Student Evaluation Instruments: The Interactive Impact Of Course Requirement, Student Level, Department And Anticipated Grade

Abstract

The examination of Student Evaluation Instruments (SEI) has generated a considerable literature. Interestingly, this extensive literature provides no clear guidance on how to interpret SEI results in order to make comparative evaluations of instructors’ performances. The research presented in this paper draws upon six semesters worth of SEI responses for all courses in our school of business – a database of nearly 30,000 responses. The paper examines how core measures of teaching effectiveness – student evaluation of instructor’s teaching ability and willingness to recommend the instructor – are affected by several factors. These factors include:  the department from which the course was offered; whether the course was required by the core, the department or was an elective; the status of the student and the anticipated grade. Statistical analyses are conducted to examine and determine the impact of these factors and their interactions. The goal is to develop a system that can more accurately gauge instructors’ performances as measured by the student evaluation instrument.