Assessment Tools and Course Evaluations

Assessment at Gustavus

Looking to assess your course or your department? Searching for Student Learning Outcomes? Start here

Student Reflection on Instruction (SRI)

Per Faculty Handbook 2.3.7, faculty are responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of their teaching for each course, each semester. In order to assist in this regard, Gustavus provides the Student Reflection on Instruction (SRI) instrument. SRI instructions are available on the All-Faculty Resources Moodle site. 

Student Assessment of Learning Gains (SALG)

SALG is designed for instructors of all disciplines who would like feedback from their students about how the course elements are helping their students to learn. The site makes it quick and easy to modify the SALG instrument so that it fits your own course design, enable your students to complete this instrument on-line, review and download a statistical analysis of the students' responses

Bias in Teaching Evaluations

Numerous studies have addressed the problem of bias in teaching evaluations. Some recent examples of scholarship in this area:

1. K. Mitchell and J. Martin, “Gender Bias in Student Evaluations” (2018).
   
   
2. A. Boring, K. Ottoboni, P. Stark, “Student Evaluations of Teaching (mostly) Do Not Measure Teaching Effectiveness” (2016).
   
   
3. L. Martin, “Gender, Teaching Evaluations, and Professional Success in Political Science” (2016).
   
   
4. L. MacNell, A. Driscoll, and A. Hunt, “What’s in a Name: Exposing Gender Bias in Student Ratings of Teaching” (2015).
   
   
5. L. Reid, “The Role of Perceived Race and Gender in the Evaluation of College Teaching on RateMyProfessors.com” (2010).
   
   

Teaching Evaluations as Measures of Teaching Effectiveness

Scholars disagree regarding what it is that student evaluations of teaching actually measure. Some recent scholarship in this area:

1. Wieman, “A Better Way to Evaluate Undergraduate Teaching,” (2015).
   
   
2. Stark and R. Freishtat, “An Evaluation of Course Evaluations,” (2014).
   
   
3. A less technical overview of Stark and Freishtat’s arguments:
   
   P. Stark and R. Freishtat, “Evaluating Evaluations, Part 1” (2013)
   P. Stark and R. Freishtat, “What Evaluations Measure, Part II” (2013)
   
   

Rubrics (AALHE)

The Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education offers dozens of links to assessment rubrics, instruments, and resources for a wide range of disciplines and student learning outcomes.