U Toronto Makes Course Eval System Available to other Institutions
An
innovative course evaluation system that the University
of Toronto has used for some time will now be marketed to
other
colleges and universities.
eXplorance, a company that
provides learning experience
management products, will market evalUT, which was created by the
university's Centre for Teaching
Support and Innovation.
The course evaluation framework uses
a cascaded approach to measure learning metrics. By incorporating
multiple
levels of evaluation into a single form, the model enables any
institution to
include questions from divisions, departments and individual
instructors.
Meeting
differing priorities, the approach enables a
centralized evaluation and data control process with the ability to
preserve
autonomy. The result is an effective framework that directly addresses
educational priorities and enhances assessments and reports. The hope
is that
the framework can eliminate the problems that come with a
one-size-fits-all
course assessment program and the subjective qualities of a system
created by
and for individual instructors.
The
program can include a set
of universal questions that reflect
the overall teaching and learning priorities of the institution. It
could also
have questions that are developed by the dean or divisional committee
that
address faculty priorities.
Next
would be questions that are created by the department
head or teaching and learning committee to gather department-specific
data. Finally,
certain questions can be selected by the individual instructor from a
validated
item bank to obtain data on teaching effectiveness.
"To
make constructive decisions, educational institutions
cannot simply rely on a bank of reliable and valid standardized
questions," said
Professor Susan McCahan, vice provost for innovations in undergraduate
education at the University of Toronto. "It is critical to ensure that
the
process of collecting feedback is in line with the institution's
educational
goals so that decisions are made according to what is truly important."
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.