Ok seriously, what is the point of those teacher evals at the end of each semester. Almost no one actually takes them seriously and they are a huge waste of time.

11/30/2005 5:01:37 PM

I take them seriously

11/30/2005 5:03:27 PM

they determine raises.

really only matter to non-tenured profs.

11/30/2005 5:05:06 PM

last program i was in took it very seriously

11/30/2005 6:13:59 PM

They're a big part of tenure and promotion. Ideally they should help guide the prof to better teaching. I did say ideally.

It really depends on the program, but I think they're pretty abused as a tool for actual evaluation. There's been a bunch of studies on grade inflation and teacher evals. Oddly enough, the better the grade, the better the evaluation, meaning a better chance of a raise or tenure. Some programs just do a final average of all the scores (1-5 likert scale questions) and go from there.

"Dr. Swank you were a 4.38 this semester. Good job."

I've kept all my evaluations and learned from them, but yeah, most of that shit gets canned pretty quickly from what I've seen.

11/30/2005 6:23:52 PM

They are simply there to make students feel like they are important.

Only in borderline tenure questions do they remotely matter.

[Edited on November 30, 2005 at 6:28 PM. Reason : ]

11/30/2005 6:27:14 PM

If they mattered, Middleton sure as hell wouldn't be teaching.

11/30/2005 6:29:34 PM

eh, i kind of think they're just to allow students to vent.

i'm sure, though, that students have ripped certain professors *cough*kleinstreuer*cough* pretty much every semester for years.

nothing really changes, but it's cathartic to tell some profs exactly what you think of them

[Edited on November 30, 2005 at 6:41 PM. Reason : ]

11/30/2005 6:41:24 PM

some teachers take them seriously
some don't

Quote :

"If they mattered, Middleton sure as hell wouldn't be teaching."

Middleton is clearly one of the ones that doesn't
i hated that fool

11/30/2005 6:42:48 PM

Quote :

"*cough*kleinstreuer*cough*"

lol

11/30/2005 7:07:35 PM

I have been a CSC lab instructor for two semesters (going back to do it again next semester) and each time I gave out evaluations for my students to fill out. I never heard anything back about any of the evaluations. It kinda disappointed me cause I really would have liked to know what the students thought about my teaching. I wasn't too surprised though, as anyone who has worked for the CSC department can probably tell you, they aren't exactly the most organized about that kind of stuff.

11/30/2005 7:13:08 PM

^in computer science, any student can get a sheet that lists every professors' average ratings for each category. for the most part, they reflect appropriately who sucks and who doesn't.

Quote :

"Almost no one actually takes them seriously"

are you sure that just isn't... you?

11/30/2005 7:22:39 PM

Yah, Middleton was the worst teacher I've ever had.

11/30/2005 8:25:48 PM

what's middleton teach

11/30/2005 9:00:38 PM

History

i had him for early american history IIRC (that may not be the correct title)
i'm thinking it was HI251

11/30/2005 9:05:10 PM

Stephen Middleton?

11/30/2005 9:05:35 PM

haha

http://thewolfweb.com/school_instructor.aspx?department=HI&instructor=2810

11/30/2005 9:16:12 PM

i know that TAs are evaluated by students and that does play in part if they are hired back for the next year. However they do look at what the student says. If they just say 'I hate so and so' or "class sucked' then they think it is a worthless evaluation.
If it is a thought out explaination of how the grading may or may not have been fair (note of course the professor will see the TA grades so they can dispute or credit these kinds of statements) then that does play a role.

As for teachers, alot of teachers DO read and take the comments to heart.

11/30/2005 9:30:15 PM

^^And a year later, I still feel the same way.

[Edited on November 30, 2005 at 9:31 PM. Reason : ^^]

11/30/2005 9:31:07 PM

ABET requires it for us to be "ABET CERTIFIED"

11/30/2005 9:36:18 PM

They are largely ignored. A lot of them are not fair, and teaching isn't the first responsibility of a professor. So they have an infinitesimal weight.

11/30/2005 9:40:04 PM

I wouldn't care if I were a prof, either.

College kids can be some whiny bitches.

Middleton still sucks, though.

11/30/2005 9:41:56 PM

Quote :

"and teaching isn't the first responsibility of a professor"

pretty fucked up, but pretty much true

11/30/2005 10:09:47 PM

I know Brown in th Business department acctually reads them and then shows them to her classes the following semester so we can know what other people thought about her. But I know I can be pretty mean on them. I have only given out 2 very good ones since i have been here, and I do take them seriously when I sit down to do them.

11/30/2005 10:18:32 PM

I wonder if i'm going to get to see any directed @ me for this semester (I'm a TA)

11/30/2005 10:20:29 PM

Quote :

"I know I can be pretty mean on them."

Quote :

"I do take them seriously"

that is contradictory. just because you're a bitch doesn't mean that you take the surveys seriously. it does, however, mean that you take yourself seriously.

11/30/2005 10:20:50 PM

^ you're an idiot

11/30/2005 10:22:06 PM

no, i'm not.

to take a class survey seriously, you must give an honest and balanced appraisal of the class. she has as much as admitted that she does not do this.

[Edited on November 30, 2005 at 10:23 PM. Reason : s]

11/30/2005 10:23:14 PM

I'll just let her explain herself, which shouldn't even be necessary, but apparently is

11/30/2005 10:24:27 PM

no its not necessary because you sir (^^) take this thread way too seriously

11/30/2005 10:27:17 PM

yea that's what i thought.

