Helpful advice from Doc Champagne of IOTA Solutions

“Big 6” predictors of high course evaluation response rate: Come see us at the 2012 Annual Texas A&M Assessment Conference in College Station, TX - Predictor #3: Demonstrate Importance of Feedback

2012-02-15T00:26:00.001-05:00

Having administered online course evaluations to more than 3 million students over the past 12 years, we have identified the “big 6” predictors of high response rate. Over the next few days of the 12th Annual Texas A&M Assessment Conference in College Station, Texas, I’ll briefly describe these 6 predictors. Please be sure to stop by IOTA Solutions' booth to learn more about the “The Myths and Misperceptions of Online Course Evaluation” where I’ll provide detailed examples and suggestions for easily implementing these high impact predictors.

The next predictor, ranked #3 on the impact chart, is “Demonstrate Importance of Feedback”. This is the practice that can make your response rates skyrocket. Many schools allow students to view their final grades online once the term has ended. A successful incentive is to inform the students that if they complete the online course evaluation, they can view their final grades 2 or 3 days *earlier*. Not only do students respond to this incentive, but it is a great teaching tool. Students can be told, “see how important feedback is? You were willing to participate in order to more quickly discover how your performance was evaluated (i.e., your final grade). Don’t you think your instructor would also like to have feedback on their performance?” Those students who identify with this lesson might continue to submit timely evaluations in future courses.

The best evaluation systems can easily tie student submissions (without revealing content of the students’ responses) to the Registrar’s office or student information system to provide daily or one-time files of completions, thus allowing targeted students to view grades early. Data shows a bump of up to 35%, with many schools obtaining response rates over 90% when they tie participation to early reveal of grades.

Be sure to learn more about IOTA Solutions' online course evaluation system, MyClassEvaluation online at http://www.iotasolutions.com/course-evaluations.html

Come see us in-person at the 12th Annual Texas A&M Assessment Conference in College Station, TX.

Dr. Matthew Champagne is former ARI Senior Research Fellow, Senior Evaluator for the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Education (FIPSE), and Founder of the IDEA Lab.

“Big 6” predictors of high course evaluation response rate: Come see us in College Station, Texas at the 12th Annual Texas A&M Assessment Conference - Predictor #4: Knowledge of Results

2012-02-15T00:26:00.000-05:00

Having administered online course evaluations to more than 3 million students over the past 12 years, we have identified the “big 6” predictors of high response rate. Over the next few at the 12th Annual Texas A&M Assessment Conference in College Station, Texas, I’ll briefly describe these 6 predictors. Please stop by the IOTA Solutions booth and ask about “The Myths and Misperceptions of Online Course Evaluation” where I’ll provide detailed examples and suggestions for easily implementing these high impact predictors.

The next predictor, ranked #4 on the impact chart, is “Knowledge of Results”. For most schools, the online evaluation period runs for 7 to 14 days. During this time it is critical to provide instructors with frequent feedback of the ongoing response rate for their courses. The best systems provide both a “push” and a “pull”: emailing faculty with real-time response rates as well as allowing them to view these results online. This not only informs instructors as to the amount of encouragement they should continue in their individual courses but also quickly identifies problems between the school and the online evaluation provider (e.g., a “0% response rate” after 4 days might indicate missing records or students being denied access).

Data shows a bump of up to 28% for courses where instructors have real-time feedback of response rate results.

Be sure to learn more about IOTA Solutions' course evaluation system, MyClassEvaluation online at http://www.iotasolutions.com/course-evaluations.html or stop by and see Dr. Matthew V. Champagne at the IOTA Solutions booth at the 2012 Annual Texas A&M Assessment Conference.

Dr. Matthew Champagne is former ARI Senior Research Fellow, Senior Evaluator for the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Education (FIPSE), and Founder of the IDEA Lab.

“Big 6” predictors of high course evaluation response rate: Come see IOTA Solutions in 12th Annual Texas A&M Assessment Conference in College Station, Texas - Predictor #5: Meaningful Content

2012-02-15T00:25:00.000-05:00

Having administered online course evaluations to more than 3 million students over the past 12 years, we have identified the “big 6” predictors of high response rate. Over the next few days at the 2012 Annual Texas A&M Assessment Conference, I’ll briefly describe these 6 predictors at our booth in College Station, Texas. Please stop by and see us and ask about “The Myths and Misperceptions of Online Course Evaluation” where I’ll provide detailed examples and suggestions for easily implementing these high impact predictors.

The 2^nd predictor, ranked #5 on the impact chart, is “Meaningful Content”. This refers to the clarity and comprehensiveness of the course evaluation items and response scales. In one sense, an online course evaluation is a proxy for interviewing the student about the perceived successes and areas of improvement needed for the course and the instructor. If a school had unlimited resources, a third party could sit down with each student and draw out their concerns and their praise of the instructor, and gather quantitative ratings and verbal feedback.

