Good teaching is created by teachers and students together! Here are some important principles for student evaluation to contribute to better teaching: 

Ask about what you actually wonder about. Use questions from the question battery (DOCX.) as inspiration or starting point.
Use the information you get to make improvements in both the short and long term.
Regularly engage in dialogue with the students about the feedback they give you. Then the teaching and activities will become a joint matter.
Give all students good information about the purpose of the evaluation and what is expected of them.

In the toolbox below, you will find descriptions and advice for a selection of evaluation methods you can use within UiO's quality assurance system (uio.no). Several of the methods can be adapted for use in Canvas, Nettskjema, Mentimeter or other digital tools. In order to ensure student influence and the widest possible range of perspectives and experiences, it may be a good idea to set up an evaluation course based on method triangulation - that is, you use both quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods in the data collection.

Remember that student evaluations are also included in the subject evaluations, which are carried out in line with UiO's Quality System for educational activities. These subject evaluations are coordinated by the subject supervisor. Familiarize yourself with these course evaluations, and make sure that questions you experience that can help you develop better teaching are included. Also ensure that insights you gain through your own evaluations become part of the continuous quality work.

Recommended evaluation methods

Questionnaire

Questionnaires can be useful for comparing subjects or programs with each other and over time. Questionnaires can be completed electronically using an online form, either during teaching sessions or outside of them. Nettskjema (uio.no) has a dedicated function for course evaluation, see also other tools for digital teaching (uio.no). Low response rates can be a challenge with digital course evaluation. You can consider carrying out the subject evaluation during class time to ensure the greatest possible number of answers.

See this document for more information on questionnaires (DOCX.) as an evaluation method. Find inspiration and suggestions for questions in the question battery

Advice for practical implementation

Think carefully about what you are seeking feedback on.
Add the evaluation to a time when the students have experience with your teaching.
Announce the evaluation in advance.
Explain the importance of feedback.
The information with the questionnaire should be short and informative.
Send a reminder if necessary, but avoid doing this more than once.

Evaluation meeting

It is not always necessary for all students on a subject or program to comment on how they experience the teaching. In some cases, it is appropriate to talk to a selection of the students, for example union representatives, or more randomly selected for, for example, a reference group/focus group.

Advice for practical implementation:

Consider how many students it is appropriate to include, in light of the size of the student group, how the teaching is organized and what is the intention of the evaluation.
The selection should be made at the start of the semester. 
Make the meeting schedule available to all students. 
Talk to the group about the organization and content of the evaluation early in the semester.  
The meetings should focus on giving the student representatives time to share their experiences.  
All feedback and proposed changes should be noted. 
A meeting report that reproduces both the students' feedback and the teachers' answers should be written and made available to the entire student group as quickly as possible.

Interviews

When using interviews, the individual student is given time to put into words their own experiences with a subject or study programme. Such conversations often provide rich and nuanced descriptions that are more difficult to access through other methods.

Advice for practical implementation

The number of interviews should not be too high to avoid large amounts of data. The number should be considered in relation to the total number of students.
Consider who you want feedback from.
Formulate questions that invite the students to tell, elaborate and justify their answers.
Make sure that the student is informed about the purpose and context of the interview.
Be patient during the interview and give the students time to think.
Consider whether you want to record the interview or rely on your own notes. Remember to get approval from the students if you take admission.

Rounds

Rounds mean that time is set aside in the teaching for all students to give feedback on key aspects of the studies in turn. Using rounds can help bring out many different perspectives in the student group. This form of oral student evaluation is intended to be informal and easy to carry out. Therefore, it is also best suited in smaller student groups where you have an informal tone.

Advice for practical implementation

Include the students in planning the evaluation at the beginning of the semester.
The evaluation should be carried out when the students have gained experience, but there should still be enough time left in the semester to follow up the results.
The evaluation should be carried out in connection with a teaching sequence with expected good attendance, and it should be announced in advance.
Students should be allowed to pass or repeat what others have said, and participants should listen to others' contributions without commenting on them.
Summarize the feedback and make the summary available to all students, including any planned changes and proposed changes that cannot be implemented.

Consultation meetings

Consultation meetings are open forums where students, teachers and other staff can discuss various aspects of a subject or study programme. This provides direct feedback from the students and the opportunity for dialogue.

Advice for practical implementation

Create a meeting schedule at the beginning of the semester that is available to all parties involved.
Consider how often and when the meetings will take place.
Announce the agenda well in advance of the meeting to give students the opportunity to prepare.
Decide how the meeting will be led and summarized, either by notes or recording.
All feedback and suggestions for changes should be taken seriously and noted. Teachers and other staff can answer the students' questions or comment on their statements along the way.
After the meeting, summarize the feedback in a memo that is made available to the students, including any planned changes and suggestions for changes that cannot be implemented.

Student Response Systems

Use student response systems (SRS tools), such as Mentimeter, to examine the students' experience of the teaching and what they have learned. This is a low-threshold way of adapting the teaching along the way, and can be a good starting point for entering into a dialogue with the students about the form and content of the teaching, and for clarifying and adjusting expectations. 

