http://www.celt.iastate.edu/elearning/?p=6088 Class Climate, the web-based course evaluation tool, helps measure an instructor’s achievements in teaching. To create well-designed, valid, reliable, and practical Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) questionnaires the instruments should: >> include open- and close-ended questions >> include intentional measures of both general instructor attributes (e.g. enthusiasm or effectiveness) and specific instructor behaviors (e.g. listening, providing feedback) >> use consistent scales (e.g., five-points, same direction, 1 = low, 5 = high) and a no-opinion option >> produce useful feedback to instructors that can inform their teaching >> can be completed thoughtfully within 10 to 15 minutes When developing course evaluations consider: >> How will the student evaluation information be used? >> Is it important to re-ask demographic information? >> What types of reports do we need for our department? for the College? for Promotion and Tenure? >> What types of questions will help achieve professional, departmental, and College goals? >> How will the findings help us departmentally to recruit students, and promote Iowa State University’s mission? Once these objectives have been defined the creation of the questionnaire will be easier to accomplish.

1. Creating effective course evaluations Laura Bestler, Instructional Support Specialist course-evaluation@iastate.edu September 27, 2011

2. When developing a questionnaire think about: What to include… What to consider…

3. Include Open Questions

4. Ask Open Questions What did you like BEST about this course? What two things would you CHANGE about this course?

5. Clear expectations Organized Prepared Knowledgeable Consistent Questions about an instructor’s attributes

6. Listener Respectful Encouraging Enthusiastic Questions about an instructor’s behaviors

7. Use Consistent Scales Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree Very Poor Very Good Very Effective Very Ineffective 5 1 … and a No Opinion or Not Applicable option

8. Produce useful feedback to instructors that can inform their teaching

9. Consider: Program Review Accreditation Promotion & Tenure How will the information be used?

10. Demographic information? How will asking about student characteristics help? Is the information elsewhere?

11. Consider: Types of Reports Dean? Provost? Department? Instructors?

12. How will the findings SUPPORT the mission? Mission: Create, share, and apply knowledge to make Iowa and the world a better place.

13. http://www.celt.iastate.edu/elearning Laura Bestler, Instructional Support Specialist course-evaluation@iastate.edu