The use of student ratings in multiinstructor courses

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Higher Education Pedagogy

Background:

• Student ratings are commonly used to evaluate teaching effectiveness.
• Their reliability and validity in multi-instructor settings require careful examination.
• Understanding student perception of faculty performance is crucial for academic quality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the efficacy of student ratings in identifying differences in teaching effectiveness among faculty within a single course.
• To determine the consistency of student ratings collected immediately after lectures versus at the course's conclusion.
• To investigate the relationship between individual faculty ratings and overall course evaluations.

Main Methods:

• A psychopathology course with 14 lectures was selected for the study.
• Students used a 13-item rating scale to evaluate each lecture immediately after its delivery.
• The same rating scale was administered again to students at the end of the course.

Main Results:

• Student ratings demonstrated the ability to differentiate between varying levels of faculty teaching effectiveness.
• Ratings assigned to individual faculty members showed relative stability when assessed at different time points.
• Individual faculty ratings were found to be distinct from, and not conflated with, overall course ratings.

Conclusions:

• Student ratings are a viable tool for measuring differential teaching effectiveness in multi-instructor courses.
• The timing of student ratings (immediate vs. end-of-course) does not significantly compromise their consistency.
• Findings support the use of student evaluations for assessing individual faculty performance separate from global course assessments.