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Responding to Faculty Concerns about Online Course Evaluations

Written by Explorance.

Moving course evaluations online saves time and money and allows for greater accessibility and flexibility. In previous posts, we looked specifically at the strategic and operational benefits of using an online course evaluation system for your institution.

However, despite the myriad of benefits, you may encounter some resistance from faculty regarding online assessments. Below we will address some common faculty concerns from lower response rates to high participation of unsatisfied students.

  1. Lower response rates:

    Some faculty members may be concerned that using online evaluations will lower the response rate. Response rates may drop when moving to an online system, at first. However, response rates will increase over time as students become aware and engaged with the new procedure. Institutions can significantly increase rates by using awareness campaigns, providing incentives and other tactics.

  2. Inconsistent results:

    Instructors may think that the data collected online will not be consistent with paper-based evaluation results. However, studies have shown that the “validity of the student ratings is not impacted by survey delivery method” (Benton, Gross, Pallett & Webster (2010)). Other research has shown that there is little difference in the quantitative scores of paper and online evaluations (Donovan, Mader & Shinsky (2006)).

  3. Less qualitative data:

    A common misconception is that web-based assessments yield less qualitative data. Research indicates that the opposite is true, that online evaluations actually gather more descriptive results. According to Johnson, 63% of online assessments included written comments in comparison with less than 10% written comments on paper evaluations (Johnson (2002)).

  4. High participation of dissatisfied students:

    Some instructors are concerned that more dissatisfied students will complete online evaluations causing lower results. However, research shows that the evaluation method does not affect the distribution of results. Further, it appears that online evaluations are actually more likely to be completed by successful, satisfied students (Hativa).

Be sure to check out ‘Responding to Faculty Concerns about Online Course Evaluations Part 2


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