Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology
‘Your voice counts’: Understanding how online student evaluations encourage lecturers’ pedagogies during the COVID-19 pandemic
Kershnee Sevnarayan 1 *
More Detail
1 University of South Africa, South Africa
* Corresponding Author
Open Access Full Text (PDF)
ARTICLE INFO

Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology, 2022 - Volume 4 Issue 2, pp. 86-99
https://doi.org/10.33902/JPSP.202218458

Article Type: Research Article

Published Online: 31 Dec 2022

Views: 818 | Downloads: 402

ABSTRACT
Student evaluations are used frequently within higher education institutions, as lecturers are expected to respond to these in a way that improves course delivery and addresses students’ concerns. The purpose of this article was to understand how online student evaluations encourage lecturers’ pedagogies in a comprehensive open distance and e-Learning university in South Africa. This article argues that student pre-evaluation questions, which are posted on the learning management system at the beginning of a course, may reduce the transactional distance in a module, if implemented correctly. This qualitative study makes use of documentary analysis, email interviews, and an observation schedule to (1) understand the pedagogical shifts first year students require in student evaluations, (2) explore if student evaluations encourage lecturers to alter their pedagogies and, (3) to investigate the impact of student evaluations on lecturer pedagogies. Moore’s theory of transactional distance was used to analyse the findings in this study. The findings revealed that students are very vocal in online student evaluations as they aware of their pedagogical needs in a module and lecturers were encouraged and influenced by the student evaluations. The results may inform teaching and policy decisions as more institutions transition to online course evaluation collection methods, particularly given the restrictions imposed by the current COVID-19 crisis. Suggestions for future research include examining the usability of student evaluation comments as well as trends in student feedback quality following the transition to emergency remote teaching during the global pandemic.
KEYWORDS
student evaluations online learning distance learning quality assurance
In-text citation: (Sevnarayan, 2022)
Reference: Sevnarayan, K. (2022). ‘Your voice counts’: Understanding how online student evaluations encourage lecturers’ pedagogies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology, 4(2), 86-99. https://doi.org/10.33902/JPSP.202218458
In-text citation: (1), (2), (3), etc.
Reference: Sevnarayan K. ‘Your voice counts’: Understanding how online student evaluations encourage lecturers’ pedagogies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology. 2022;4(2), 86-99. https://doi.org/10.33902/JPSP.202218458
In-text citation: (1), (2), (3), etc.
Reference: Sevnarayan K. ‘Your voice counts’: Understanding how online student evaluations encourage lecturers’ pedagogies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology. 2022;4(2):86-99. https://doi.org/10.33902/JPSP.202218458
In-text citation: (Sevnarayan, 2022)
Reference: Sevnarayan, Kershnee. "‘Your voice counts’: Understanding how online student evaluations encourage lecturers’ pedagogies during the COVID-19 pandemic". Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology 2022 4 no. 2 (2022): 86-99. https://doi.org/10.33902/JPSP.202218458
In-text citation: (Sevnarayan, 2022)
Reference: Sevnarayan, K. (2022). ‘Your voice counts’: Understanding how online student evaluations encourage lecturers’ pedagogies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology, 4(2), pp. 86-99. https://doi.org/10.33902/JPSP.202218458
In-text citation: (Sevnarayan, 2022)
Reference: Sevnarayan, Kershnee "‘Your voice counts’: Understanding how online student evaluations encourage lecturers’ pedagogies during the COVID-19 pandemic". Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology, vol. 4, no. 2, 2022, pp. 86-99. https://doi.org/10.33902/JPSP.202218458
REFERENCES
  • Bell, K. (2022). Increasing undergraduate student satisfaction in Higher Education: the importance of relational pedagogy, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 46(4), 490-503, https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2021.1985980
  • Borch, I., Sandvoll, R., & Risør, T. (2020). Discrepancies in purposes of student course evaluations: what does it mean to be “satisfied”? Educ Asse Eval Acc, 32, 83–102 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-020-09315-x
