NORMAL, Ill. – As the semester wraps up, Illinois State University students are preparing to complete their end-of-semester teaching feedback surveys. This year, the School of Communication is shifting to a fully online format.
Dr. Aimee Miller-Ott, the director of the School of Communication, explained that the change began when the university stopped offering services to process Scantron course evaluations. With hundreds of course sections to manage, the school decided the most practical solution was to move everything online.
Professors and teaching assistants will now provide students with QR codes and links so they can complete the surveys on their phones or computers.
“Our GTAs are still using the old instrument, but the students are completing them online,” Miller-Ott said.
She also noted that the new survey is shorter and more streamlined. “It is about seven close-ended items compared to the twenty there were before, plus some open-ended questions. Hopefully it will capture what it did before without taking as long.”
However, research shows that online surveys often result in lower response rates, especially at the end of a busy semester.
“Students are not as likely to fill it out when you do it that way,” Miller-Ott said.
One advantage of the new format is that professors can now receive completed surveys by the very end of the semester.