11/30/2005 10:36:22 PM

I was SHOCKED when I was talking to a friend of mine and he had had the same professor 3years ago and he was a pretentious unhelpfull ASSHOLE who graded rediculously hard... I have him this semester for the exact same class and he is the NICEST, most HELPFULL, EASIEST teacher I've had period... I mean he is litterally the best teacher I've had at state...

supposedly he got a new asshole torn from evaluations and decided to rethink things...

11/30/2005 11:15:19 PM

I'm 100% confident that our classes' review of Athavale for CSC316 resulted in him getting fired

I gave him a full page review under the "additional comments" section, and it was not pretty

11/30/2005 11:46:56 PM

evals spelled backwards is slave...think about it

11/30/2005 11:51:25 PM

I would like to think professors take the written comments seriously - while I don't care so much about the bubbles, I honestly try to give a fair, balanced evaluation on the back, and especially try to note *how* I would improve things.

However, I've never had a teacher I just thought was a horrible person. There were a few I thought were a little bit pompus and full of themselves, but they had the subject area knowledge to more than back it up (paging Dr. Knopp...).

11/30/2005 11:55:58 PM

I seriously wanted to write some things about one of my professors, but he stayed in the room the whole time, hovered over people, and went to the envelope to turn them in at and watched each one being put in.

I didn't have the balls to write bad stuff about him that he would have read before deciding my grade which has a subjective element to it.

11/30/2005 11:58:09 PM

hey Dumbass, which prof are you talking about

^ I thought they are supposed to leave the room

[Edited on December 1, 2005 at 12:05 AM. Reason : ]

12/1/2005 12:05:39 AM

I have heard, by a proff in CSC, i dont remember which- That there *was* a professor at state who actually got fired over them.


Then again, i know some proffs who seriously would have been kicked out if that was always true.

I think the answer here is sometimes it matters and sometimes it doesnt, and you never really know which way it is.

And for the record, they are supposed to leave the room. some dont, but all the ones i've had who didnt, always stayed polietly away from the students and never even tried to look at the papers (they were there for another good reason and stated it).

I would have reported the proff who was looking at that shit actually to the department. Just fo rbeing that much of an ass (and i think it's against university regs).

[Edited on December 1, 2005 at 12:08 AM. Reason : .]

12/1/2005 12:07:44 AM

^^they are, he didnt, instead he glanced over them as they were being put up... but i'm not about to pick a fight over it so close to grading time.

[Edited on December 1, 2005 at 12:08 AM. Reason : .]

12/1/2005 12:07:46 AM

yeah I wouldn't have either, but I probably would have written the department head about it after exams

12/1/2005 12:24:22 AM

Quote :

"Only in borderline tenure questions do they remotely matter."

Don't forget about instructors and graduate students ... can make a difference as well.

If you take the time to objectively write an evaluation separate from the bubble sheet they give you, they'll take it seriously. I've been pissed at one course and the way it was taught/administered ... typed up 3-4 pages with clear criticisms and numerous suggestions for improvements, stuck it in the envelope with everything else.

12/1/2005 6:08:24 AM

I asked my dad about this a while ago. He used to be a Professor of Entomology at NCSU and then moved on to become the Director of CIPM at ncsu.

Here's how the evaluations work. They are sent to the department heads/who is responsible for reading them, then sent to the teacher. It's completely based off the the person responsible for reading them if anything is done against the teacher.

The BEST way to complain about a teacher isn't through the eval's oddly enough since most department heads pawn this off on something else. Send a letter with eaxt reasons and situations stating why you don't like the professor to the ASSOCIATE DEAN (not dean), of your college.

It really makes an impact and they do respond.

This is what happened when Dr Pourdeyhemi tried to stop me from graduating. I spoke with the Associate Dean and gave him copies of emails, and originals of all project work and when Pourdeyhemi was confronted with this he got caught lying and was made to look like a fucking idiot. I graduated no problem.

Of course mine is more of an extreme but if enough people send complaints to the Associate Dean of their college about a professor things resolve themselves. He/she gets tired of hearing about this professor and eventually meets with them or moves them from the classes. Problem solved either way.

12/1/2005 7:15:35 AM

Quote :

"they determine raises."

Where did you hear that? I was under the impression that NCSU profs were state employees and as such could only get raises when the state legislature gave their bidecadal 2% raise. State employee raises are not performance based (by and large).

12/1/2005 7:50:06 AM

LadyWolff the CSC prov that got the boot was most certainly Athavale

another prof that I think got fired due to bad reviews was Silber, he taught my MA242 class. School Tool shows that he taught for another semester after I took his class, but they got rid of him eventually

12/1/2005 10:51:32 AM

I had one professor tell our class the evaluations mattered to him, and that he goes back and reads every comment. He even recalled some funny comments from them, like about how a student didn't like his mustache or a tie he'd wear.

But he said he read the comments and tried hard to improve based on them.



[Edited on December 1, 2005 at 11:01 AM. Reason : But I have a feeling he's probably the minority.]

12/1/2005 10:59:53 AM

ram athavale was the worst fucking professor ever - i had him for perl and 316 - what a waste of time

12/1/2005 11:01:09 AM

What about Fred George? Anyone remember him?

12/1/2005 11:01:35 AM

yeah, I had Fred George, but I cant remember anything about him. CSC216 was way too long ago

12/1/2005 12:00:36 PM

Quote :

" ..teaching isn't the first responsibility of a professor..."

This is why many of us who are earning PhD degrees here have no desire to teach at a large, research institution, where undergraduate education is often an afterthought.

12/1/2005 12:38:27 PM

Quote :

"If they mattered, Middleton sure as hell wouldn't be teaching."

i liked him in class, but he was a jerk when it came to papers and stuff.

12/1/2005 2:08:19 PM