Student Course Evaluations: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Today I was able to read the evaluations that my students did towards the end of the year for my class. They are anonymous, but as with last semester, there are a couple that I can guess who wrote them. About twice as many students than last semester completed the survey this time, but it was still only about half the class. However, considering that I had 3 students officially drop in one class and 5 or 6 just stop coming in the other, 13/23 and 14/20 isn't too bad. 

Also as with last semester, the feedback was mostly neutral or good, but there were one or two hurtful or frustrating comments as well. These are ones that basically are negative but also don't fully explain what the student means or are totally off-base in my opinion. There were also some suggestions that are probably valid but also made me a little sad to hear. However, there were plenty of good comments as well, and as with last semester I'm choosing to believe that they are not trying to bribe me with those (since I made clear that I couldn't read them until grades were in) and that at least most of them are sincere. So that makes me feel better. 

I feel like when I'm reading all the comments, I can almost sort them into categories: positive but perhaps not that helpful, positive and helpful/justification, neutral but not very helpful, constructive criticism, and negative, frustrating, and not helpful. Some of them could also go really well in a "Things Students Say" journal.

Here are some examples from both classes, organized by the question topics, if you care to read them:

*Disclaimer: My comments are meant to show my initial thoughts of frustration, or relief, when reading some of these. I don't mean to sound as if I hate student evaluations - I actually think they are interesting, and sometimes helpful. Sometimes, though, it is hard not to get a little frustrated when it seems like a student is just saying things because they are upset about their grade in the class or when what they say contradicts what most of the rest of the evaluators say, because then I'm unsure whether they are sincere and I should take their comment into account. Looking back now I'm not as bothered by the harsh comments, although there are still a few that I think prove a tendency to a lack of responsibility on the student's part.

Presentation of Material/Pacing:

"It was ok...Sometimes boring" Ok.

"What was the most effective in helping me learn was the discussions because they are very easy to participate in. The material was presented very clearly. The class time was well used in both the lab and in the class room. The class pace was executed beautifully." When they say things like "executed beautifully" I sometimes wonder if they are actually being sincere, but overall I'd say this makes me feel like I did an ok job for this student.

"Mrs. C went over the material very thoroughly and was sure to use examples when things might not have been clear. The course organization was fine; it's hard to organize various writing styles in a meaningful way, so I suppose if she wanted to switch things around, it's still be fine. Class time was used effectively, but it did go a tad slow for me, most likely because I understand the stuff already." I like when someone says class went a bit slow but realizes that it may just be because they already understand the material. I hope it didn't seem too slow, but when most other people say the class was paced well, then I can see with this comment that the students who were at the top of the class realize that it only seemed slow because they comprehend the material easily.


"I was able to follow what was being taught easily and clearly. Sometimes things felt that the lessons themselves felt a little slow, but I believe that was just because the length of the class."

"The way the professor taught, she got on a college students level. She did not just tell us what to do she actually taught us how to do what we were supposed to do. It was really clearly presented. Yes the course material was organized well. Class time was well used. The
class always paced at an ok rate." :)

"Class moved a bit quickly for a Composition 1 class, but over all it was not impossible to keep up." Obviously some students thought it was fast - but it seems like overall the pace was good since only a few people thought it was slow and one thought it fast, and the rest said it was fine.


"I literally learned nothing more than I learned in Intro to College Writing. I think she needs to be more organized with tutorials. Information was presented okay, needs to be more clear on syllabus and not change it around." I'll give this person that I did change a few things on the syllabus, but I only ever pushed things back to give them more time when I'd put things a little close together. I'm guessing it is the same person that comments later on tutorials and why he or she thinks they were not good - so I'll save that for the tutorials section. It's not my fault that Intro to College Writing has the same material, I followed my given curriculum. I don't know if that is a high school class he or she took or a remedial college course.

Course Content:

"The lectures were dull." 

"Too much reading and writing, but I guess that's the name of the course." Uh, duh.

"Like I said, I already knew most of it. It was all very helpful review and I'm sure I learned some new things. The readings were all interesting and well chosen, and emphasized the points we were studying. I also really liked the Connect, as I did learn quite a bit from
that." Most people do not like Connect, so I felt glad that a couple students this semester said they found it helpful. It is basically a learning plan that students do at their own pace that focuses on grammar, punctuation, etc. It's tedious and boring, I know, but it is required because of the school's Composition 1 Course Redesign.

"The content of the course was good, but the class did not learn anything about grammar or any questions we had." I always try to answer specific questions in class, and the several-week long Connect learning plan should have helped some with grammar, unless maybe it is way over the students' heads or they can't learn things on their own. I really do think I went over some of the common problems of grammar in class.

"I liked the fact that we were given a list of the readings at the begining of the course, which allowed us to prepare for each assignment before we disscused it in class.
"The readings that were assigned help to explain the papers we were going to write. It was helpful in the way it was presented. I really liked the discussions they helped me to think about the readings again, which helped me understand them better." 

"not a fan of the reading." Obviously some people aren't, but I feel like the majority said they liked them.

"Most of the information felt random. When we took the midterm, many of the topics felt random as well" As with last semester, there's always that one student who is probably upset about his or her grade who thinks everything was terrible. I hope that topics didn't really seem random, I tried to tie most things back to why we were learning about them: because the concepts are useful when writing. And I had a "review day" where I listed the major concepts we'd discussed so far for the midterm - I didn't give out a study guide, but they could write down the topics and I didn't put anything on there we hadn't talked about.

"All of it was good." Nice to know, though not very specific.


Tutorials/Conferences:

"Were helpful because she explained ideas individually and it was easy to understand."

"The tutorials were a big help to me. The teacher sat down and talked me through my paper; what she liked, what she didnt, what to change, stay the same, etc..."
 
"Tutorials were amazing idea to improve our writing skills." Some students really liked the tutorials and peer review. I had several more like this one. They like one-on-one time.

"Definitely needs to be better set up with tutorials. Needs to make sure people are coming to class and they understand what the paper is about. She does not explain what the paper is about in good detail." Yes, you are totally right. Even though you are in college I should still have to email you every time to miss class or call you up to make sure you are going to be in class. That is ridiculous. It's not like I forget who is missing each day. I took attendance and saw no check mark next to several students consistently. They chose not to be responsible enough to come to class. Or if something happened and they couldn't come to class, emailing me about it several weeks later is still not my fault. I had some students who didn't understand the prompts come up and ask me about them (I feel they were pretty detailed, it wasn't merely "write a definition essay"), and this student could have done that too. If this student was not there for the two days in a row that I have the tutorial sign-up sheet available and was not able to get a time, that is not my fault. This is college, people. "Make sure people are coming to class." Psh. How?


"The tutorials were very effective because they gave a chance to improve our papers but most importantly our paper's grade." I think I know who wrote this one.
 
Student Evaluation/Feedback/Grading System:

"I felt the grading was fair."
 
"There was lots of room to talk to the teacher if it was needed, even though she had minimal office hours. She was always happy to answer any questions I had and always did so cheerfully. The grading system was explained in the syllabus and it was fine."
 
"the grading was fair and adequately explained she told us exactly what she wanted and how. she would grade the work based on the work not based on the person." I'm glad this student felt that way. 

"Most of the grading system was fair, but attendance wasn't mentioned as an actual part of our grade in the class. It may have only been gone over once, but it wasn't until I looked on blackboard that I noticed that it was apart of the grading." I think I did mention attendance being worth points (2 points per day) on the first day, and then much later in the semester, but I will try to emphasize it more next semester because some students obviously did not realize or did not care. I had a lot of students skipping and missing small assignments and attendance points. I will say, though, that even if attendance is not counted for points, does that make it ok to skip class a bunch? I don't think so.
 
"Grading system was not explained but it is set up the same across campus. She gave some feedback but you could tell she did not come prepared or have read the articles herself before class." First of all, the grading system is in the syllabus and I used a rubric on the first paper, although not after that . . . but the other part of the comment is what really hurt. I reread every essay before we discussed it in class, even though I'd already read them last semester, and I even mentioned having read them before I believe. I really hope I didn't come across as not having read them. I think what happened was that I sometimes would deliberate on which question I wanted to go over next or how to ask it, or would have to look back over the essay to find the phrase I wanted to point out, sometimes because something a student brought up in class made me think of a phrase I hadn't marked but knew was there. I can't know for sure if this student always did the reading before class, but I know there were days when almost no one had, and they admitted it or I could tell. I do feel like this comment is helpful in reminding me to be more straightforward and certain in the future, and to appear more prepared, because a few times I would forget something in the office or something at the beginning of class, but I really hope I didn't seem like I hadn't done the reading.
 
