Partner Evaluation Worksheet

Partner Evaluation Worksheet

A few years ago I became aware of the need for group members to evaluate each other. When students work in groups, it’s very easy for one person to do the vast majority of the work while another simply goes along for the ride contributing essentially nothing to the group project.

I find this practice unacceptable and difficult to diagnose properly. So, I created this partner evaluation form to help me weed out the lazy students and give them the grade that they earn. It’s gone through a few versions now and I’m quite proud of it. Use it to your benefit and the benefit of your hard-working students.

Downloads

• Partner Evaluation Worksheet (DOC)

Course Evaluation

After 8 years of teaching, I’ve finally done it. I finally made a course evaluation for my students. After some research into the kinds of questions that are best to ask, I came up with the following list:

My Course Evaluation Questions

1. How would you rate the classroom climate?
   • Temperature, lighting, and other classroom conditions were favorable.
   • Furniture and equipment were up to date and maintained in good working order.
2. How would you rate the teacher?
   • The teacher was knowledgeable about the topics presented.
   • The teacher was well prepared for class.
   • The teacher was accessible when I needed help.
3. How would you rate the course content?
   • Course assignments were interesting and stimulating.
   • Directions for course assignments were clear and easy to understand.
   • Books and handouts were helpful in completing assignments and understanding concepts.
4. How would you rate the organization of the course?
   • The amount and difficulty of material covered was appropriate.
   • There was a coherent progression of the course from beginning to end.
   • The teacher maintained a pacing guide, calendar, or schedule of topics to be covered.
5. How would you rate the quality of the teaching?
   • The amount and quality of feedback on assignments was appropriate.
   • The instructor answered questions carefully and completely.
   • Throughout the course, I was aware of my progress in completing assignments and understanding concepts.
6. How would you rate the grading system used in the course?
   • The grading system was clear and fair.
   • Assignments were worth the time they took.
   • Test were at a reasonable level of difficulty relative to the material covered.
7. How would you rate the classroom management and discipline?
   • Students were treated fairly and felt comfortable and respected.
   • Classroom and school rules were applied consistently and fairly to all students.
   • Inappropriate behavior was confronted and necessary action was taken.
8. What aspects of the course did you like best? Why?
9. What aspects of the course were the weakest and should be changed? How?
10. Overall, how would you rate this course?
    • This course has increased my interest and appreciation for the subject.
    • I would recommend this course to a friend.

My Course Evaluation Questions Online

Since online forms are so much better at gathering and displaying information, I put these questions into Wufoo at http://dsmith77.wufoo.com/forms/course-evaluation/. Wufoo makes creating surveys and forms simple. A free account lets you create 3 forms with 10 questions apiece and only limits you to 100 responses within a month’s time. The 10 questions above fit quite nicely.

A Little Hot at McDonald’s

It was just a little hot at McDonald’s the other day. In the rain, even.

A Little Hot at McDonald’s

Pass-Fail Course Grade Algorithm

I routinely use a spreadsheet program to calculate my course grades. It’s just easier for me than to use the software supplied by our state which isn’t quite so user friendly. I currently use Microsoft Excel 2003 and the algorithms below are written to work with it.

Variables and Conventions

• S1 = Attendance Status as either “LOST CREDIT”, “CONCERN”, or “OK”
• T1 = Appeal Status and Conditions for loss of credit as either empty (blank) or containing written conditions
• Z1 = Course Grade in the range 0 to 100 with rounding active and 70 being the lowest passing score.
• LC is short for Lost Credit
• CR is short for Credit Restored

Algorithm

=IF(S1<>”LOST CREDIT”,IF(Z1<69.5,”FAILING”,”PASSING”),IF(T1=””,IF(Z1>=69.5,”LOST CREDIT PASSING”,”LOST CREDIT FAILING”),IF(Z1<69.5,”CREDIT RESTORED FAILING”,”CREDIT RESTORED PASSING”)))

Now, since the only practical categories are either Passing, Failing, and Lost Credit Passing (LC Passing) and the other results fall within these categories, we can simplify the algorithm like so:

=IF(S1<>”LOST CREDIT”,IF(Z1<69.5,”FAILING”,”PASSING”),IF(T1=””,IF(Z1>=69.5,”LC PASSING”,”FAILING”),IF(Z1<69.5,”FAILING”,”PASSING”)))

This has an additional benefit in Microsoft Excel. Having only 3 categories allows Conditional Formatting to be applied to emphasize the contrast. I changed the background color on cells in these categories to be either green, yellow, or red depending on the category.

Invalid Formula Error

If you copy and paste the above algorithm into Excel, you may get an invalid formula error even if you correctly swap out the variables (Z1, T1, etc.) for cell references. I am assuming that the version above gets pasted in as smart quotes and excel only recognizes straight quotes. The problem was fixed once I typed over the pasted double quotes using the keyboard.