Course evaluations are important

Winter Term is finally coming to close. Once we get past the hurdles of exams, nasty weather and the stress of success, we have that sweet Spring Break to reward us.

But there is one thing often overlooked at the end of each term that should be vital for both students and instructors: course evaluations.

Course evaluations are pretty self-explanatory: You judge the class, the teacher and how you liked the whole experience. The feedback is then reviewed by the instructor whose course you’re evaluating, and their dean. The input is great, because it better informs the school about who is doing his or her job properly, and helps instructors to improve their craft.

And yet, there are a couple problems with the system. A lot of people aren’t doing them, and some teachers have the option to regularly bypass evaluations for their class.

We totally understand why course evaluations are at the very bottom of your student priority list. It’s the end of a term, which always leads to a vacation of some type (Spring Break, the winter break and summer). You’ve just finished all your (hopefully) hard work and everything not “required” of you is all background noise, at that point.

It might seem like a teeny, tiny little evaluation won’t do any good for anyone, but it will. We cannot stress enough the importance of actually doing these.

It only takes a couple minutes and can benefit you, your instructor and every person who takes that same class henceforth. You may point out something that a teacher has been doing wrong, which will improve that class and the instructor’s teaching ability. That’s awesome!

Some of us at The Advocate are guilty of dragging our feet, with completing course evaluations. But we’ve had some not-so-stellar experiences in our classes, we have discovered, and vow to be sure to have our voices heard, come the end of the term.

However, sometimes there are no evaluations to submit, which simply is not acceptable.

While all part-time instructors at Mt. Hood are required to have evaluations administered to all classes during their first six terms here, or before they total 30 credits taught, the rule is not being enforced as strictly as it should. We at The Advocate have had plenty of courses where there was never an option to submit a student evaluation.

And, after hitting that milestone, all MHCC instructors (whether full-time or part-time faculty) are required only occasionally to solicit student feedback.

We believe that course evaluations should be required, every term, for both part-time and full-time instructors, no exceptions. What if an instructor started to get lazy or faltered for a couple courses, and no one was able to call him on it?

We understand that some instructor may feel very comfortable with their current standing as an educator after doing it for a long time. But valid, constructive criticism is vital at any stage in any career.

So, while you’’re sweating over your finals, take that few minutes to fill out an evaluation and help make Mt. Hood a better place.