Students urged to fill out evaluation forms
By Chandler Walter, Editor-in-Chief
Reviews are a big part of what influences the movies we see or where we go to dinner, so why should it be any different for education?
Douglas College students are being urged to fill out their end-of-semester instructor evaluations, and one instructor stated that it is an important tool for keeping professors accountable and content relevant.
Nina Blanes, a health sciences instructor at Douglas College, wrote a post on Douglas 360° to emphasize that point.
“At Douglas College, student evaluations are a key part of ensuring a quality learning experience,” Blanes wrote. “This feedback process allows students to participate more fully in the learning experience and increases instructor accountability to ensure that their content is relevant and being effectively delivered.”
She also stated that Douglas College started a pilot program in 2016 to allow for course evaluation from students, meaning that students are not only evaluating how their instructors were throughout the semester, but also the curriculum that was offered.
“Faculty are guided by the curriculum guideline, however, if 75 per cent of students say an assignment is confusing or the readings are too heavy, then there is a very justifiable reason for the instructor to review learning outcomes,” Nina wrote in the article. “Education settings should be adaptable and this type of feedback format is an effective way of ensuring changes are made when needed, as opposed to platforms life ratemyprofessor.com.”
While it is clear that Douglas College-supplied evaluations are an important tool for instructors, some students wouldn’t count ratemyprofessor.com out as being any less essential to the learning experience.
Alysha Reddish, a student at Douglas College, stated that, while she hasn’t written anything on the website, she uses ratemyprofessor.com before signing up for classes at Douglas.
“Honestly, I would say I check it [every time]. I would say it’s pretty important,” Reddish said in an interview with the Other Press. “You can see, in whatever subject that you’re in, which prof would be the best for you, learning-wise, [because] people will comment about how they teach.”
Reddish also said that, while she has filled out a few of the Douglas College instructor evaluations for classes she had taken in the past, ratemyprofessor.com had more valuable information for her as a student.
With the semester coming to a close and a new one right around the corner, it’s clear that both students and instructors benefit from students filling out evaluations, be it through the school, on ratemyprofessor.com, or, ideally, both.
