Students will now be able to consider data from previous official course evaluations when choosing their classes, thanks to a new initiative from the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate and TuftsReviews.com.
Previously, the results of the computer-scannable course evaluation forms were not released to students and used only within departments. Now, however, they will also provide statistical information about previous student satisfaction with courses to students themselves.
Evaluation information from Fall 2005 courses will be available today at TuftsReviews.com.
TCU Senator Michael Eddy, who headed up the project, was prompted to begin the endeavor by the limited resources students currently have available when making decisions about their courses.
While students may hear positive and negative opinions about classes from their peers and from Web sites such as TuftsReviews.com or RateMyProfessors.com, Eddy said these sources painted an incomplete picture of student sentiment. Contributions from such sources can often be uneven, limited, and slanted, he said.
"A site like TuftsReviews.com only elicits responses from the most extreme students in the class, people who really love or hate the professor," said Eddy, a sophomore. "There's an important part missing."
Eddy felt that the data that Tufts has already collected from each department would provide a more consistent, balanced and accurate picture of student satisfaction with the courses.
But obtaining the Tufts survey data for distribution to students was no easy task.
"At first we were told that we had to go to each department and ask them individually if they would like to contribute course reviews," Eddy said, an approach that turned out not to be "sustainable over the long run."
Changing tactics, Eddy spoke to Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser and Student Services. After an extended period of dialogue, Student Services agreed to release the numerical data.
While the administration agreed to release this data, substantive comments made by students were kept confidential. "They weren't that comfortable releasing comments also," Eddy said.
Departments were given the option to opt out of the inclusion of their courses and their professors' statistical data. Despite these gaps, Eddy feels the data released will be valuable to students.
"I think it's a really great opportunity," he said. "Everybody knows that the amount that you take away from the course not only has to do [with] the content but [with the] way that the professor engages the students. Students will now have sound data to include in the process of picking their classes."
- Kat Schmidt
