Student Opinion Survey
Criteria for evaluating submitted departmental questions
(list of common reasons why questions may not be approved by Improvement of Instruction)
- Closed-ended question
- fixed set of responses
- Fails to use the proper scale
- needs to align with response options used in standard questions
- Lacks relevance
- targets instruction & how to improve it (not personnel or dept-level issue/assessment)
- Avoids personal aspects or characteristics of instructor
- “The instructor is pleasant and approachable.
- Instruction/item targeted in question is outside of instructor’s control
- instructor held accountable for instruction/equip/materials that required to use
- e.g., instructor doesn’t have control over the equipment, textbook choices, etc.
- Fairness
- students have the expertise to evaluate some aspect of instruction
- e.g., students think [topic] not useful or necessary, but instructor knows it is
- e.g., students don’t have pedagogical background to evaluate instructional strategy
- Biased (against instructor): Prejudice against aspect of instructor
- Gender, race, non-native English speakers, background, etc. may be interpreted differently per instructor’s attributes & characteristics
- Biased (against student): may elicit different answers from different student groups
- Gender, race, non-native English speakers, background, etc. may be interpreted differently per student’s attributes & characteristics
- Leading questions
- question suggests the desired answer in the way it is worded
- Includes ‘hard to disagree with’ statements
- Double-barreled
- more than one thing is being asked about in the same question
- Not actionable
- lacks guidance to instructors on how to improve specific aspects of their instruction
- Question lacks clarity
Testing Services
Polk Library, Lower Level - Room 4
801 Elmwood Avenue, Oshkosh, WI 54901
Contact Us
Phone: (920) 424-1432
Email: oshtesting@uwosh.edu