By Nina Blanes, Douglas College Instructor

Evaluations have become an important of aspect of our daily lives; they influence how we do our work, where we eat, what products we buy. At Douglas College, student evaluations are a key part of ensuring a quality learning experience.

Nina Blanes, Douglas College Instructor

In fall 2016, Douglas conducted a pilot course evaluation with students. As a faculty member, I greatly valued the reflective comments, which helped me hone my teaching style to create a better classroom environment.

This feedback process allows students to participate more fully in the learning experience and increases instructor accountability to ensure their content is relevant and being effectively delivered.

“Faculty should find the students’ feedback about their courses valuable. It may validate what they already know, or it may provide new insights into the structure of the course, the frequency or type of assessments used to evaluate students or the quality of the textbook. It is up to the individual instructor to decide how they will use the feedback” says Douglas College President, Kathy Denton.

What this means is that you can tell your instructor what worked well for you as the learner and what didn’t. Faculty are guided by the curriculum guideline, however, if 75 percent of students say an assignment is confusing or the readings are too heavy, then there is a very justifiable reason for the instructor to review learning outcomes. Educational settings should be adaptable and this type of feedback format is an effective way of ensuring changes are made when needed, as opposed to platforms like ratemyprofessor.com.

So, the next time you are wondering if you should complete that end-of-semester evaluation, please do! Students’ voices are important. They help create openness and foster excellence in the learning environment.

Learn more here.