Student Evaluation of Curriculum Instruction

Procedure

Durham Technical Community College (Durham Tech) regularly administers student evaluations of curriculum instruction. This process allows the College to accomplish the following:

• Communicate its vision of an appropriate, engaging, and collaborative learning environment;
• Offer students opportunities to provide timely and anonymous feedback about their courses, instructors, and learning experiences;
• Provide instructors with meaningful feedback on the effectiveness of their instruction;
• Identify possible course-level areas of concern (e.g., instructors’ expectations of students’ technological competence);
• Assess program-level and general education outcomes and presentation of course-level learning outcomes;
• Make appropriate decisions about course-level and program-level modifications;
• Assess the strengths and weaknesses of various instructional delivery modes, including the intersection of content and mode of delivery;
• Evaluate and address concerns for preparatory courses; and
• Meet all required accreditation standards.
   

Evaluation Administration

Research, Evaluation, Assessment, and Planning (REAP) coordinates the evaluation process and administers evaluations each term using a web-based survey administration software program. The evaluation process is voluntary for students and is designed to maintain their anonymity and confidentiality. The software directly accesses student course enrollment information from Colleague, Durham Tech’s Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP)/Student Information System, and does not allow anyone, including the survey administrator, to see which responses were submitted by individual students.

REAP ensures the integrity of the evaluation process and communicates with departments/programs and students to ensure that pertinent information is shared and received. Department/program personnel are responsible for ensuring that instructor and course information is accurately entered into Colleague and adhering to process deadlines and guidelines. Students who choose to participate in the evaluation process are responsible for providing honest feedback and adhering to deadlines and guidelines.

Evaluation Scheduling

Evaluations are scheduled according to each term’s course schedule:

• Evaluation Period One is based on the Mini-Session I eight-week course schedule.
• Evaluation Period Two is based on the Full Semester course schedule and includes sixteen-week and Mini-Session II eight-week courses.
• Evaluation periods end the day before the final day of classes. Refer to the Academic Calendar for specific dates.

The exact evaluation schedule is determined each term, considering holidays/breaks, final exams, and when final grades are due. Courses with start or end times that fall outside of Mini-Session I, Mini-Session II, or the sixteen-week schedule are included in one of the existing evaluation periods, if possible. If not, the evaluations for these courses are scheduled and processed separately and are not included in promotional efforts. The evaluation schedule is posted in the Employees shared folder (W:\Employees\REAP\Student Evaluation of Curriculum Instruction) at the beginning of each term. Students may request a copy of the schedule by contacting REAP at reap@durhamtech.edu. Should extenuating circumstances (e.g., inclement weather, College closure) arise, the schedule may be adjusted; REAP will notify departments/programs and students of any changes.

Communication

Students and instructors receive communications via email from REAP prior to the beginning of each evaluation period and periodically throughout the process. Students are sent reminders via ConnectMail during the evaluation period. Promotional messages encouraging students to participate in the process are posted online, on campus, and in Canvas. Since the success of online evaluations hinges largely on instructor’s efforts, they are strongly encouraged to make class and Canvas announcements and offer students class time to complete evaluations.

Evaluation Tool

All curriculum courses are assigned a standard set of questions with supplemental questions specific to, and appropriate for, each delivery method (traditional, online, hybrid, and blended). Students respond to questions on a scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree and may provide open-ended feedback via comment boxes.

Evaluation Results

REAP provides the Vice President, Academics and Guided Career Pathways/Chief Academic Officer, deans, program directors/chairs, and instructors with access to evaluation results after the final grade due date.

The survey administration software provides three (3) reporting options: a detailed report, a short report, and a response results report. All reports include comment question data.

• The detailed report includes the response rate per question; the frequency of response choice for scaled items; and the mean, median, and program bench for each question. The program bench is the number of responses for a question across the entire program. All questions that fall below the threshold of a 2.99 mean will be displayed in orange text.
• The short report includes the frequency of each response choice for scaled items and the mean and median for each question.
• The response report is a non-aggregated report. It parses out the individual responses from each respondent and does not combine the responses received from all respondents.

Supervisors of instructors should incorporate student evaluation results into the performance review and evaluation process. Refer to the Employee Evaluation policy for additional information.