Student opinions: filling out UL’s end-of-semester course surveys

With this semester coming to a close, students are getting emails to evaluate their professors for the Spring 2023 term. 

Teacher evaluations are both beneficial for students and teachers. Professors are made aware of what is effective for the students and what could be done differently when it comes to their teaching techniques, and students are able to voice their opinions.

Students can also go on certain sites, such as RateMyProfessor, RateMyTeacher and Uloop to share their opinions about professors and courses. These sites and evaluations are very helpful when it comes to students being heard and delivering feedback to professors. 

When doing these evaluations students should include things related to the professor’s professionalism, knowledge, mannerism, teaching effectiveness, etc. 

Some students do complete the evaluations and believe that it is important for the professors to receive feedback on their class. It helps students have a say in what might work and what might not work within the course.

Dax Boteler, a sophomore majoring in psychology, said that he feels it’s important for students to voice their opinions on a course.

“I do the evaluations for most of my professors because I think it is important that the students have at least somewhat of a voice in the teaching style/structure of a course,” Boteler said. “I’d have to say I’m likely to evaluate them if I really hated the professor’s course.”

He continued with, “Maybe around half of my professors talk about the course evaluations in class. However, I think that giving time in class to do them is a waste of time.” 

There might be some students who are more likely to evaluate professors if they have had bad experiences with them. Professors might not explain to their students what the evaluations are or give them time to do them during class.

Parker Mills, a freshman majoring in finance, shared how he was not informed on the evaluations by his professors.

“The professors have not explained to us the course evaluations or given us time to do it,” Mills said. 

Mills continued, “Typically I do it if they are bad or really good. I do think they should definitely explain it; I think it is professional to do that. If they truly do care about the students they should think, ‘What can I work on?’”

Skylar Wilson, a freshman majoring in biology, said, “I hear about the evaluations via email but I have never heard my professors talk about them. I mean I will still do them. I cannot say I have had a bad experience with a professor.” 

Students might not even complete these evaluations at all but are most likely to do them for a professor they favored. 

Others have not done them and believe that it would be a good idea for there to be class time to get them done so students do not forget about them.

Brionna Stallion, a freshman majoring in pre-dental hygiene, said, “No, I did not do the course evaluations for my professors because I honestly really did not know what it was for. I most likely would do it for a professor that I liked, because I would want to put in a good word for them.”

She added, “Honestly I do not think it does have an impact. I think one of my professors talked about evaluations but the rest did not. We did not get time to do them in class and I think it would be good to do them in class so we won’t forget.”