As the end of the semester approaches, students at Syracuse University are turning to their computers in order to fill out course evaluations.

The Office of Institutional Research and Assessment at SU organizes this process for many academic departments on campus. Seth Ovadia, the office’s assistant director, said in an email that most departments that use OIRA for processing course evaluations have switched from paper to online evaluations.

As of the spring 2013 semester, Ovadia said there are only 12 departments on campus that work with OIRA and don’t use an online evaluation system.

Some schools, such as the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, have moved to the online system as a whole, he said, while other schools have moved department by department.

Ovadia said students completed 69,601 course evaluations online in fall 2012, and he expects that number to increase to about 80,000 this semester.

Students are generally given two weeks to complete course evaluations. One benefit of the online system is eliminating the need to print and collect paper evaluations, Ovadia said. This creates an additional benefit for OIRA because it can process the responses with ease.

In addition, class time that would be spent completing evaluations is saved, and students are able to spend more time giving detailed responses.

“The quality of the data collected is improved since students do not have to fill in circles on a form,” Ovadia said. “We also believe that open-ended responses are richer, as students often type more than they are willing to write out by hand.”

Some departments, such as political science, have recently switched to the online method this year, but other departments have been using online course evaluations for a longer time.

The math department at SU has used the OIRA online system since it opened in 2010. Eugene Poletsky, the department chair, said the department sent out 5,673 evaluations this year.

If students are enrolled in recitation for a course, they evaluate those teachers separately, Poletsky said.

However, it can be difficult for the department to find ways to get students to fill out evaluations, Poletsky said. Generally 65 to 70 percent of the students who are sent evaluations respond, he added.

“When waiting for responses, we’re at the students’ mercy. The only thing I can do is send daily reminders to those students who didn’t respond and appeal to their civil duties,” Poletsky said. “I also ask instructors to tell students in class that the website is available.”

Like many students, Tony Lai, a junior finance and supply chain major, said the only reminder emails he gets regarding course evaluations come from individual departments.  While online evaluations are easier to complete, he said, students must remember to fill them out independently within the given time frame, which isn’t an issue with paper evaluations.

“I think paper evaluations are good because you have to do them because they are handed out in class and done in class,” he said.

Yi Chen, a freshman undeclared major in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, also said a paper format better ensures that students complete evaluations, but online evaluations have the advantage of saving class time.

Said Chen: “It’s easier to fill out the online version because typing is easy and you can just do it whenever.”

Published on April 30, 2013 at 12:34 am

Contact Brett: blsamuel@syr.edu | @Brett_Samuels27