Additional Comments:

"She talk during class while we were trying to read or write individually. I need silence to comprehend what I'm reading or writing and she'd be quiet for a second and then start talking again. It was a distraction." I know what this student means, though I don't think it is as bad as it sounds. Sometimes I was making sure to give thorough instructions and say something I forgot, but I realize that sometimes I need to be very silent for some students to work. I don't think I really did this a ton, but I know I did sometimes during little things or short writings in class - not really during timed writings or big assignments I don't think.

"Thanks for being an awesome teacher!" Ok, there's no suggestions, but this did make me feel good.
 
"The instructor is a great person. She's really personable and funny. Sometimes when going over the material, she seemed a little flustered, but it was more of an awkward flustered. It only happened every so often so it wasn't a huge issue. She really knows the material and makes it easy to understand." This may have been what made that other student say I wasn't prepared. I know I did do this sometimes, but I feel like overall this semester was better than the last. I felt more prepared. There were a couple of times I forgot the order in which I wanted to do things or that I wanted to do an activity and I might have made that too obvious rather than pretending everything was just as I meant it to be, so I'll have to work on that. But I'm glad that overall it wasn't "a huge issue" to this student.
 
"You made English enjoyable to learn. I actually wanted to read and write and even found it interesting. I wish we could have had a class outside..but it was still really fun." I know who wrote this one because she asked for an outside class every day for the last several weeks. She was a good student. This one made me smile. 

"She was very relatable and easy to talk to!"
 
"Overall I thought the class was great. Normally for me I hate any kind of writing class but this class was actually pretty good and I enjoyed my time in it. I liked how open/broad the subjects we could write about for our papers. It made me to want to write and to write well." Success. 

"The course and instructor did a great job throughout the course of the semester however I feel like the inexperiance of operating a classroom showed. Students were talkative and would play on phones during class disrupting the learning experiance for those that were trying to pay attention." I should have been tougher on this - a lot of times I ignored it, and several times one student in particular would even take calls and go out of class without mentioning to me that she needed to take a call that day. I can't say I didn't know what to do. I should have just confronted the students who did this. A lot of the time I opted rather to keep going with lecture/discussion and try not to let myself get distracted, but I should have said something. Next semester I will try to be tougher about this at the beginning and throughout.
 
"I think the learning plan we did was not helpful and took up time that I did not have in doing it." I'm sorry, but as it is required, there is nothing I can do about this - but maybe the higher-ups will see comments like this and change it ... although I think not. Also I think it could be helpful in some ways, although I realize it is tedious. I will try to tweak it next semester when assigning it online to only focus on basic mistakes or something that could be more helpful to a wider range of students.
 
"Make sure you do not talk to student like the Elementary, even though you want to be a Elementary Teacher." :( I want to be a high school or college teacher and I think I even mentioned that in class. I think this sounds like it is from one of my foreign students, but maybe this person just didn't proofread. I just really wish I knew how I did this - was I too friendly? I thought I talked to them and explained things on their level. Not sure how to feel about this or how to improve.
 
"Everything was perfect." Again, no suggestions, but sometimes it is nice to hear that at least a few students had a good time. I know I can't please everyone, and I'm glad for the suggestions and constructive criticism, and comments like this one help me cope with the really harsh, hurtful comments that don't seem justified and are most likely from students who didn't do very well through their own laziness or the fact that they just aren't at a level to pass Composition 1 yet.


Another semester down, with some more ideas of things to work on for the fall. Overall I enjoyed my classes. I had some great students, some ok ones, and only a few who I was frustrated with, mostly for attendance and lack of responsibility. It sounds like overall it was ok for them, too, and some found it helpful. The majority of comments were positive so I think that means overall it was a successful semester. Here's hoping that a few months' break and more time to think over how to make the next semester better will help me improve.