Student Course Evaluations
The Academic Affairs Department administers course evaluations across all Graziadio campuses and programs on a regular basis. The course evaluations ask students to reflect on course quality, pedagogy, instructor preparedness, and responsiveness. The evaluations consist of a standard set of questions and prompt students to enter additional comments. All evaluations are sent to students through their Pepperdine email addresses. A link in the email directs the student to the course evaluation in WaveNet. Students are notified via email when the course evaluations are open. Students can also access the course evaluation through their WaveNet account. They will also receive reminder emails every other day if they have not completed the survey.
Faculty members will receive a course evaluation notification by email at the beginning of the term. Additional notifications are sent while the evaluations are open and will indicate the ratio of students that have completed the survey. To maintain confidentiality, Academic Affairs is unable to distribute the names of students who have completed the survey to instructors. However, students have the option of notifying the instructor of the course that they have completed the survey on their end. This is presented as an option (check box) within the software once the survey is completed.
Evaluation Open and Close Dates
The evaluation schedule is generated prior to the start of the term based on the course end date. All regular course evaluations are available to students for 7 days. These evaluations will be open during the last week of the term. Effective Spring 2024, the course evaluation period for Part-time, Full-Time, and Online programs will open one week (7 days) before the last date of the class and close on the last date of the class. They will open at the 7-day mark before the last course meeting date and close the night of the last class meeting. The simulation courses follow the same evaluation period as set for Part-Time programs, and close on the day of the last class meeting. For executive programs courses, the evaluations will open 3 days before the last course meeting date and close 3 days after the last course meeting date.
Evaluation Date Changes
We are unable to make individual adjustments to the course evaluation schedule as it may affect a student's final grade release date.
Viewing Student Evaluation Feedback
The aggregated results of all student course evaluations for the term are released to faculty 7 days after the last final grade due date that is set for the full-term courses. Faculty are able to access their complete evaluation schedule, preview the surveys, and view the results in the course evaluation system. To access the online course evaluation system, log in to WaveNet and ensure "view as faculty" is selected. Select the "Academic Resources" menu and select the "Online Course Evaluations" link.
Academic Integrity and Course Evaluations
If a faculty member identifies a violation of academic integrity, the faculty member may request to the course evaluation administrator that the student's evaluation be removed. The request must be approved by the Department Chair and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs along with confirmation the violation is documented in the student's file.
Digital Campus Course Evaluation Process
Each term Digital Campus sends course quality surveys to all students enrolled in online programs and calculates an NPS (Net Promoter Score) for each class section. This is in addition to the PGBS course evaluation that we use internally. The Digital Campus course evaluation process only applies to the online programs and courses supported by Digital Campus.
- Students are asked to rate on a 1-10 scale the likelihood that they would recommend the program, course, Student Service Advisor (SSA), technology, and faculty member to a friend. This data is analyzed using an NPS score methodology. Students also have the opportunity to provide qualitative feedback.
- Surveys are distributed 2 weeks before the end of the term. The surveys are open for two weeks and will close at the end of the term.
- Digital Campus shares the survey results with department chairs and the online program's chair. Course level feedback is shared with course leads, and program level feedback is shared with program committees.
- Digital Campus course evaluations and NPS scores do not count towards annual faculty evaluations and are not recorded in annual reviews.
- Online Program students receive both the Digital Campus and PGBS end-of-term surveys. Instructors are encouraged to highlight the difference between the surveys and explain why the two distinct instruments are important for data collection.
Best Practices for Encouraging Students to Complete Evals
- Use time in class to call attention to the course evaluation, review the course material covered throughout the term and offer time for students to complete evaluations using a laptop or mobile device as long as it is not disruptive to your lesson plan.
- Monitor the response rate throughout the survey window, which will be sent as an automated email throughout the survey period and can be monitored by logging into the course evaluation interface in WaveNet. Use the real-time response rate to further prompt students to complete their surveys, and provide additional encouragement.
- Inform students about the purpose of evaluations:
- Explain how faculty can use feedback to understand what students view as most effective in the course
- Let students know that you will use their feedback to make updates to the course.
- Give students some examples of useful feedback you have received in the past, and how the course has benefited in response.
- Make it an assignment on your syllabus: List the course evaluation in the same category as the other course assignments, however, no grade points should be at stake, as the course evaluation does not measure student achievement on the course learning outcomes.
- Offer incentives for students to encourage a broad and representative response. Examples
of incentives may include:
- Offer an incentive of up to an additional 1% of extra credit points (of overall grade) to all students for completion of the survey or if a set response rate is achieved.
- Faculty have the option of requesting evidence that an evaluation has been completed. This can be done by asking the students to check "Send proof of evaluation" at the end of the survey within the CoursEval interface.
- Incentives should not be punitive, such as lowering a student's grade or deducting participation points as a consequence of not completing the evaluation.