Who's the customer : an external review of academic evaluation

Abstract

Evaluation of instructors and courses is becoming more deeply embedded in our system of higher education, yet has been regarded as both problematic and unsystematic.

This study investigated course and faculty evaluation methods currently employed in Higher Education Courses, at 3 institutions in Nova Scotia. Fourteen (14) courses were investigated; six (6) at Nova Scotia Teachers College, in Truro, five (5) at Nova Scotia Agricultural College, in Truro, three (3) at Saint Mary's University, in Halifax.

There was significant difference between Individual Courses in most areas including "Instructor's mastery over subject matter", "Course evaluations consisted of", "Course was?". This would indicate a broad inconsistency in learning and course evaluation methods employed throughout all institutions.

Even though there was an indication by many instructors that they are now conducting more in-depth evaluations of their courses, the format still used consisted of a form to fill out at the end of the course. This would support the belief that the present systems of evaluation are infrequent and untimely.