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Faculty Senate Teaching Council Survey
of the
Campus Teaching Evaluation Program (CTEP)

Conducted by
the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment
Jo Lynch, CTEP Coordinator
Patrick Nackley, Graduate Assistant
July 1999

Introduction:

In late April 1999, the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment conducted a survey on the Campus Teaching Evaluation Program (CTEP) on behalf of the Teaching Council of the Faculty Senate. Initially adopted for a three year period that began Fall Semester 1995, CTEP received a two year extension by the Senate in Spring 1998, so that the current CTEP could be reviewed thoroughly.

Due to time constraints, the questionnaire was administered by a single campus mailing. Included in the sample were all persons with teaching responsibilities in the Spring 1999 Semester: Graduate Teaching Associates and Assistants, tenure-track faculty, tenured faculty, instructors and lecturers, and emeritus faculty for a total sample size of 2,489. The number of questionnaires returned was 662, for a return rate of 26.6 percent. Included in the report that follows are both the quantitative analysis of the results, including percentage breakdowns and mean frequencies as well as a qualitative analysis of two open-ended questions.

Campus Teaching Evaluation Program (CTEP) Review Questionnaire

Open-ended responses:

14. How do you decide which of the eight CTEP forms to administer for each course you teach?

15. What specific recommendations or comments do you have regarding a student teaching evaluation program or the current CTEP?

Background Information:

Please indicate the course level(s) and class size(s) you teach in a typical year:

16.

	100-200	300-400	500-600
Course level(s)	1	2	3

17.

	1-10	11-25	26-50	51-100	over 100
Course size(s)	1	2	3	4	5

18. Which of the following best describes your position? Circle One

19. At what point in the semester do you usually administer CTEP? Circle One

Please complete the following items:

20. Your college ____________________________

21. How much class time do you normally provide for administering CTEP? (in minutes) ____________

Thank you for your time and assistance with this project.

Campus Teaching Evaluation Program (CTEP) Review Questionnaire

Faculty Senate Teaching Council
Review of Frequencies

16. Please indicate the course level you teach in a typical year:

17. Please indicate the class size you teach in a typical year:

*Time in minutes

Campus Teaching Evaluation Program (CTEP) Review Questionnaire

Faculty Senate Teaching Council
Review of Means

(1 =Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3=Neutral, 4=Agree, 6=Strongly Agree)

1. A structured teaching evaluation should be used for classes.

2. CTEP provides useful information for tenure-promotion considerations.

3. CTEP numerical data assist teaching faculty with self-improvement.

4. CTEP student comment sheets assist teaching faculty with self-improvement.

5. CTEP currently works well for the particular courses you teach and evaluates teaching effectively.

6. The eight different evaluation forms currently available provide ample opportunity for selecting appropriate form for your class.

7. CTEP provides useful information to students regarding elective courses.

8. CTEP provides useful information to students regarding multi-section courses.

9. CTEP provides useful information to students regarding single-section courses.

10. The reported results of the CTEP evaluations are clear and easy to understand.

11. CTEP needs to be replaced by a simpler evaluation system.

12. CTEP needs to be replaced by evaluation forms developed by each unit.

13. CTEP evaluations have had an effect on how you teach your courses.

Qualitative Analysis of Questions 14 and 15

Of the 662 questionnaires returned, 475 or 72 percent answered one or both of the two open ended questions. The qualitative analysis that follows is based on the total number of responses offered for each question as indicated in summary categories. In many cases, particularly for Question 15, respondents offered more than one response for each question, with no particular order given to the importance of the responses. Therefore, the information described and percentages given are based on the total number of responses received for each question, and not necessarily on the total number of people who answered Questions 14 or 15.

The first open-ended question in the survey, Question 14 asked how each instructor decided which of the eight CTEP forms to administer for each course they taught. As indicated on the attached chart, the most common response provided was that instructors used the forms given to them by the department/unit/college (157 responses for 34%) followed closely by the instructors who chose the form most appropriate for their class format and size (139 responses for 30.1%). Roughly eight percent of the respondents (36 responses for 7.8%) said they were not offered a choice, while another eight percent of the respondents (39 responses for 8.4%) said they weren't aware they had a choice. Eight percent of the respondents also indicated their decision was based on guidelines provided by the CTEP office.

Question 15 asked what recommendations or comments instructors had regarding a student teaching evaluation program or the current CTEP. The original question actually gave respondents the opportunity to answer two ways: make comments about the current CTEP program or make suggestions about student teaching evaluations in general, or specifically the current CTEP. Due to the variety of the responses, the answers were broken down into two sections. The first section and attached chart 15a., addresses the comments about the current CTEP program, and the second chart 15b., deals with the recommendations given about the program, or evaluation programs in general. Of the 548 responses for Question 15, 262 (or 48%) of them were comments made concerning the current CTEP, and 286 (or 52%) were recommendations addressing student teaching evaluations in general or the current CTEP.

Of the respondents who made specific comments about the current CTEP, as indicated on the chart for 15a, over one-third (95 responses for 36%) thought the results showed the ease of the class, ease of the grading scale, and the popularity of the professor, rather than how well students learned. Seventeen percent (45 responses) of the instructors believed the current program did not control for student biases (such as race and gender of the instructor, student's class rank, etc), while 15 percent (38 responses) of the instructors did not believe that Tennessee 101 reported all relevant information acquired in the survey (whether a course was mandatory or elective, class rank of those being surveyed, etc.). [Note: Tennessee 101 is the Student Government Association's (SGA's) publication of the CTEP results and the format and layout of that publication is basically an SGA decision.] One out of ten of the instructors (28 responses for 11%) who made a comment about the program believed the results were not helpful to the instructors, but helpful to the students and administration.

As indicated on the chart for 15b, the most common recommendation made by the instructors concerning any student teaching evaluation program or the current CTEP (67 responses for 23%) was that the use of open-ended questions were the most helpful to them and that their use should be encouraged. Currently the Student Comment Sheets are an optional form used to supplement the mandated scan forms. Closely following the importance of open-ended questions, was the opinion that instructors wanted to see a change in methodology in administration of the current program (56 responses for 20%), and instructors who wanted forms to be class/department specific (53 responses for 19%). Finally, 13 percent of the instructors (36 responses) believe that the current program was sufficient and no change was needed.

CTEP Counts for Question #14


1. I use the forms given to us by the department/unit/college.

157

36

139

39

39

15

9

22

6

45

38

18

28

53

95

8

67

56

8

22

36

14

21

21

18