What is your opinion about the end-of-course evaluation? Do you think it accurately reflects your performance in the classroom? Do you live in fear of the result you will receive, regarding your position in the school where you teach for now? Do you focus on the potential outcome of the assessment and do everything you can to make sure your students are satisfied with the course, even if it means becoming more lenient than you might naturally be?
Those of us who teach for online schools know the weight these assessments have in determining the future of our positions. The online school I work for takes these assessments very seriously and yet a holistic view is taken and that means all performance factors are weighed. The reason is that usually only a few students will respond to these assessments, and those who do are those who are extremely satisfied with the course or are unhappy for various reasons. In other words, the reason a student responds will be emotional in nature. But not all online schools approach testing this way. Many have a minimum score to achieve without taking other factors into account. If the score is not obtained, your position may be compromised.
This assessment can be a learning experience for the instructor, whether or not the score received was expected. For students who were very satisfied, I look for specific reasons why and look to improve those aspects in the next course. The reverse is also true for learners who may be dissatisfied, which is often related to the nature of the course design. For example, if there are unclear assignment instructions, I’ll see if I can request an update within the course. In the meantime, I will develop additional instructions. I also understand the fear that is associated with this assessment among the instructors and not achieving the required minimum score as it appears to be out of their direct control. However, there are strategies within your control that you can take to improve student satisfaction during the course.
The Basics of Student Satisfaction
When looking at a rating scale, the numbers themselves can be hard to understand. For example, if your school requires you to maintain a 4.4 out of 5.0 average, you may not fully understand what a 4.4 means in terms of student satisfaction. Is there a significant difference between a student who is satisfied with a rate of 4.0 at the end of the quarter and a student who knows that they are very satisfied with a 4.8, 4.9 or 5.0? If so, how far is the meaning? Perhaps it would be of more benefit to consider the relationship you are developing with your students.
Consider this: All students are likely to feel some level of satisfaction if they are valued and appreciated. That would be a helpful perspective and set up to start your class with. Now as to how that translates to your expectations and results, that’s another perspective. But to begin with, this is a basic starting point for student satisfaction and how the class is likely to start. If you can start the class with this frame of reference and encourage them with this intended setup, you are starting off with a positive level of satisfaction. Now the question is: how to maintain this disposition, both for you and for your students, throughout the class.
The challenges associated with learning
As those who teach online know all too well, our classes are filled with students who have a wide variety of learning styles, persistent rates, abilities, skills, and academic abilities. As they interact with the materials provided and attempt to complete what is required of them each week, this occurs without someone being physically present to guide them. Whether or not they can learn and complete the required activities will depend on their ability to master concepts, acquire new skills, and develop coherent thoughts in discussion posts and written assignments.
Many students can do this with the minimum assistance necessary, and others will struggle to overcome mental, emotional, and other related learning challenges. They may reach out to you for help positively and often aggressively through messages and emails. I have witnessed an increase in unprofessional communication in recent years, with students hiding behind anonymity, believing that classroom communication is no different than social media or text messaging. It is not uncommon for students to become not only frustrated, but highly frustrated, and escalation occurs rapidly, despite the availability of assistance. This is where the balance of maintaining their satisfaction becomes more challenging, when they believe they can’t learn and it’s all because everything was designed to work against them.
This is also related to the student’s level of participation in the classroom. They can choose to commit only to the minimum required or become very committed. You can choose to read and implement the feedback provided each week, or ignore it and continue fighting. As an instructor, I can continue to train them, guide them, push them and help them, but those efforts can ultimately frustrate the student, especially if they notice that their grade is not improving. Then their level of satisfaction may drop as they now believe it’s “my fault” because I’m lowering their grade. In other words, if I don’t pass students and grade them according to their actual performance, they are likely to vent their frustration at the end of the term.
Seeking to make an improvement in student satisfaction
If you have a large class size, it can be quite difficult to determine if your students are fully satisfied each week, at the 5.0 level. You can look at the gradebook and assess satisfaction from the perspective of who gets the highest grade, and yet many students at the top of the scale might still be unhappy. This is where a strategic plan for your instructional practice is needed. There is one approach that I use and that is a weekly course announcement. I create a PowerPoint lecture and record it with myself and the PowerPoint platform visible during the recording. The reason why I think this is effective and related to student satisfaction is that I am reviewing the concepts of the course, sharing examples and reviewing in detail all the learning activities of the week. In other words, I am fully preparing students for next week and eliminating the possibility of confusion about requirements. Always works? Not necessarily, since there are students who will not yet use the resources provided; however, most students will take advantage of these resources.
There is another approach and that is self-reflection, which I started discussing at the beginning of this post. I take the evaluations received and develop my own form of self-development plan. What I am focused on is developing a student centered environment. I can’t control the 5.0 score directly, but I can indirectly influence the environment the students are in, and as a result, the score will adjust naturally. As I noted, I will consider where students are struggling, both on assessments and throughout the course, and address those areas with the Weekly Course Announcement and even a Mid-Week Course Announcement. I continually reflect on the feedback I provide and determine if I am meeting student needs, as this is directly related to their academic growth and perhaps their satisfaction with the course.
I know that students may make negative statements about assessments from time to time, and I usually know who they are and why. I find that I don’t get angry because I know why the student(s) struggled and often how they resisted receiving the necessary assistance to help them succeed and/or overcome the inherent challenges they faced. It also helps me develop new extension methods to be even better with future students. For example, I use weekly videos to reach out, help and inspire students.
Do end-of-course assessments accurately reflect your performance in the classroom?
To answer the question posed in the title of this post, I believe that evaluations measure one aspect of your performance as an instructor. End-of-course tests can show trends; however, these forms do not always provide an overall picture of the scope of work performed in a classroom. Students are not fully capable of evaluating how well an instructor provides feedback or participates in class discussions. What students can do is describe the emotions of what they experienced and how their instructors contributed (or did not contribute) to their overall learning. An emotional reaction speaks of the relationship that is established with you as an instructor.
If you have a school that is willing to take a holistic view of its performance, then you are lucky to work for a school that supports its faculty like I do. You can’t and shouldn’t live in fear of these assessments, but you should use them as a learning opportunity. Every instructor, myself included, can and should continue to grow. This is for your benefit and that of your students. When your students feel a sense of satisfaction from their engagement with you as their instructor, and this includes being valued and appreciated, it is usually a positive sign that you have developed a strong and productive working relationship with them. This is what you should work on with every class you teach, as it will help nurture your development and theirs.
