Online Evaluation Proposal

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Background

The Board of Regents requires that every faculty member be evaluated by students in a standardized way. The collection of this data has traditionally been done using paper scan forms which are collected and processed by the Office of ?????. Over the past two years, the College of Medicine has moved to a paperless evaluation system using the World Wide Web. In doing so, we have realized significant cost reduction and improvement of the data we collect. However, we must then extract the BOR data after the fact, a very labor-intensive process. Other health science colleges have expressed interest in using our system, but this is hampered by the need to collect BOR data on paper.

Proposal

After conferring with Susan Legg and Victor Yellen (sp?, the Colleges of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing would like to propose the following pilot project. The College of Medicine will modify its eval.cgi online evaluation system to include a special "BOR" question type. The system will record data from these questions in a separate "BOR" data file. In effect, this will create a "form within a form" and allow transparent collection of BOR items embedded on any evaluation. These data will be collected in a format specified by the Office of ????? to be directly read into their database. If successful, we anticipate that this approach will save significant amounts of time and money for all concerned.

Special Concerns

1. Several people have expressed concern over the potential for decreased response rates using this system. Over the past two years, our experience has been just the opposite. Course directors and administrators are able to check for compliance at any time. Each form will accept the special "stats" ID code, which produces a up-to-the minute report on who has and has not submitted the form. We then provide the necessary incentive to ensure whatever return rate we desire, often 100%.
2. Anonymity is always an important concern. We have gone to great lengths to preserve student anonymity when desired. The system is able to authenticate students using private ID codes without recording the student's identity in the primary data files. There is no way for us to associate a submission with a specific student after-the-fact. If written comments are included, the online system is far superior to paper-based forms where the student's handwriting may be recognized.