Four Benefits of Publishing Course Evaluation Results

In many academic institutions, course evaluation feedback is provided to faculty for curriculum improvement and development purposes. The results are also used by administrators for annual reviews and for promotion and tenure decisions. Students also directly benefit from evaluation feedback, especially when the results are published. In today’s post we will examine four benefits of publishing evaluation results including increased response rates and higher student engagement.

1. Increased response rates:

   Several studies have shown that publishing course evaluation feedback results in higher student response rates. Research conducted by the Advisory Board Company (2009) found that making results available to students was an effective way to boost participation rates. Two universities within the study noticed significant increases in response rates after the results were published (20-66% increase). In a study conducted by the University of California, Berkeley (2004-5) 44% of the students surveyed said that publishing results would motivate them to complete course assessments. According to best practices, it is recommended that results only be made available to students once they have completed their evaluations.

2. Higher student engagement:

   As we see in point one, student response rates increase when course evaluation results are published. Related to this, student engagement also rises when feedback is made available. Students are motivated to participate because they understand how the results will benefit them and future students. When course survey results are not published, students may feel that they are giving feedback in a vacuum and that no action is being taken. According to the Advisory Board Company study, when results were published student participation increased. Students became more motivated to provide written comments and the number of offensive comments declined. Publishing evaluation results also allows students to make more informed course selection decisions. In turn, this increases student satisfaction and impacts the quality of education offered.

3. Increased accountability:

   Making course evaluation results publicly available increases the accountability of the institution. Publishing results creates a more open process, which supports the commitment to transparency, accountability and self-examination in academia. A transparent process also motivates instructors to more actively participate in evaluations and encourage their students to do so. The Berkeley study found that 4/5 of the universities (Columbia, Northwestern, Yale and Drexel) make some results available to students. Columbia, Northwestern and Yale publish the quantitative results; however, qualitative results are only available to certain stakeholders. Drexel makes quantitative results available to students and publishes qualitative results after departments have reviewed them. To further protect student anonymity, it is recommended that qualitative results be edited prior to publishing the results.

4. Keeps ratings in-house:

   When an institution chooses not to publish results, students will still find a way to share their feedback. This is evidenced by the myriad of evaluation websites such as ratemyprofessors.com. While the validity of these websites has been questioned, students continue to use them to evaluate educators (over 4 million students use ratemyprofessors.com per month). A way to keep student feedback within the institution is to openly publish evaluation results as part of the transparent registration process. This enables the institution to have ownership over the evaluation process in a visible and public manner. Posting the results in-house increases student engagement and makes it less likely for them to use online rating websites. An Associate Provost for Institutional Research and Assessment summed up the issue with a pertinent question: “Would you rather students get this kind of evaluative information from websites like Pick-A-Prof and RateMyProfessor, or would you rather it came from the institution?”