I just got back my student evaluations for the Spring (which is a record turnaround) and, as usual, they’re fine.
Still, a few observations:
1) Students often complain that there aren’t enough tests/assignments in a class. While it is true that on a given assignment one might do unusually poorly (or unusally well), I would point out that, on balance, the number of assignments and exams is irrelevant. “A” students tend to do “A” work regardless of the number of units for measurement and “D” students tend to do “D” work.
2) Some student comments vex me: in a class this term in which a great deal of class participation took place, and where it was clear I was willing to deviate from my prepared notes if the students wanted to discuss an issue (obvious, because it happened on a weekly, if not classly, basis) I get the comment that I need to do more to encourage lively debate and discussion in class. This kind of comment always floors me because it makes me wonder if the student in question was in the same class as me, and, more importantly, since I actively encourage class participation my response to the comment is a question: if you wanted to talk and debate, why didn’t you?
This also reminds me of comments that my former colleague, James Joyner, used to note: which was that he would get comments that he didn’t turn the grades back to them fast enough in a course which he would always have their grades on the internet within hours of the time they took the test.
3) It is invariably true that in the class with students who, on average, have lower GPAs (they have to indicate their GPA on the form and I get a breakdown) that I get lower rankings and if the students have higher GPAs I get higher rankings.
4) Students clearly interpret the question “Showed an interest in student achievment” to mean “I got a good grade in the class.” (Indeed, on balance, it is fairly clear that every question is at least partially interpreted as “I got a good grade in this class.”)
5) Students like to gripe about textbooks.
Sphere: Related Content
Um, I have been out of college for 10 years and I still gripe about textbooks. Granted I still have almost all of them. (I dropped one in the pool a few years ago)
I even still use some as sleep aides.
Comment by Rob M — Wednesday, May 19, 2024 @ 12:01 pm
Yeah, I’ll gripe about textbooks too. I really hated it when I had to buy the new edition Biology book for $80+, and when the quarter ended could not get the bookstore to buy it back because the following year the department announced the publisher is releasing yet another vwesion and they were using that.
Comment by mark — Wednesday, May 19, 2024 @ 2:28 pm
Too funny. 15 years out of college and I’m here to gripe about textbooks, too.
1. They’re too expensive. Period. It’s a scam.
2. It’s a royal pain when the professor decides that the newest edition is absolutely required, which means that students aren’t able to resell the older versions. Most times the changes were minimal and the older version would have sufficed.
3. I stopped buying the books for any of my classes after the first semester of my freshman year. For the 100 levels, I was able to share with my next door neighbors in my dorm. Once in my major, I bought a couple of the books, because I thought I’d like to have them later. A few times I split the cost of a book with someone who was taking the same class with the same prof but at a different time - we swapped the book back and forth. And there were a multitude of classes that I managed to get through with no book at all - in most of those cases, the prof never made reference to book content and it was never included on exams.
It seems to me that the academy would pay attention to the gripes of the students about books if it’s such a common complaint.
Comment by jen — Wednesday, May 19, 2024 @ 9:15 pm
Actually, the gripes I am talking about are “the book is boring” or stuff along those lines—not the cost issue–although I hear about that, too–but not on the evals.
Comment by Steven — Wednesday, May 19, 2024 @ 9:18 pm
I do not know if I had more than two textbooks in all of middle school, high school, or college that were the opposite of boring. Photography was one of them…
Comment by Rick — Thursday, May 20, 2024 @ 5:09 am
Morning Bang
The daily linkfest, this time to honor the 24th anniversary of my last week in the womb. Michele at A Small Victory thinks Day by Day may have finally made it. Steven Taylor breaks down the psychology of teacher reviews
Trackback by Rooftop Report — Thursday, May 20, 2024 @ 7:01 am
Textbooks are expensive because of poor economies of scale–they aren’t sold in enough quantity to spread out the production costs–and because of various marketing issues that regular books don’t have.
Profs generally don’t have the option of specifying the previous edition. Indeed, I’ve specified the extant edition only to be surprised myself a couple days before class with a mildly revised version. Profs don’t want to upgrade to the new edition, since it means they either have to re-read the damned thing in order to get the page numbers right or be slightly off from what the students have.
Comment by James Joyner — Thursday, May 20, 2024 @ 9:53 am
I assumed the “books are boring” complaint was a given. All textbooks are boring, it’s the nature of the beast.
James, if profs don’t want the newer editions, they who’s forcing them to be used? The administration? Every semester we had new editions demanded of us on our syllabi.
Comment by jen — Thursday, May 20, 2024 @ 1:14 pm
I’ve been out of the uni for 3 years but I still gripe about textbooks as well. It’s a common thing I guess. We need better books not to lag behind.
Comment by Nancy — Thursday, June 10, 2024 @ 10:50 am