Poster Presentation/Demo Abstract
Since Spring 2008, MIT has been moving its paper-based subject evaluation system online, as well as improving the collection of teaching data. By AY2010-11, the system will be ready to handle the @750 subjects previously evaluated on paper. The presentation will give an update on the three parts of the project — data collection, surveys, and reports.
Online Subject Evaluation/Who’s Teaching What Project Website
Statement of the problem or issue
The OSE/WTW project was launched as a response to the recommendation from the Task Force on the Undergraduate Educational Commons that assessment be made an Institute policy. A new system was needed to replace the paper-based evaluation system due to its limitations, which include:
- No way to distinguish alternative teaching models within a subject
- Only three instructors for any single subject can be evaluated
- Very labor-intensive
- Old database technology
- Forms are inflexible (questions must fit form layout)
- Limited ability to ask extra questions
- Students must be present in class to submit an evaluation
- Long turnaround time for evaluation reports
- No summary reports on teaching data
Description of activity, project, solution, and outcome
The new Who’s Teaching What application can capture details on sections (including which students are in which section), instructors, teaching roles, evaluation flags, and survey configurations. The online survey supports evaluation of multiple instructors and subjects, multi-page navigation, and the ability to save and edit answers. Reports for each evaluated subject are dynamically generated and customized for different audiences — department administrators, instructors in the subject, and the rest of the MIT community. Work is currently underway to provide longitudinal and comparative reports of teaching and evaluation data across departments.
Importance or relevance to other faculty, staff, students, departments, and programs
Students can fill out evaluation forms anytime during the evaluation period, so there’s more time for reflection and thoughtful open-ended comments.
Departments and instructors can submit their own questions, get feedback from all students (not just the ones present on the last day of class), and will receive individual electronic reports, including open-ended comments, quickly. Administrators can enter teaching data more easily and receive useful data for setting policy and making comparisons.
Everyone will benefit from streamlined processes, easy-to-search data, and quick reporting.
Mary Z. Enterline, Associate Dean for Academic Information and Communication, Office of Faculty Support
Amitava “Babi” Mitra, Associate Director, Office of Educational Innovation and Technology
Rosanne S. Santucci, Communications/Data Specialist, Office of Faculty Support
Lee Leffler, Technical Writer/Usability Consultant, Office of Faculty Support
(Presented at MIT Educational Technology Fair 2009)
Topic Area(s)
7. Others: Online assessment and evaluation