One of the open secrets in public education is that it's quite a chore to assess professors in a valid and reliable fashion to assist professional and personal growth. Those outside the field -- that is, usually those with no experience in the class room whatsoever -- have no problem imposing top-down assessments such as pass rate examination and post-course satisfaction surveys, but those usually aren't that helpful in "closing the loop" to elicit meaningful short-term or long-term change.
And to be honest, I'm not sure what could be helpful for me as a professor at this point in my nearly-two-decade-long career; for example, peer evaluation is a nice idea, but I'm a full-time department of one, so I don't exactly have peers that do what I do in quality and quantity inside my institution. This means that we're left with things like the course evaluation rankings and comments as the most visible assessments available, and every professor knows that student comments tend to correlate with student grades. At least there's some entertainment value now and again. What follows is a sample of NCMC comments from the Fall 2010 semester to the Winter 2014 semester, a five year period. It's no Rate My Professors, but it's still something, right? (All grammar adventures left intact, of course.)
Mr Height constantly cracked jokes which kept the attention of the class.
bring snacks
make it more of a two way class, not just the teacher talking and talking
The instructor was very illustrated and informed. He made sure you understood what he was talking about.
I beleive that the constant R-rated languege heard in this class could be done without. It was a big distraction. Another distraction is that of the constant joking. There was too much of it and it took away from the lesson rather than add to it. One of the extra credit opportunities was made available only for students who worked thirty hours a week which was unfare to other students since they were not eligable. Overall I found the professor to be difficult, childish, and offensive.
turn on the lights, nobody can see anybody
This class was a TOTAL waste of my time. It took time away from my kids and husband, my children's sporting and music events and the stress was unbearable. I was unbearable! I had heard that this instructor had issues with priding himself on never giving A's. Why would this institution allow for such instructing when getting an education is supposed to be beneficial for success? An education, by the way, WE are paying for? It's absolute nonsense!
Kathy Colby is a great professor, she cares if her students are learning and it shows. Makes me want to come to class and learn.
bring bacon
cut the vulgar talk and be professional.
I have no time to fill this out seriously, sorry.
I have many friends taking this class with other Pro. and they love it.. I hated every minute of this class. Sorry!
Make Mr. Haight immortal so he can teach this class forever.
Professor Haight is the worst teacher I have EVER had and I will be telling everyone that wants to take a class from him to avoid it at all costs. He was not fair in his grading and did not seem to care about my personal success. I am a full-time student at a private 4-year college and I have never felt so disrespected by a teacher. I will be taking further action with the way he disrespected me as a student.
fire! hire new teacher
Really good teacher, has the amount of wisdom and sarcasm to keep people alive and motivated during the class, just hard to talk to one on one sometimes
#yolo
Great class. I was told that this class was very hard but found that it was not hard but required out of class time to study.
I, found Eric extremely impossible to work with.
Love this class, change nothing
The most effective aspect of this course is that you do have to try to get a good grade.
Just let the man do his thing...
#mrhaight4prez2k16
Obviously, I didn't include every response, but these are good examples of what pops up on these end-of-semester surveys, and as you can see, the content is more affective -- that is, emotional -- rather than evaluative. However, that's not to say that every response was useless; for example, I had a detailed negative analysis of an online History of Music course that I taught rather poorly, and I used that content to make the class better (and, come this fall, hopefully better still). Nevertheless, most of the survey information just isn't effective as an assessment. Instead, it's simple fodder for dumb blog posts like this one, which does both the student and the professor a disservice, an opportunity lost for any substantive change on all sides. On to the next semester, I suppose.
And to be honest, I'm not sure what could be helpful for me as a professor at this point in my nearly-two-decade-long career; for example, peer evaluation is a nice idea, but I'm a full-time department of one, so I don't exactly have peers that do what I do in quality and quantity inside my institution. This means that we're left with things like the course evaluation rankings and comments as the most visible assessments available, and every professor knows that student comments tend to correlate with student grades. At least there's some entertainment value now and again. What follows is a sample of NCMC comments from the Fall 2010 semester to the Winter 2014 semester, a five year period. It's no Rate My Professors, but it's still something, right? (All grammar adventures left intact, of course.)
Mr Height constantly cracked jokes which kept the attention of the class.
bring snacks
make it more of a two way class, not just the teacher talking and talking
The instructor was very illustrated and informed. He made sure you understood what he was talking about.
I beleive that the constant R-rated languege heard in this class could be done without. It was a big distraction. Another distraction is that of the constant joking. There was too much of it and it took away from the lesson rather than add to it. One of the extra credit opportunities was made available only for students who worked thirty hours a week which was unfare to other students since they were not eligable. Overall I found the professor to be difficult, childish, and offensive.
turn on the lights, nobody can see anybody
This class was a TOTAL waste of my time. It took time away from my kids and husband, my children's sporting and music events and the stress was unbearable. I was unbearable! I had heard that this instructor had issues with priding himself on never giving A's. Why would this institution allow for such instructing when getting an education is supposed to be beneficial for success? An education, by the way, WE are paying for? It's absolute nonsense!
Kathy Colby is a great professor, she cares if her students are learning and it shows. Makes me want to come to class and learn.
bring bacon
cut the vulgar talk and be professional.
I have no time to fill this out seriously, sorry.
I have many friends taking this class with other Pro. and they love it.. I hated every minute of this class. Sorry!
Make Mr. Haight immortal so he can teach this class forever.
Professor Haight is the worst teacher I have EVER had and I will be telling everyone that wants to take a class from him to avoid it at all costs. He was not fair in his grading and did not seem to care about my personal success. I am a full-time student at a private 4-year college and I have never felt so disrespected by a teacher. I will be taking further action with the way he disrespected me as a student.
fire! hire new teacher
Really good teacher, has the amount of wisdom and sarcasm to keep people alive and motivated during the class, just hard to talk to one on one sometimes
#yolo
Great class. I was told that this class was very hard but found that it was not hard but required out of class time to study.
I, found Eric extremely impossible to work with.
Love this class, change nothing
The most effective aspect of this course is that you do have to try to get a good grade.
Just let the man do his thing...
#mrhaight4prez2k16
Obviously, I didn't include every response, but these are good examples of what pops up on these end-of-semester surveys, and as you can see, the content is more affective -- that is, emotional -- rather than evaluative. However, that's not to say that every response was useless; for example, I had a detailed negative analysis of an online History of Music course that I taught rather poorly, and I used that content to make the class better (and, come this fall, hopefully better still). Nevertheless, most of the survey information just isn't effective as an assessment. Instead, it's simple fodder for dumb blog posts like this one, which does both the student and the professor a disservice, an opportunity lost for any substantive change on all sides. On to the next semester, I suppose.
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