During the faculty lecture series presentation on course evaluations held Sept. 11, faculty discussed ways to increase the number of students filling out the evaluations. One method proposed was to withhold grades until the evaluation is completed.

Course evaluations should be kept separate from the course load; otherwise the results from the evaluations can’t be taken seriously.

Although students are not graded on the evaluations, and the instructor would not be able to access the information until after the grades are received, the very act of having to turn in an evaluation in order to get a grade in class does not sound right. There are other ways of increasing the chances of students completing the evaluations.

Part of the reason why students do not want to go through the tedious task is that the constant need to hit the “next” button becomes irritating. There isn’t a need to have so many “next” buttons.

The overall structure of the online evaluation is troublesome. The first set of questions is so general that they become monotonous; which makes it easier for us students to lose interest in the task.

Think of it this way, how exciting for you could it be answering the same set of questions, class after class. Now add on top of that having to press the “next” button after each of the 26 questions. It almost makes you want to click agree to every question just to get it over with. How are these results helpful to the faculty and the institution?

Combining some questions would improve the evaluation. Also, it is not necessary to have to hit the “next” button after every question. Instead of having a question per page, have the questions in groups of five or have the entire set of questions on one page. That would ease the annoying task for us students.

And how about not having your suggestions reviewed or applied by the instructors? While some faculty members do in fact look at the evaluations every semester and try to improve the course through suggestions and criticisms, others do not. Usually it is the instructors that don’t seek out the opinions of the students that need the most help.

We understand that professors who have been teaching for years are set in their ways and believe that their methods work, but that is not always the case. Courses need to be continually changed and improved to adapt to the times.

Granted, the material for, say, an ancient philosophy class will not be changing any time soon. But the way an instructor exposes his students to the material could greatly affect the success of the course. Faculty, please be sure to actually look at the evaluation results once in a while.

And as for students, although filling out course evaluations can be a chore you’d rather not deal with, it is important that you try taking them seriously. Department chairs review the evaluation results when faculty members are up for promotions. Other authority figures also review the evaluations for various reasons. Faculty are supposed to review evaluations to improve the courses and many of them do.

In order to make learning in this university a little better, evaluations are needed. Classes cannot be improved without faculty reviewing them. Faculty cannot review them without students filling them out. And students will not be as likely to fill the evaluations out if the structure is not user-friendly.

So, question no. 27: How can course evaluations be improved? Answer: Review the questions and make them more concise and reduce the amount of time wasted by having to click “next.”

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