User-generated Student Course Evaluations: (How) Can Key Competencies become Systematic Evaluation Parameters?

Abstract

Student course evaluations are well known to most students, but their expertise is rarely taken into consideration when it comes to designing them. Since student course evaluations are supposed to provide insights into the quality of heterogeneous courses, which has to be considered challenging from a statistical point of view, students theorized the quality of common student course evaluations within an advanced seminar in educational research. They reflected on different designs, statistical issues as well as imprecise questions and questionnaires before focusing on key competencies as new type of evaluation parameters. Key competencies shall provide a focus on teaching effectiveness and can operate without the need for comparing average scores of heterogeneous courses. By addressing the professional, the methodological, the social as well as the self-competence of each student, the different levels of key competencies within each course can separately be dealt with. Furthermore, a student course evaluation focusing key competencies provides a perfect data basis to be thoroughly tested by factor and reliability analysis in order to highlight the quality of the students' approach and their understanding of evaluation research.