With the second round of mid-terms fast approaching, and many students already thinking about spring classes, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate is working to help students with the registration process. This fall will mark the third year of the TCU online Course Evaluation Guide, upgraded to include more content, ratings, and student comments on classes and professors.
The guide is part of a University-wide effort to streamline the registration process that began last April, when many students registered for their fall classes online - a process that eliminated many bureaucratic steps and much paperwork.
"When I was a freshman I had to get a [course listing] newspaper, and many forms," said Senate Education Committee member, senior Paul Fridman. "Now, it's much easier, and if students are unsure about a class, it's good for them to see how it's been rated by other students," he said.
The ratings and evaluations collected by departments are compiled each year by the TCU Senate Education Committee, which is composed of six senators. Education Committee Chair Abbey Wilson believes the guide will be very helpful to students.
"It's very accessible now. We used to print booklets, but the web format makes it easier to use and search," said Wilson. "It's a valuable resource to the Tufts community."
One of the larger problems that still prevalent in this semester's guide is the lack of student comments. When students evaluate a class, they rate the course content and teacher on a one to five scale, but also have the ability to make written comments. While the departments readily turn over the numbers to the Registrar's office, and ultimately to the Senate Education Committee, they keep student comments confidential.
The averages of number ratings can be somewhat helpful in evaluating a specific class or professor, but more in-depth comments tell a more accurate story.
"Numbers don't mean as much as words do," said Education Committee member, sophomore Sarah Sandison. Last year's Education Committee chair, junior Dan Zandman, was not pleased with departmental response when he questioned their policy of secrecy.
"It was extremely frustrating. Keeping the comments entirely confidential made it seem like they had something to hide. I see the need for privacy, but equally important is the need for some disclosure," said Zandman.
Regardless of the faculty's level of cooperation, students still have the opportunity to share comments about a course. Each class listed on the website has an option for users to anonymously post their reviews about the course material and professor.
Zandman saw this option as a last resort, but a better solution than simply posting a page full of numbers. While any site visitor can freely post comments about a class, there are problems that go along with it. "Sampling is the key [concern]. One or two comments are not an accurate portrayal of opinion. Also there is no way to verify that the people posting the comments have actually taken the course," said Zandman.
While students find the site beneficial they do have recommendations for improving the guide. "Averaged numbers can only tell so much. Individual's comments would be much more helpful," said freshman Richard Kalman who plans to use the site in selecting his spring 2001 classes.
"I usually use it to check what teachers are best for certain classes, or how much work a class is," said sophomore Traci Lee. Many students have followed in Lee's footsteps and taken advantage of the site in semesters past, which has received over 17,000 hits to date.
Despite the site's growing popularity, many students at Tufts still do not know it exists.
"I never knew that was there. I would love to see how my professors were rated," said freshman Ben Hsu.
Wilson hopes to spread the word this upcoming week to educate students about the information the course guide provides. "We plan to chalk and heavily advertise before [the new course guide] comes out," she said.
As the number of users increase, so does the hope to include a wider range of data. While a majority of classes are listed and rated on the TCU site, there are some that are not. There have also been logistical issues that have prevented every course from being listed. Some departments keep their ratings in incompatible database format, which has caused problems in sharing data. Wilson also attributes the Registrar Office's move to Dowling Hall as a cause for slowdowns in data sharing.
The Course Evaluation Guide is published online twice a year, just prior to the registration period for the upcoming semester. Archives of past semesters are available if a certain course was not offered the previous semester. Likewise, the archives may be used to locate information and ratings about a certain professor.
The updated guide will be available on Nov. 10, the week before registration, at http://ase.tufts.edu/courseguide/. Until then, students may browse the site for older evaluation data from the past two years. Now that the guide is online, the Senate no longer prints paper copies.
