Student Experiences of Teaching

• The TLC is undertaking the initiative to reframe this approach to evaluation and improve SETs, and has gained significant traction at UCLA due to growing interest in the documentation of teaching effectiveness. Following a comprehensive review of the practices at nine major research universities, a committee of distinguished faculty (the Faculty Committee on Student Experiences of Teaching) in conjunction with the TLC has developed a new evaluation form. The purpose of the form is to improve SETs by providing a more reflective assessment of student achievement and inclusive teaching practices, as well as providing instructors with more meaningful feedback regarding their teaching effectiveness.

Goals and Features

The new form aims to provide evidence of course and faculty effectiveness based on the articulation, understanding, and realization of goals set forth by the instructor. It also strives to incorporate more open-ended questions throughout to strengthen the capture of qualitative data and provide more contextualized and constructive feedback to instructors. It removes overall questions since such rankings are not necessarily reflective of learning and can be biased by such considerations as instructor charisma, gender, ethnicity, and students’ anticipated grades. 

New questions are focused on three major themes:

• Did the course structure allow students to achieve the learning goals and demonstrate this achievement?
• Were students actively engaged and feel included?
• Did the course provide an opportunity for growth?

Another feature of the proposed form allows instructors to add customized learning questions (both closed and open-ended) to solicit feedback on specific aspects of their course.

Current Participants

Life Sciences
Urban Planning
Sociology
School of Arts and Architecture