Common process from academic year 2007/08 Overview for teachers and students
Continuous course development Course evaluations are a part of fthe never-ceasing efforts to improve courses and programmes at Chalmers. Student experiences, as expressed and collected in course evaluations, form an essential input to this development of quality.
Which courses are affected? All courses at Chalmers are evaluated as described here with the possible exception of courses at the master level with few (< 20) students. These may adopt a simplified process, where teacher and students continuously discuss the course.
What does Swedish law say? According to Swedish law, the university shall give each student, who participates in a course, an opportunity to express his/her views on the course in a course evaluation organized by the university. The university shall put evaluations together and inform about the results and possible actions taken in response. Results shall be made available to the students.
Goals for the evaluation process The aim of the process is to develop the goals, contents and pedagogy of the courses, focusing on student learning. The process shall encourage a dialogue between teachers and students on how the education can be improved. The process shall profit from student experiences, in order to improve current and future courses, as well as the study programmes as a whole.
The process Three meetings between 2-6 student representatives and the teacher. In the final meeting, also representatives from the programme, the department and the student union may attend. Brief, web-based, anonymous questionnaire to all students. Minutes from the final meeting available in the student portal. Meeting 1 Course intro Meeting 2 Meeting 3 Questionnaire 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Exam 1 2 3 4 5 7 6 Exam Representatives presented Notes on course website Minutes Portal
Chalmers centrally, responsibilities Maintains and develops course evaluation process. Provides IT support (questionnaire system, minutes template, routines for linking from portal). Informs about process and tools.
Programme leadership, responsibilities Appoints (in collaboration with student union) student representantives; informs teacher. Assembles and distributes standard questionnaire. Puts questionnaire results together. Schedules and calls to final meeting. Chairs final meeting and archives minutes in Chalmers document system.
Teacher, responsibilites Informs briefly about process during course introduction and in course documents; presents student representantatives. Calls two first meetings together, publishes notes from 2nd meeting on course website. Presents his/her views and experiences at final meeting. Develops course for next year, according to departmental decisions and routines.
Student representantatives, responsibilities Inform themselves of their fellow students views on the course. Pass these views on at the meetings and participate in discussions in a personal capacity. May propose course-specific questions in questionnaire. Inform fellow students of discussions and recommendations at the meetings. Each representative is reimbursed with a voucher for 200 SEK, valid at Cremona.
Meetings 1 and 2 First meeting g( (week 1) is brief and will typically ytake place in connection with a teaching activity. Aims: to establish contact, clarify teacher s and students thoughts regarding the course and to decide on and publish time for meeting 2. The second meeting (week 3-4) discusses e.g. Changes in the course since last year. Study climate (communication, work load, supervision). i Problematic course items; can resources be used better? Course-specific specific questions in questionnaire; other material for final meeting? Notes are published on course website..
Final meeting Takes place in week 4 of the subsequent study period. Examination complete, questionnaire summarized. More attendees: representatives for programme, department and student union. Summarizing judgment. Goal fulfilment. Organisation and pedagogy. Study climate. Desirable changes for next year. Link to minutes from course plan in student portal.