Grade Incentive to Boost Course Evaluation Response Rates

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Student course evaluations are crucial for program improvement but often suffer from low response rates.
• Interpreting results from low-participation evaluations can be challenging for nursing schools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if incentivizing student participation in course evaluations can increase response rates.
• To assess the impact of incentives on the integrity of course evaluation data.

Main Methods:

• Implementing a course evaluation incentive: offering 1-2 points on a test score for achieving 85% or higher cohort participation.
• Continuous faculty monitoring and communication with students throughout the evaluation period.

Main Results:

• Achieved student participation rates ranging from 90% to 100% when the incentive was applied.
• The added points from the incentive did not alter any students' final course grades.

Conclusions:

• Incentivizing student course evaluations is a highly effective method for significantly improving response rates.
• This strategy enhances data reliability for nursing education program assessment without compromising academic integrity.