I understand that course critiques can be tedious and feel like a waste of time. However, course critiques have a large impact on how the University evaluates their professors in terms of teaching quality. Professors pay is impacted by their teaching evaluation. As a student course critiques are your best opportunity to make your voice heard about your professors and what you think of them.
There are two parts to course critiques, the comments section and the numerical section (the Scantron part). The numerical information is the part that everyone sees. This information is aggregated and reported to department chairs and becomes part of the overall evaluation. The comments section is between you and the professor. Professors don’t always share it with others. Be nice but honest, try to help them identify weaknesses or areas of strength that they could improve on. Every evaluation is read to make sure that there is nothing that could be taken as offensive or rude. If your evaluation is deemed to be inappropriate it will be thrown out so make sure you make your points without being rude.
Lastly, try to find out when your course evaluation will be. If you ask your prof they will be likely to let you know when they want it to happen. Let the rest of your class know. Often times, especially with a bad professor, very few students will be in class for the evaluation. If only 20 evaluations are recorded in a class of 100 there are very few actionable results because of such a low participation rate.
If you have more questions about course critiques don’t hesitate to ask me. If you would like to help out with the process watch the EngSoc events calendar for the course critique reading party.
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