Student Course Evaluation Procedures
Sent on behalf of Chris Brown, Vice Provost for Faculty Development
The University of Kansas values effective teaching. Although student evaluations are only one component of an effective teaching assessment strategy, they are an important component and must be given due consideration. We remind you that university policy requires that teaching faculty should be evaluated each semester by students in all courses with five or more students.
University policy also requires that the forms are administered and collected under controlled conditions that ensure students’ anonymity. Departments are reminded that instructors should have access to student evaluations only after final grades have been submitted.
To meet this requirement, the Provost Office asks instructors to follow these steps:
Paper evaluation forms distributed in classroom settings
- Announce the date when course evaluations will be distributed at least one class session in advance.
- Leave the room during the administration of the student evaluations.
- Ask a student or other departmental representative to collect the evaluations and deliver them to the department office for tabulation.
Evaluations conducted online
If you are teaching an online or hybrid course OR your department/school collects all course evaluations online, the KU Center for Online and Distance Learning can assist you with administering the online version of the assessment.
For face-to-face courses that use online evaluations, the Provost Office recommends having students complete the evaluations in the classroom setting following steps 1 and 2 above. If that is not possible, the Provost Office recommends that instructors explain the importance of completing course evaluations and remind students about the online evaluations several times.
A full description of procedures is available in the KU Policy Library.
J. Christopher Brown, Ph.D.
Professor
Geography and Atmospheric Science
Environmental Studies Program
Vice Provost for Faculty Development