Measuring Learning: The Ultimate Teaching Evaluation

Teacher Evaulation Methods

Better Ways to Measure Student Learning – and Your Performance

Currently, student ratings are the most common way to assess teaching effectiveness.

But using only student evaluations for faculty review can be problematic. Student ratings aren’t the best measures of student learning, and when faculty careers depend on student satisfaction, educators may feel driven to keep students happy, rather than make sure they’re learning.

However, there are methods you can use to measure student learning and counterbalance student ratings. Learn how in this seminar as Linda B. Nilson, Ph.D., founding director of the Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation at Clemson University, demonstrates how to use testing for more than grades.

What You’ll Learn

Stressing the importance of measuring student learning and aggregating the results, Nilson will show:

How to adapt tests and instruments to serve as evidence of students’ learning
How to give this evidence a number, so others can use it easily
How to submit this evidence for faculty review, to balance student ratings.

Different Methods for Different Disciplines

You’ll learn measures of student learning you can tailor to your subject matter and course level, such as the following end-of-course measurements:

Integrative essay or journal entry
Targeted essay questions
Survey of students’ perceived learning.

Tests for the beginning and end of your course include:

A first, ungraded assignment, later corrected for a grade
Giving your final the first week of class (ungraded), repeating it at the end of the session for a grade, and comparing results
Surveying students’ confidence about knowledge of course material.

How the Measuring Learning: The Ultimate Teaching Evaluation Works

With more than one-third of this session devoted to learning activities Dr. Nilson will guide you through the following steps:

Reviewing the validity of student ratings as indicators of teaching effectiveness
Examination of successful student learning measurements
Adapting instruments for your own use
Polling of preferred formats

You’ll receive sample documents and additional resources with more detail on recommended measures.

Who Should View

This is an intermediate level seminar, and will help all higher education faculty members interested in improving assessment of teaching effectiveness.

Deans, provosts, academic vice presidents and department chairs who evaluate their faculty’s teaching effectiveness will find this seminar invaluable.

About the Presenter

Linda Nilson, Ph.D., has published extensively and presented nationally and internationally on teaching effectiveness, assessment and academic career matters. She is the founding director of the Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation (OTEI) at Clemson University and author of Teaching at Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors, now in its third edition (Jossey-Bass, 2010). Dr. Nilson has a Ph.D. and M.S. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a B.A. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Make Teaching Effectiveness a Campus-Wide Priority

As a participant in a Magna Audio Online Seminar, you’ll get a copy of the Discussion Guide for Facilitators, to help you implement what you learn and share best practices with colleagues. Since Magna’s audio online seminar fees are assessed on a per site basis – not per person – everyone concerned with student ratings and teaching assessment can attend from one location for one low fee.

The Discussion Guide for Facilitators

To help you spread the word about professional integrity for students, you’ll get a copy of the Discussion Guide for Facilitators. With tips on putting the strategies you’ve learned to work, promoting campus-wide discussion and sharing best practices, this guide can help you create a culture of integrity on your campus.

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