  • Carpenter, S.K., Witherby, A.E., & Tauber, S.K. (2020). “On Students’ (Mis)Judgments of Learning and Teaching Effectiveness” Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 9(2), 137–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2019.12.009
  • Castleberry, A., & Nolen, A. (2018). Thematic analysis of qualitative research data: Is it as easy as it sounds? Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, 10(6), 807-815. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cptl.2018.03.019
  • Creswell, J.W., & Poth, C.N. (2018). Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches (4th ed.). Sage.
  • Dusi, D., & Huisman, J. (2020). It’s more complex than it seems! employing the concept of prosumption to grasp the heterogeneity and complexity of student roles in higher education. Higher Education, 81, 935-948. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00588-1 .
  • Garris, C.P., & Fleck, B. (2022). Student evaluations of transitioned-online courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 8(2), 119–139. https://doi.org/10.1037/stl0000229
  • Holloway, I., & Galvin, K. (2016). Qualitative research in nursing and healthcare (4th ed.). Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Jones, B. D., Miyazaki, Y., Li, M., & Biscotte, S. (2022). Motivational climate predicts student evaluations of teaching: relationships between students’ course perceptions, ease of course, and evaluations of teaching. AERA Open, 8. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584211073167
  • Langan, A.M., & Harris, W.E. (2019). National student survey metrics: where is the room for improvement? Higher Education, 78(6), 1075–89. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00389-1
  • Lowe, W. (2000). Transactional distance theory as a foundation for developing innovative and reactive instruction. Educational Technology and Society, 3(1), 1-3.
  • Maiyo, J.K. (2018). Selected papers on the state of university education in Kenya. Commission for university education.
  • Moore, M.G. (1993). Theory of transactional distance. In D. Keegan (Ed.), Theoretical principles of distance education (pp. 22-29). Routledge.
  • Plante, S., LeSage, A., & Kay, R. (2022). Examining Online Course Evaluations and the Quality of Student Feedback: A Review of the Literature. Journal of Educational Informatics, 3(1), 21–31. https://doi.org/10.51357/jei.v3i1.182
  • Raman, R., & Nedungadi, P. (2020). Adoption of Web-Enabled Student Evaluation of Teaching (WESET). International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, 15(24), 191–207. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v15i24.17159
  • Serin, H. (2019). Student Evaluations of Teaching Effectiveness: An Instrument to Increase Teaching Quality in Higher Education. International Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies, 5(4).168-173. https://ijsses.tiu.edu.iq/index.php/volume-5-issue-4-article-14/
  • Sevnarayan, K. (2022). Reimaging eLearning technologies to support students: On reducing transactional distance at an open and distance eLearning institution. E-Learning and Digital Media, 19(4), 421–439. https://doi.org/10.1177/20427530221096535
  • Simpson, P.M., & Siguaw, J.A. (2000). Student evaluations of teaching: An exploratory study of the faculty response. Journal of Marketing Education, 22, 199–213.
  • Swart, W., & MacLeod, K. (2021). Evaluating learning space designs for flipped and collaborative learning: a transactional distance approach. Education Sciences, 11(6), 292, http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/educsci11060292
  • Winstone, N.E., Ajjawi, R., Dirkx, K., & Boud, D. (2022). Measuring what matters: the positioning of students in feedback processes within national student satisfaction surveys, Studies in Higher Education, 47(7), 1524-1536, https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2021.1916909
  • Youmans, R.J., & Lee, B.D. (2007). Fudging the numbers: distributing chocolate influences student evaluations of an undergraduate course. Teaching of Psychology, 34(4), 245–247. https://doi.org/10.1080/00986280701700318
  • Zhang, A. M. (2003). Transactional distance in web-based college learning environments: Toward measurement and theory construction [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Commonwealth University, Virginia.
LICENSE
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.