Determining Course Evaluation Response Rate Guidelines Using Local Institutional Data to Inform Interpretation and Use by Organizational Stakeholders

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 20
  In Roundtable Session: Understanding and Examining Student Evaluations of Faculty Teaching

Abstract

It is important to support organizational stakeholders’ valid use and interpretation of course evaluation data. Response rates are of particular concern as low response rates may negatively affect the precision of observed data. Past guidelines have outlined target response rates for different course sizes based on theoretical distributions. We created guidelines based on local data and which focus on estimated confidence intervals to provide a more nuanced representation of relative precision for given response rates and course sizes. Faculties were grouped into two clusters using cluster analysis, and different response rate guidelines were generated for each. We discuss how this work prompted practical discussions and changes. As well, we describe how this method can be adopted by other institutions.

Authors

• Gregory Hum, University of Toronto

• Tamara M Rosner, University of Toronto

• Carol N. Rolheiser, OISE/University of Toronto