Advice for practical implementation

The evaluation should be carried out when the students have gained experience, but there should still be enough time left in the semester to follow up the results.
Announce the evaluation in advance to give students the opportunity to prepare.
Formulate a few open-ended questions and encourage the students to give concrete feedback on what they recommend to be kept or adjusted.
Use student response systems to check students' understanding during the lesson.
Concentrate on repeated feedback and constructive suggestions when analyzing the response to open-ended questions.
Discuss the results with the students at the next teaching sequence or immediately when the results are available. Consider using student response systems for on-the-job evaluation several times during the course period.

Log

The log allows for direct and anonymous feedback, and ongoing feedback on and dialogue about both academic and methodological aspects of the teaching. This can give you a good basis for making adjustments along the way and for entering into a dialogue with the students about the teaching and also about expectations of them.

Log writing is often used in process-oriented writing, and gives the subject or program manager the opportunity to follow individual students' views and development more directly. Direct the students' attention by asking specific questions about selected aspects of the teaching/subject/programme, such as whether the teacher seemed prepared, whether the presentation of the subject matter was clear, whether the tasks were illustrative, and whether there was anything in the teaching they found difficult.

Mailbox

A mailbox is an open box, physical or digital, where the students themselves can decide when they want to give feedback and what the feedback is about. An advantage of this method is that the students are not bound by predefined categories, but are given the opportunity to give feedback themselves on matters they feel are particularly important. 

Advice for practical implementation

The mailbox can be supplemented with other evaluation methods, such as a consultation meeting where the posted feedback is discussed.
The mailbox can be organized electronically, for example via e-mail or an open reply field in Nettskjema.
Take the students along for advice on how the mailbox should work; which topics should be given feedback on, how often they should give feedback, how the feedback should be summarized and discussed with the students.
Inform the students about how to give feedback and who has access to read the incoming messages.
Summarize the received feedback in a note that is made available to all students, including any planned changes and suggestions for changes that cannot be implemented.

What do I do with the information from the students?

It can be demanding to receive feedback from students. It is therefore important to think carefully about what you ask and how you ask. It may also be a good idea to work with colleagues to interpret the feedback.

The students' feedback often spreads in different directions, and is not necessarily an expression of what they have actually learned. Remember that it is you, based on your educational and professional judgement, who makes the decision about any changes. But also remember to communicate decisions and reasons to the students.

Analysis and interpretation of results

Preparation

To facilitate the analysis work, it may be a good idea to think through in advance which conditions you think work well or less well. If you have any hypotheses about this in advance, please write them down. Such categories can facilitate the analysis work because it gives you a place to start. However, be sure to be open to other types of feedback than those you yourself have foreseen! Concentrate the analyzes around the conditions that many students mention and disregard frivolous answers.

Context

Student evaluations produce information that will be subject to interpretation. Such interpretations can be difficult, and often require an understanding of surrounding factors that may have influenced the students' feedback. Have there been any special circumstances during the period in question that could explain the students' answers (illness in teaching staff, new hires, reforms, redevelopment, changes in routines, etc.)?

The truth?

The results do not necessarily tell how something is, but rather how something is experienced from the student's perspective. There are, for example, conflicting results when studying the connection between student evaluation and study results. For example, the fact that a subject receives very poor feedback does not necessarily mean that the teaching is bad. There can be other explanations for this type of feedback, such as for example that the topic of the subject is difficult or that over time it will turn out that very few students are engaged in the topic in question. One should therefore be careful about drawing strong conclusions. It is important to remember that there are other important sources of information about the quality of education, such as study results and the teachers' experiences, which can help to nuance the students' feedback.

Describing and maintaining aspects of the educational offer that work well is just as important as finding and rectifying aspects that do not.

Lecturers at UiO on evaluation

David describes how the students' feedback has been important for adjusting the teaching, and the importance of establishing a good culture for evaluation:

^{Made by LINK – Centre for Learning, Innovation & Academic Development}

Jonas reflects on how he has changed the way he uses the students' feedback:

^{Made by LINK – Centre for Learning, Innovation & Academic Development}

Reflection:

What are you wondering about? How can you ask your students about this in order to improve the teaching during the course?
How will you communicate your decisions about change back to the students?
What is the students' role in the teaching? How can you use the student feedback to make teaching a joint project for you and the students?

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

How to use Mentimeter as a questionnaire (mentimeter.com), as well as see results (mentimeter.com) and export data to Excel (mentimeter.com).

Example questions from the question battery (DOCX.).

Page with tools for digital teaching (uio.no). Nettskjema (uio.no) has a dedicated function for course evaluation.

SOURCES

Deslauriers, L., McCarty, L. S., Miller, K., Callaghan, K., & Kestin, G. (2019). Measuring actual learning versus feeling of learning in response to being actively engaged in the classroom. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(39), 19251–19257. Retrieved 26.04.23 from https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821936116

Handal, G. (1996). Studentevaluering av undervisning. Håndbok for lærere og studenter i høyere utdanning. Cappelen Damm Akademisk.

Harvey, J. (Ed.) (1998). Evaluation Cookbook. Learning Technology Dissemination Initiative, Institute for Computer Based Learning. Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

Sorenson, D & Johnson T (ed), (2003). Online Student Ratings of Instruction. JOSSEY-BASS, San Francisco.