Abstract
We analyzed Student Evaluations of Instruction (SEIs) from about 6000 sections over four years representing over 100,000 students at Georgia State University's Robinson College of Business, to look for factors other than instructional attributes that might have an impact on the scores. We looked at environmental factors like semester, time of day, location, and instructor attributes like gender, and rank. These were analyzed across four segments created by course level (graduate and undergraduate) and course type (core and non-core). We found that several of the factors had varying degrees of impact on overall evaluation of an instructor. Summer semester ratings were higher than in Spring, which were higher than those in Fall. Time of day and classroom location mattered, though not in a consistent way across the segments. Undergraduates rated female instructors higher, while graduates rated male instructors higher on average. Instructor rank mattered, with non-tenure track faculty generally outperforming others (although there were small variations in results).
Location
Room 2904
Recommended Citation
Nargundkar, Satish and Shrikhande, Milind, "Norming of Student Evaluations of Instruction: Impact of Non-Instructional Factors" (2012). SoTL Commons Conference. 5.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/sotlcommons/SoTL/2012/5
Norming of Student Evaluations of Instruction: Impact of Non-Instructional Factors
Room 2904
We analyzed Student Evaluations of Instruction (SEIs) from about 6000 sections over four years representing over 100,000 students at Georgia State University's Robinson College of Business, to look for factors other than instructional attributes that might have an impact on the scores. We looked at environmental factors like semester, time of day, location, and instructor attributes like gender, and rank. These were analyzed across four segments created by course level (graduate and undergraduate) and course type (core and non-core). We found that several of the factors had varying degrees of impact on overall evaluation of an instructor. Summer semester ratings were higher than in Spring, which were higher than those in Fall. Time of day and classroom location mattered, though not in a consistent way across the segments. Undergraduates rated female instructors higher, while graduates rated male instructors higher on average. Instructor rank mattered, with non-tenure track faculty generally outperforming others (although there were small variations in results).
