Student feedback from course evaluations at IU is now available online for nearly every class through the One.IU application seven years after the process to implement a course evaluation system began.
The app, called OCQ Student Dashboard, organizes evaluations so students can search for a course and see how other students rated professor enthusiasm, course time commitment and other factors.
“The goal is not to help students find classes that don’t have work, but rather them help manage their time,” said Dennis Groth, vice provost for undergraduate education.
The app is similar to ratemyprofessors.com, but contains no written student comments, only ratings by students on five criteria. Student evaluators’ identities are not included, either.
Groth said he thinks of the app as more reliable than a website like ratemyprofessors.com because the data comes from real student course evaluations instead of unknown people online.
“The long-term value of this comes from students using it, seeing it’s valuable and completing their OCQ,” Groth said.
Data collection began in 2013, but it took until last fall to get input from all departments on the app.
OCQ Student Dashboard now contains more than 200,000 individual evaluations from last school year.
Judy Ouimet, senior assistant vice provost for undergraduate education, said she believes the number could exceed 300,000 if more students completed their end of course evaluations.
“We needed to collect data before we could put anything out there,” Ouimet said. “Now we have a strong foundation.”
Groth said students who worked with their department on the app found it to be useful, but the continuing usefulness of the app depends on students.
“If students want to get more from it, they need to put more into it,” Groth said.
