Read course evaluations

Incoming first-years and other students lost at sea within the course catalog may have just been tossed a lifeline, thanks to Senate's efforts at putting together course evaluation guidebooks.

Although normal and extended registration has been completed, next fall's new students will be able to quickly find information about the classes they're thinking of taking and if they can live up to their expectations.

At the end of last semester, the Senate sent an all-campus mailing that included an evaluation form upon which students could provide their reactions to professors and classes which they had during the semester. There were specific questions on the form, but also opportunities for students to write their own comments. All the information collected was then put in the reserve room so students could access it, along with syllabi from previous years.

"We're encouraging students to participate. There was a fairly low response last semester," according to sophomore senator Erika Hansen, who was co-chair of the Course Evaluations Guidebook advisory council in the senate, which investigate and implemented this policy. The only way for the guidebooks to be truly effective is if many people write evaluations. Hansen said, "If we get enough data we can do statistics such as how many hours outside of class students tend to do work for that class, things like that. But for that kind of stuff we need a substantial amount of data."

According to first-year senator Chris Anton, they got a lot of help from Politics Professor Paul Dawson, who had all of his students fill out the evaluation before he would release grades to a student. Anton said, "He's such a student rights activist."

The guidebooks might seem a little redundant since students also have course catalogs to consult. Economics Professor Hirschel Kasper thought they were adequate. "Students get an idea and it's not misleading in any way. There's a rough discussion of the topics that will be covered and most students have access to a lot of information among friends as to what really goes on in a course. Students are usually flexible; they adjust to the course or they drop it. It's kind of natural."

However, Hansen doesn't agree. "The course catalog just says what's on the syllabus, doesn't say anything about the way in which professors teach their course. It doesn't really state how many hours you'll be doing. I don't think professors ever have a clear understanding of how much work students do outside of class." One objection is that students could just use the add/drop period to customize their schedule for their personalities. But most first-years don't know what to expect at all from their classes, and most students can't get a clear idea of what their classes will be like later on in the semester from their first couple of meetings. Hansen said, "I know that I can't really gauge if I'm going to like the class by going to the first couple meetings; you can't really gauge the group dynamic, the teachers style, and that sort of thing."

These guidebooks may be especially helpful to first-years who don't have friends to discuss their most loved classes or most dreaded professor with. According to Hansen, this policy is in place at other schools with much success, and some research has even been done regarding concerns of students' honesty on evaluations. It has been found that students' evaluations are not directly related to their grade in the class. Hansen said "Students know how to be fair and honest and answer these questions correctly." Besides, Oberlin students are usually pretty blunt with their opinions of professors, "If they like a professor, they tend to rave about it. If they don't, they'll say it."