Internal Course Evaluation in Higher Education

Developed at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Angeliki Psaltou-Joycey

This questionnaire is the result of the collaborative work of members of staff of the School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. After undergoing a number of changes since its first administration, it finally took the present form with the contribution of: Dr Alexander Gogos (Assoc. Professor), Dr Katerina Kitsi-Mytakou (Lecturer), and Dr Smatie Yemenetzi (Lecturer).

It has been developed as an internal evaluation scheme for the School of English and it is the outcome of the expression of various concerns having to do with the need to “listen” to our students’ judgements about the type of courses we offer and the kind of teaching we provide.

The questionnaire is administered to the students of the School of English twice yearly towards the end of each academic semester (every December and every April-May). It is completed anonymously during ordinary class-time and is distributed by an independent administrator after the instructor has left the classroom. Its completion takes about half an hour. The results are collected by the Head of the School and are distributed confidentially to each of the individual members of staff concerned. They are used only constructively: as a guide for improvement, as a warning for misconduct, as praise for good performance.

To avoid excessive workload and expenses, regular courses are evaluated on a rotation basis (every three years on average), that is, only one-third of the total number of courses offered is evaluated each year. However, new courses as well as new members of staff, especially the ones on probation, are evaluated separately on a more regular basis until their teaching reaches the expected standards.