College of Education
Northern Illinois University
Graham Hall
DeKalb, IL 60115
Phone: (815) 753-1948
Fax: (815) 753-2100
cedu@niu.edu
For years the course evaluation process has been marked by number two pencils and the familiar bubble-laden Scantron sheets. However, at the College of Education, the practice is getting a 21st century upgrade.
Beginning this fall, the College will be conducting student evaluations online with the help of Course Response, a web-based tool by Digital Measures. Digital Measures is a Milwaukee-based software company whose tools are used by colleges and universities nationwide. The company first made its appearance on campus last year during a presentation to the provost and deans of the colleges.
Jeffrey Hecht, Associate Dean of Technology, Research, and Faculty Innovation, recalls sitting in the audience and being intrigued. After investigating some of their competitors, he turned his sights once again to Digital Measures and sent out a call for volunteers to test the system. Last fall, the Department of Educational Technology, Research, and Assessmentanswered that call and became the College’s first department to trythe Course Response system. Students in select classes were given the opportunity to complete their evaluations online either during class or on their own time. The trial proved to be a winner.
“We had done a study of the amount of time and money spent doing paper evaluations,” Associate Dean Hecht stated. “The analysis revealed that the process costs more than 900 work hours each year, equating to thousands of dollars in lost productivity. The process is also prone to errors and is very inflexible.” After ETRA's successful trial, Associate Dean Hecht grew even more confident thatthe software represented a real and tangible benefit to the College. The trial group was broadened for the 2009 spring and summer semesters, and as of Fall 2009, it is available for any College department or instructor who wishes to use it.
In addition to providing time and cost savings, Course Response also promises to improve the quality of the evaluation process. Nearly every student is familiar with the Web and utilizing this medium provides bothinstructor and student with newfound freedom by removing the process from the classroom. Associate Dean Hecht emphasized a couple of particularly noteworthy features that will delight faculty in particular.
“Course Response allows our faculty to not only get responses immediately after grades are posted for the semester, but to specify questions of their own choosing,” he explained. With this added feature, faculty will be able to poll students about virtually any aspect of their teaching. This key change to the process coupled with the new online format may lead to more formative and balanced feedback that will, in turn, help instructors improve instruction for their students. Associate Dean Hecht is optimistic about the software and sees it as not just technology for technology's sake, but a tool that will genuinely change the way the College addresses the needs of its students.
“We need to be leveraging technology to make people’s lives easier,” he explained. “Course Response is a way of using technology in a manner that’s more effective and efficient than our older process so that our staff is free to do other things.”