Online Student Evaluations and Response Rates Reconsidered.

Abstract

Education (OnSET) Web resource has not been without controversy. The major concern voiced about online course evaluations is reduced response rates from the students. However, our experience with online student course evaluations suggests that such concerns mask a more pressing problem. A diminished response rate to course evaluations has less to do with the method of distribution than it does with faculty and student engagement, particularly since engagement reflects the efficacy of evaluation. Because student evaluations are so pervasive in use and so predominant in educational research, the lack of engagement with the evaluation process is ironic. For example, Stronge (1997) identifies student ratings as the most frequently studied aspect of education, and yet at the same time, he also notes the root of the challenge—the ineffective use of student ratings. Stronge argues that central to this problem is the lack of faculty development related to the interpetation and requisite responses to student ratings. Theall and Franklin (2000) likewise confirm that, in spite of mountains of research on student evaluations, the use of such evaluations remains inadequate. In this context the role of online delivery in student evaluations deserves further consideration as both a potential means of enhancing the process and making it more relevant to the concerns of instructors as well as students. In what follows we provide an overview of the reasons why the evaluation process has failed to elicit sufficient