Information for Students
Student participation in the course evaluation process is critical to the university's commitment to quality teaching and academic excellence. You are strongly encouraged to participate in the process with constructive feedback that is relevant to teaching and course content for the following reasons:
- The course evaluation data serves as one measure of the instruction quality that is used to evaluate faculty for promotion and tenure.
- Your evaluation could help other students to find courses that suit their learning style.
- You can look at prior evaluations of courses before selecting future courses.
- Faculty will use your feedback to make valuable improvements to their course.
- University of Houston-Clear Lake can improve overall teaching by identifying common likes and dislikes in student evaluations.
Submit Course Evaluations
Each semester, UH-Clear Lake students receive emails inviting them to submit course evaluations. We appreciate your honest and constructive feedback regarding your experiences in the classroom. The evaluation site is accessible from any mobile device.
Efforts to Remove Biases in Evaluation
Research has shown that biases are common in student evaluations of teaching. Therefore, the following statement informing you about implicit biases will be included in the evaluations directions:
"Student evaluations of teaching play an important role in the review of faculty. Your opinions influence the review of instructors that takes place every year. University of Houston-Clear Lake recognizes that student evaluations of teaching are often influenced by students' unconscious and unintentional biases about the race and gender of the instructor. Women and instructors of color are systematically rated lower in their teaching evaluations than white men, even when there are no actual differences in the instruction or in what students have learned.
As you fill out the course evaluation, please keep this in mind and make an effort
to resist
stereotypes about professors. Focus on your opinions about the content of the course
(assignments, textbook, in-class material, etc.) and not unrelated matters (instructor's
appearance, etc.)."
Privacy
You will be asked to log in to the evaluation system using your UHCL credentials. All information obtained during the sign-in process will only be used to provide you access to the correct course evaluations.
When you submit an evaluation, no personally-identifiable information is stored along
with your responses. Therefore, it is not possible for anyone to associate your answers
to you personally. Your responses will not be saved or stored in any way on our servers
until you click submit.
Your instructor will not have access to the results of the evaluations until after
final grades have been submitted. Additionally, instructors can only view the aggregate
reports, not individual responses.
University of Houston-Clear Lake takes your privacy seriously. All reasonable precautions have been taken to protect it.
View Results
Course evaluations reports from previous semesters are available at the Online Evaluations Home Page without comments. Comments are only available to instructors, department chairs, and the dean.
FAQ
Why are course evaluations important?
Faculty/course evaluations are a critical component of assessing and improving teaching and instruction. By completing your course evaluations, you provide valuable feedback to your instructors and administration.
Where can I see evaluations of classes I am considering taking?
Please log in to the Evaluations webpage to view evaluation reports of prior evaluation.
Can a faculty member tell who has provided a given evaluation?
Student responses are anonymous. While the system keeps track of which students have completed the evaluations, individual student responses cannot be linked to that student. Of course, a student could make a comment that reveals their identity ("I was the only freshman, and I felt singled out," for example), but this still does not reveal responses to other questions. Faculty members do not see their course evaluation results until after grades are submitted and aggregate results are processed.
However, just because these comments are anonymous, that does not mean that your comments should be unprofessional. Abusive and/or violent comments about an instructor will be disregarded and given no consideration in the evaluation of the instructor. These types of comments are inconsistent with the values of the university.
Why don't I see text comments?
Written comments on course evaluations are not shared with other students but are kept confidential to the instructor and relevant administrators.
How are evaluations used by faculty?
Student feedback on faculty and course content are valuable elements to the improvement of UHCL's course offerings and to the professional development of our faculty. Evaluation results are used by UHCL in faculty renewal, promotion, and tenure review processes. Faculty themselves find them very useful when designing course structure, syllabi, and content, as well as for personal development.
Which evaluations are the most valuable?
Those that:
- Are respectful and professional.
- Focus on observable behaviors of the instructor or specific aspects of the course.
- Provide examples and explanations when talking about an aspect of the course or the instructor's teaching style.
- Avoid personal and emotional statements about the instructor.