Student evaluations of instruction were originally intended as an assessment tool ; their primary purpose was as a feedback mechanism by which students could inform instructors about their experiences in a course. Over the years this function has been largely superseded by the accountability function of student evaluations, as they are now primarily used as evidence of an instructor's teaching ability.
Western is committed to the use of multiple assessment tools for continually improving teaching and learning. As part of that commitment, a Midterm Teaching and Learning Survey has been created and made available for all instructors who use Blackboard in their courses.
The survey is designed to be easily administered online by the individual instructor. The survey contains fifteen questions about student learning, plus an area for student comments. In addition, a pool of many additional questions covering a wide range of topics is also included. Instructors may easily add questions to the survey from the pool, or write their own assessment questions. Immediate and ongoing feedback allows instructors to make timely adjustments to course organization, to experiment with pedagogical innovation, and to get concrete feedback about student learning experiences.
Unlike “official” student evaluations of instruction administered by the Testing Center, the Midterm Assessment survey is designed to be a completely automated, confidential exchange between students and their instructor. Responses are processed within the boundaries of each course's Blackboard domain, and are only accessible to the individual instructor. All faculty are encouraged to experiment with this tool and to provide feedback to the Office of Institutional Assessment, Testing, and Research about their experiences with the Midterm Assessment Survey tool.
When you request to have a new course created in Blackboard, or re-use an existing course, you are given the option to have the mid-term teaching and learning survey materials included as part of the course. In the forms that you fill out to request a Blackboard course, there is an option that asks whether or not you want the survey materials included. If you want the survey materials, then make sure there is a check mark next to that option. If you do not want the survey materials, make sure that you remove the check mark from that option.
If you have already requested your course, but did not ask for the survey materials at that time, please contact us at web help and we will add the materials to your Blackboard course.
The survey material is included in your Blackboard course as two separate pieces. The first piece is a standard survey, containing a pre-established set of questions that is ready to be deployed. The second piece is a pool of survey questions that can be added to the pre-established survey. As the instructor of the course, you have the ability to modify the survey to meet the particular evaluation needs of your course.
Before the survey can be delivered to students, it must be deployed into one of the content areas of your course. This may be course documents, assignments, or another content area that you specify. To deploy the survey:
The mid-term assessment of teaching and learning survey allows you to add additional questions as desired from the pool of additional survey questions that is included. In order to add additional survey questions from the pool:
The results of the Mid-Term Assessment of Teaching and Learning Survey will display the aggregate responses for all of the respondents. You will be able to determine if an individual student has completed the survey, but you will not be able to see an individual student's responses. To review the results of the survey:
