It happens that students are very unpleasant and mean in their comments about an education or a teacher, in their course evaluations. They do not always seem to think that there is a person behind that who receives these comments. But since students are asked to put in their time and commitment to give their comments, we also need to listen to what they are saying. Students' comments are an important part of the course development process and can provide inspiration for development, but nasty comments rarely bring anything good with them.

Klara Bolander Laksov, Professor of Higher Education, gives her view on course evaluations and reflects on different ways to go about dealing with and counteracting unpleasant and destructive comments in your course evaluations.

A human filter

One way is to assign a person, such as the director of studies, to act as a filter and read the comments. This person can have a meeting with the teachers about what has come up in the comments that is positive and what is negative. Of course, one can also imagine that the comments are sent to the teachers, but that they are always discussed together with the director of studies in confidentiality. The problem with this approach, however, is that one preserves the view of teaching as an individual concern, instead of broadening the responsibility regarding both successes and failures in teaching to something that is shared in the teaching team.

Course development as a common concern

Another way to look at it is to see that teaching is not a teacher's personal matter, but a shared matter. This means that course evaluations are a common concern. When an individual receives negative feedback, it is the responsibility of the whole group to create conditions and develop the teaching so that this does not happen again. Of course, it's a bit tough for the person who gets the comments, but if everyone is helping, there is the possibility that the comments next time will be different.

Ask for constructive suggestions

You also have to keep in mind that the comments can come in different formats. If you only have one box where students can comment, anything can come. But if you ask for constructive suggestions, it can be angled to contribute to the development of teaching. Some tips to create as good conditions as possible come here.

A suggestion is to let the students talk to each other about the course evaluation questions, for example in groups of 3-4, before they fill in the course evaluation, and then have a short oral review if there is something special they want to raise.

Another suggestion is to enter formative course evaluations one or more times during the course. It does not have to be a long form. There can be two questions, for example in Zoom's poll function, or as a short survey in Athena.

You can ask the following questions:

1. I wish the teachers to continued with the following in the course:

2. I want the teachers to start doing the following in the course:

You can also add questions that clarify students’ own responsibility:

1. I will continue doing this regarding my participation in the course:

2. I will start doing this regarding my participation in the course:

Continuous oral feedback

Other ways are to appoint some students at the beginning of the course whose task is to capture the other students' views and pass them on orally in meetings with the teachers once or a few times during the course. This becomes especially easy if, for example, you work with Supplemental Instruction, where the SI leaders (older course participants who hold study groups) can become an important channel for the teachers to get feedback regarding both the course structure and content.