After every exam period we are required to fill out course evaluations before we can check our grades. For each course we have two chances to evaluate the course, once after the midterm exams and once again after the final exams. In my opinion, the purpose of these course evaluations is to let the professor and school know how each student feels about the course second, and to make necessary improvements, if necessary. However, everytime I fill out the course evaluations, I question the effectiveness of the course evaluations.
First of all, I think that most students fill out the course evaluations only to be able to check exam grades. I don't think the students are encouraged to be honest and actually take the necessary time to think about how the course really is, because we can rarely see any significant changes in the courses that reflect our evaluation. I think the problem is that the professors have no incentive to make changes reflect the course evaluations by the students. If there were to be a system that rewards professors with good course evaluations, I think that it would encourage the professors to consider the course evaluations more. Also I think that this would act as an incentive for professors to continue to make positive changes. This may, in turn, also encourage the students to take the course evaluations more seriously.
Another problem I found with the evaluations is the questions. All courses are evaluated in the same way with the same questionnaire. This is neither a thorough nor an effective method to evaluate courses. Because each course is different depending on the major or method of teaching, I think different courses should be evaluated differently with different questions.
I agree with you. There are problems with the current course evaluations. Students are forced to evaluate the course in order to check their exam scores. This may annoy some students and it is likely that they would carelessly rate scores (randomly) so they can finish the evaluation fast and check their exam scores. Then, the results will not be so relevant to the fact and the whole evaluation would be pointless. Students should be able to make evaluations at their will and at their preferred time, not 'forced' before checking one's exam results. Also, the questions should be changed reflecting the differences between courses. Some questions are meaningless to some lectures (for example, like a question that is only relevant to foreign language lectures and not others) but students still have to mark it (give any score) to finish and submit the evaluation.
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