Evaluations for a better class experience

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Lauren Stevens '18

Senior Ashten Wheeler works on her computer in Broadcast Journalism.

A major class feature that universities have, but Xavier does not, is teacher and course evaluations. Unfortunately at Xavier, generally the only feedback administration will hear about a certain course is through a complaint. Administration will not hear about the positives or what could be done better about a course unless a student goes out of her way to report this information.

On the other side, many students are too scared to report to administration if they do not believe a class was run to its full efficiency or if they had a bad experience in the class – especially because emailing to administration cannot be anonymous.

Now, there is a third party site that allows students and parents to rate the school and teachers. But after reading various comments, it is apparent that students only comment on teachers when they feel passionate about the class and/or teacher – whether it was a good experience or bad.

Senior Madison Kloeber said, “I think, in the right context, student feedback can be beneficial. Students are constantly receiving feedback from teachers, counselors, and adults in general so that we can continue to grow as young adults. To me, there is something to be gained from hearing what students have to say about their experience in the classrooms of Xavier. Classrooms are learning environments, but ideally the student is not the only one learning, in my opinion. Oftentimes my best experiences with teachers were ones who were open to feedback because they wanted to know how they could be better teachers.”

If administration were to require at the end of the school year, a form for students to fill out about their experience in the class, the school would receive a general consensus on how the class worked out for students and what could be improved for the coming years. This would not only make the future students more happy, but also more successful in the classroom.