Course evaluation
The evaluations of courses and modules are a basis for optimizing teaching and therefore in the interest of the students. To this end, as many students as possible should take part in the surveys. Measures derived from surveys to optimize teaching should be communicated to students. This can also help to motivate students to take part in the surveys.
Course evaluation is used for quality assurance and development of the individual courses. Relevant aspects include, for example, the didactic and content design by the lecturer as well as an overall assessment of the course.
Before an organizational unit decides on a survey method, it should first seek advice from the ZEM, taking into account the objectives, target group, survey content and complexity of the survey. Which method an organizational unit chooses depends on several factors.
Course evaluation on the basis of online surveys
There are currently parallel versions of the system for the online-based evaluation of courses: for several years now, lecturers have been able to register courses for evaluation on a voluntary basis and have students surveyed. A standard questionnaire is available for this purpose, which can be expanded upon.
A variant that is generally adapted to specific subjects makes it possible to take subject-specific circumstances and different types of courses into account. In addition, the registration of events is not the responsibility of the teachers, but of a central person in the organizational unit. Before an organizational unit can participate in this procedure, an exchange of information between the ZEM and the evaluation officer is required. It is possible to adapt the system to the circumstances of the degree program in advance by changing the registration system and the questionnaire. This is done in cooperation with the evaluation officer or a person/group appointed by him/her. The contact person for the implementation of the procedure in the individual organizational units is the respective evaluation officer.
The central registration of courses takes place in a database-based system. To re-evaluate an already registered course, for example in the following year, it is activated by the centrally registering person and only certain information, such as semester, student contact or survey period, has to be entered again. In addition, the questions and input options are also controlled via the database on the basis of subject-specific agreements, so that certain questions are displayed for each organizational unit or depending on the type of course.
In addition, individual lecturers can be given the opportunity to add their own questions at course level.
Course evaluation on the basis of paper-based surveys
Paper-based implementation has the advantage that the questionnaires can be completed directly during the event, which usually results in high response rates. Errors in data entry or transmission are minimized as far as possible by using EvaSys, but the processing of open questions is more time-consuming than with online-based implementation due to the manual entry of answers. For longer and more complex surveys with many filters or those with many open questions, it is therefore better to opt for online-based implementation.
Decision support: paper-based or online-based survey?
If you would like support in deciding whether to conduct a survey online or on paper, you are welcome to take a look at our decision aid. You can find detailed information on this page.