ETEVAL pilot project: Migrating teacher evaluations to the online environment

Since 1989 Bond University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia has conducted student evaluations of teaching (TEVAL) using a method of paper-based surveying, manually distributed and collected by TEVAL officers in lectures and tutorials. In the final semester of 2009, research was conducted into the benefits of online TEVALs considering such factors as student response rates, and student and educator feedback submitted through a drop-box forum. A pilot project was administered through the Office of Quality, Teaching, and Learning to assess the efficacy of migrating TEVALs to the online environment. A sub-committee of the Teaching and Learning Committee developed new TEVAL 4-point Likert scale questions evaluating both instructors and course design. Two thousand three hundred forty-seven students (over 50% of Bond's student population) were asked to participate across three (of four) of Bond's faculties. The surveys were open for student completion between late November 2009 and early December 2009. This paper documents the process undertaken to market and deliver the electronic TEVALs as well as the initial findings based on response rates and student feedback.