The reality is that we use the online forms out of necessity, so must be mindful to make the content clear so the student never pauses. Once they see a double-barreled question or an ambiguous item or find there is no appropriate answer for a question, then error is introduced. The student might leave the item blank or give a second-choice answer, and if sufficiently frustrated with multiple ambiguous items, might skip the evaluation altogether. Ambiguous questions lead to ambiguous results for faculty and lower response rates. The solution is to read each item carefully, as if you were the student, to determine if there could exist multiple answers or an answer that is not available.

Dr. Matthew Champagne is former ARI Senior Research Fellow, Senior Evaluator for the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Education (FIPSE), and Founder of the IDEA Lab.

- “Big 6” predictors of high course evaluation response rate: Come see IOTA Solutions at the 12th Annual Texas A&M Assessment Conference. Predictor #6: Peer Encouragement.

2012-02-15T00:24:00.000-05:00

Having administered online course evaluations to more than 3 million students over the past 12 years, we have identified the “Big 6” predictors of high response rate. Over the next few days, I’ll briefly describe these 6 predictors at our booth at the 12th Annual Texas A&M Assessment Conference in College Station, Texas. Please stop by and ask about “The Myths and Misperceptions of Online Course Evaluation” where I’ll provide detailed examples and suggestions for easily implementing these high impact predictors.

The least known, but ranked #6 on the impact chart for predictors, is “Peer Encouragement”. This is students encouraging other students to complete the course evaluations. Peer pressure plays a role in many aspects of a student’s life, why not course evaluation? Stop by Booth 2 at the 12th Annual Texas A&M Assessment Conference in College Station, Texas to request two videos created by students for other students. These videos use humor to send the message that evaluations are important not only to faculty but to students as well. Data shows a bump of 7% to 13% for “Peer Encouragement”.

Course Evaluations: The "Big 6" Predictors of High Response Rates and How to Easily Implement

2012-02-15T00:23:00.000-05:00

Catch information from the 12th Annual Texas A&M Assessment Conference with Dr. Matthew V. Champagne. Visit IOTA Solutions at Booth #2 or join Dr. Champagne at 2PM at South 40

IOTA Solutions', Matthew Champagne, PhD spoke at the Association for Institutional Research Annual Forum in Toronto, Ontario about the "The Myths and Misperceptions of Online Course Evaluation", now you can come speak to Dr. Champagne, Chief Learning Officer at IOTA Solutions in-person at the 12th Annual Texas A&M Assessment Conference. Learn about the...

"Big 6" predictors of high response rates and how to easily implement

higher education professional's surprising responses to the 10th Anniversary Course Evaluation Survey

Learn more about the "Big 6" predictors of high response rates right here at Doc Champagne's IOTA Solutions Course Evaluation and Feedback Technology blog.

Presented by Matthew Champagne, PhD

Dr. Matthew Champagne is former ARI Senior Research Fellow, Senior Evaluator
for the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Education (FIPSE), and Founder of the IDEA Lab.

10th Anniversary Course Evaluation in Higher Education Survey

2012-02-14T23:01:00.000-05:00

Ten years ago colleges contributed to the Barriers to Online Evaluation study. The resulting report from Hmieleski & Champagne (2000) was among the most highly cited course evaluation articles of the decade. Results of that nationwide survey indicated:

81.4% of colleges used paper-and-pencil evaluation
3% of colleges did not require evaluation of instructors; and
42% of colleges had no plans to convert their existing paper-and-pencil evaluation forms to online

Course and instructor evaluations have changed a great deal since that time! We are eager to learn to what extent evaluation has changed in the past decade with the 10th Anniversary Course Evaluation in Higher Education Survey.

To participate, email me to receive the survey URL. To express our appreciation, we will email you a summary report, including aggregated mean responses and a representative sample of anonymous (and non-identifiable) comments from institutions across the country. We hope you will find the results useful at your institution and feel free to share them with colleagues.

Learn more about IOTA Solutions online at http://www.iotasolutions.com or visit us at the SAIR Atlanta Conference 2011. Stop by our booth to meet Dr. Matthew V. Champagne, Chief Learning Officer at IOTA Solutions.

Myths and misperceptions of online course evaluation - 12th Annual Texas A&M Assessment Conference

2011-10-10T20:00:00.010-04:00

It will be great to see my colleagues at the 12th Annual Texas A&M Assessment Conference in College Station, Texas .

My presentation will also focus on perceived problems and your suggestions for improvement, and comparing these comments to those I have heard from faculty and administrators at hundreds of colleges over the past 15 years.

Feel free to ask me for information about the 10th Annual Higher Education survey of course evaluation.

Please be sure to learn more about IOTA Solutions and their HANDS-FREE Course Evaluation Technology, MyClassEvaluation online at http://www.iotasolutions.com/course-evaluations.html