Course Evaluations
At the University of Toronto, online course evaluations are conducted to collect formative feedback for instructors to inform their teaching, to provide summative data for program, curriculum and course review, and to provide members of the University community, including students, with information about student learning experiences at the University. The CTSI Course Evaluation (CE) team operates the centralized system and provides guidance and facilitation, including for implementation, interpretation, item design, technical support, and educational support. The team continues to provide leadership and connections with peers across universities from around the world through consultations and engagement.
HIGHLIGHTS
Events: Course Evaluation Institute 2020
Over the past year, the CE on team has grown the Course Evaluation Institute, taking a leadership role in hosting this event that engages the broader course evaluation community in conversation and collaboration on course evaluation matters. This includes creating a Listserv with a broad membership representing universities from around the globe.
The CTSI CE team had planned, organized, and reviewed proposals for the second hosting of the two-day Course Evaluation Institute in May 2020 but due to COVID-19’s global impact, the event was postponed until further notice. Although the event could not take place, the Course Evaluation Institute garnered significant interest from global partners and peers, highlighting the importance of CTSI CE team leadership with regard to the assessment of teaching in the broader higher education community. CTSI looks forward to hosting this postponed event in the near future.
Project: Text Analytics
Building upon an initial pilot in 2018-2019, an analysis of concerning comments in the open-ended fill-in-the-blank course evaluation questions has been expanded to a full review of comments across 3 of U of T’s largest divisions. In a separate project, a policy review regarding concerning comments in course evaluations across 29 research intensive universities in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom was also conducted. This work is being used to inform decision making, policy, and practice by the Vice-Provost, Innovations in Undergraduate Education as well as U of T’s Course Evaluation Advisory Group. This work is being further deepened and expanded through current work on positive comments, and, the piloting of text analytics to support divisional administrators.
Presentations: Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) 2019 and Bluenotes 2019
Members of the Course Evaluation team shared their work, knowledge, and expertise in academic, technical, and practical applications of course evaluation data. Team members presented a workshop at the STLHE 2019 conference in Winnipeg and two well-attended presentations at Bluenotes 2019, an annual eXplorance (U of T’s course evaluation vendor) conference, in Chicago. This engagement led to further connections and dialogue with international members of the course evaluation community, and further enhanced the University of Toronto’s leadership in this area.
Implementation: Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy
Members of the CE team are engaged in ongoing implementation work to finalize Pharmacy’s integration into U of T’s Course Evaluation Framework (CEF). This work has involved the creation of program-specific course evaluation items, facilitating discussions with implementation committee members on matters of policy and guidelines, and consultations with sub-groups of the committee to communicate about the CEF.
Intersections
The work of the Course Evaluation team spans the scope of nearly every Division at U of T, from facilitating implementation of the Course Evaluation Framework to ongoing operational support through every course evaluation period. Currently, there are 12 Divisions that are implemented under the University of Toronto’s Course Evaluation Framework.
The Course Evaluation team continues to consult broadly across the institution, this year completing 45 consultations on a variety of topics including interpretation, implementation, SoTL, and course evaluation-specific ROSI Express training. Working in collaboration with the office of the Vice-Provost, Faculty and Academic Life, the Course Evaluation team also offered a workshop, “Assessment of Teaching in Tenure, Continuing Status, and Promotion Reviews for Chairs, Directors and Members of Teaching Evaluation Committees”.
The CTSI Course Evaluation team actively participates in the Institutional Course Evaluations Advisory Group, helping to shape the culture of assessment at the University of Toronto by sharing current research on course evaluations, trends, updates on U of T implementation and activities, and encouraging a collaborative approach to improving evaluation administration and use of course evaluation data.
CTSI has established itself as a leader, nationally and internationally, on course evaluations. The CE team is frequently consulted by a range of individuals from institutions both nationally and internationally on both the CE system as well as the framework, establishing CTSI and the University of Toronto as leaders in course evaluation best practices and as key resources for peer institutions. This year, the CE team provided 20 external consultations to international colleagues. As of now, their listserv has 57 members (13 from U of T and 44 from other universities
across the world).
Quick Stats
- Ongoing operational support across 12 Divisions
- 45 Institutional Consultations