the faculty and staff members they depend on throughout their education.
But evaluation is not all about the professor that was terrible, or the class you hated. It is also a forum to highlight the professor who went out of the way to help students, or a class that surpassed your expectations.
In any case, it is our chance to be heard and be an essential part of shaping Tri-C for the future.
