Evaluation Information & Tips
Evaluation Information & Tips
Face-to-face papers
All evaluations for face-to face papers can be conducted during class. Because the evaluations are open for 6 weeks, those who do not attend the class are still able to provide feedback. It is the Class Reps responsibility to run the evaluation and your convener will be in touch with you about arranging a date for the evaluation to be completed. If you have not heard from your convener during the second to last week of teaching, please email them to start planning.
For information about how to run the evaluation, see the Information for class reps video.
If you have any questions, or would like any assistance with running the evaluations, please email evaluations@waikato.ac.nz
To recap on the training session by viewing the slides, please see the PowerPoint slides.
There are other resources that you can use to assist you with running the evaluation as well.
These include:
NET & Blended papers
For NET & Blended papers most evaluations will be set-up as a lesson on Moodle. It is good for Class Reps to encourage students in their class to provide feedback through the evaluation. There are resources available to assist you with this process.
These include:
Giving constructive feedback
- Specific constructive suggestions are more useful than general comments.
- They allow your teacher to do something about your feedback.
- E.g.: explain why “the class is great” or why you thought “the readings need changing”.
- Remember that you are writing to your instructor. Your feedback is valuable and can influence the ways they teach this paper and other papers in the future. Please avoid emotional language as this can make your comments appear inflammatory or unproductive.
- Provide feedback about your learning experience. This helps teaching staff figure out what helped students learn, not just what they enjoyed.
- Areas you may wish to comment on:
For the paper evaluations:
- Paper content, design, resources, assessments, workloads, tutorials, field trips, workshops, labs, lectures, and/or online tools.
For the teaching evaluations:
- your teacher’s communication with students, teaching approaches, feedback, approachability, clarity of explanations, enthusiasm.
Feedback policies
Policies for students
- The Evaluation Team has a responsibility to ensure the safety of both staff and students with regards to evaluations. Student comments through evaluation forms are reported to teachers verbatim (there are no student details attached, but the entire written comment is passed on). For this reason any offensive or derogatory comments that are reported by teaching staff to the Evaluations team may be investigated by the Pro-Vice Chancellor Teaching and Learning.
- Student discipline regulations
- Computer systems regulations
Policies for academic staff
- End-of-semester paper and teaching evaluations at the University of Waikato are governed by the Evaluation of Teaching and Papers Policy
- The policy outlines the responsibilities of paper convenors and Chairpersons/Heads of Departments/Schools.
- A paper evaluation and a teaching evaluation must be done at least every second time a paper is taught.
- The subsequent Paper Outline of each paper must include a summary of any changes that have been made to that paper in response to the most recent student evaluations.
Contact the Evaluation Team if you have questions.