2008 Woodie Awards
Students: Take your course-evaluation surveys seriously
Editorial
Issue date: 4/27/07 Section: Opinion
Originally published: 4/26/07 at 7:18 PM EST
Last update: 4/26/07 at 7:18 PM EST
A t the end of every semester, students are bombarded by course-evaluation surveys. These questionnaires are created in hope of receiving the students' thoughts and opinions on a specific course in order to better it the next time around.
Some professors even go as far as to create their own questions to add to the survey, making them more course specific and still many students look at this chance to give their honest impressions of a class or professor as a burden.
Actually, it's a privilege - one many take for granted.
Think of it this way, when you go to the hospital to receive any kind of care, often you will receive a pamphlet in the mail shortly after - this pamphlet is a short questionnaire.
It asks you to reply back to the hospital, asking your opinion on the quality of the services you received.
Your reply and those of other members of your community will ultimately affect the legislation of the hospital and in turn improve the care that everyone receives. Imagine ignoring such a useful tool or worse yet, giving nonsensical or meaningless replies.
Of course no one would imagine doing such a thing.
Yet, so many of us take for granted a similar tool offered right here on campus. Those course surveys that are often seen as the final hurdle to jump before the glimmer of freedom at the end of the semester are our chance to tell the administration what we think about the services we have received.
Rather than shrug off a course evaluation as your professor walks out of the room to give you privacy, take the time to look back on the semester and consider what you have gotten out of that particular class.
This isn't the time to seek out revenge on a professor who may have been strict on attendance with verbal criticism. Instead take that energy and the time that you pay your hard-earned money for and give the faculty and department chairs the information that will really make a difference.
It has always been evident the student body has a voice on this campus. No one has ever done anything to hinder that voice and these evaluations do nothing but make our voices louder - if we choose to make them heard.
When you find yourself peering down on that evaluation sheet with your No. 2 pencil in hand, refrain from getting the quick chuckle from your classmates when you take advantage of the anonymous entries to poke fun at your professor.
Instead take the gift of anonymity and use it to present honest impressions of a particular course without worries of rebuttal.
If you are not going to take advantage of the voice you are given, don't be the one complaining when it's gone.
Some professors even go as far as to create their own questions to add to the survey, making them more course specific and still many students look at this chance to give their honest impressions of a class or professor as a burden.
Actually, it's a privilege - one many take for granted.
Think of it this way, when you go to the hospital to receive any kind of care, often you will receive a pamphlet in the mail shortly after - this pamphlet is a short questionnaire.
It asks you to reply back to the hospital, asking your opinion on the quality of the services you received.
Your reply and those of other members of your community will ultimately affect the legislation of the hospital and in turn improve the care that everyone receives. Imagine ignoring such a useful tool or worse yet, giving nonsensical or meaningless replies.
Of course no one would imagine doing such a thing.
Yet, so many of us take for granted a similar tool offered right here on campus. Those course surveys that are often seen as the final hurdle to jump before the glimmer of freedom at the end of the semester are our chance to tell the administration what we think about the services we have received.
Rather than shrug off a course evaluation as your professor walks out of the room to give you privacy, take the time to look back on the semester and consider what you have gotten out of that particular class.
This isn't the time to seek out revenge on a professor who may have been strict on attendance with verbal criticism. Instead take that energy and the time that you pay your hard-earned money for and give the faculty and department chairs the information that will really make a difference.
It has always been evident the student body has a voice on this campus. No one has ever done anything to hinder that voice and these evaluations do nothing but make our voices louder - if we choose to make them heard.
When you find yourself peering down on that evaluation sheet with your No. 2 pencil in hand, refrain from getting the quick chuckle from your classmates when you take advantage of the anonymous entries to poke fun at your professor.
Instead take the gift of anonymity and use it to present honest impressions of a particular course without worries of rebuttal.
If you are not going to take advantage of the voice you are given, don't be the one complaining when it's gone.
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