Proceedings of the 6th Global Conference on Education and Teaching
Year: 2024
DOI:
[PDF]
Rigorous Scales for Student Evaluation of Teaching and Coursework
Richard O’Donovan
ABSTRACT:
Student evaluations of teaching and coursework in higher education are sensitive due to their potential (and real) impact on academic careers, and very important to institutions given the increased focus on providing evidence of high quality education in an increasingly competitive global education marketplace. One Australian university has undertaken a detailed review of their Student Evaluation of Teaching and Units (SETU), including extensive consultations with Deans of Education, academic staff, and students. This has resulted in the development of a measurement framework and a suite of psychometrically, Rasch compliant, scales. The framework is mapped across both teaching and coursework design, encompassing the key domains of: Assessment; Communication; Learning Activities; and, Sense of Belonging. Each domain has a relevant set of two or more bespoke diagnostic scales that provide educators and course developers with up to 21 feedback scores from students. This presentation outlines some of the limitations associated with common approaches to student evaluations, presents details on these novel diagnostic scales, evidence for their excellent psychometric properties, and how they are innovatively reported using a dynamic dashboard.
keywords: Diagnostic measures; Higher education; Rasch analysis; Staff Training, Evaluation & Assessment; Teaching and learning