Student Course Evaluations

What should a professor do?

In #articles

I’m always interested in the process of evaluation, especially for professors. It is common to have student evaluations performed at the end of the semester, and there are endless debates about their value. I try to take the evaluations seriously, usually trying to glean some general places where I can improve things. I figured I’d try something a bit different here. I’m posting the full response to the question “What are your comments regarding the instructor of the course?” from one of my 200-level Weather and Natural Disasters sections. It is a course which satisfies a general education requirement at the foundational level, and typically focusses on the analysis of weather, climate, and disaster data. It introduces and reinforces notions of plotting data, regression, interpretation of data, reading contour maps, etc…

It’s an interesting and somewhat entertaining read. I don’t take the negative evaluations personally, always trying to see the kernel of truth or where the student might be coming from. My question here is, what should I do with responses like this? You may notice a few conflicting viewpoints.

  • Though tough and giving a lot of work, Brian Blais is always ready to help students who will ask questions. He explains the material really well, and takes his time to answer many questions in class. I sometimes had a hard time linking the different chapters we did though. But he used different ways of making us understand the class by analyzing different documentaries for example, and tried to vary the form our assignments should take which is pretty interesting. I would recommend this professor to others because he is very helpful, but would warn them that he gives a lot of work.
  • If everyone in the class gets an answer wrong take it off the test. It may be a "good" question but if everyone gets it wrong then it is to good of a question. Also if everyone gets the same question wrong, maybe you should go over it more in class, so that the students actually understand the question. I spent hours on each homework assignment and it was a struggle to complete them correctly.
  • Frustrating at times, however always available for extra help, you have to work hard to get a good grade.
  • professor blais is smart and engaging and i really enjoy taking his class. i would recommend him to anyone, also his passion for the subject is clearly shown through his enthusiasm in class.
  • Good guy, knows everything basically off the top of his head. Could be a bit more clear with his assignments but overall, good professor.
  • Sometimes assumes students know more than they do. Tough to keep up. Homework is painfully difficult which he thinks is good but I just give up on them because I don't understand how to do them. Challenge is good, but sometimes too much is counterproductive to learning.
  • It took a little while getting use to how Blais operated. A couple of times in the beginning of the semester I was taken aback at some of his statements, but it's always a truthful and very straightforward statement; something I was not used to coming from college professors.
  • the instructor does a great job applying this class to real life situation
  • decided to not even even use blackboard and put everything on google drive, made it much harder because it was so different then my other classes
  • For a 200 level course that most if not all students are taking as an elective, it is extremely difficult and the material is not taught in a simple way. The lectures are all over the place sometimes and they are hard to follow. It would be more beneficial to students if you just slowed down and answered our questions.
  • Truly awful, Answers questions with thats a good question.. why are you there if you wont answer the question. There is no need to make an science elective this hard and full of unnecessary work at a business school, we have other stuff we have to put our attention on that we actually want to learn.
  • The instructor is a very nice person. In class I enjoyed having him as a professor. However, I believe because he is so intelligent he will explain topics rapidly with the expectation that the class understands. As a result the class is so confused that they refrain from asking questions. Further more the instructors lectures were very little help when doing home work leading to the great frustrations and long hours trying to understand the homework and figuring out solutions.
  • Professor is a helpful and was a great resource to myself throughout the semester when questions arose. He can be really sarcastic
  • Please give more clear answers to student's questions, rather than saying "I don't know" to certain questions. If you don't know can you at least try to find out, that's kind of your job......
  • I thought the instructor was very tough at first but if you put in the effort his teaching style is very smooth.
  • Professor Blais seems like a pretty laid back person. However, he can sometimes be rude without realizing it, and his "bus policy" is the worst rule I have ever seen by a professor. Some students have appointments with advisors, etc. before his class. He should be understanding of those walking in late. Locking the door is pretty excessive, no? Assignments are too long, but his teaching ability is adequate and he clearly loves his job. I can't say I would recommend him to a friend, though.
  • The instructor of this course is very helpful outside of the classroom, however, during class time he does not provide clear instructions for homework assignments and fails to answer students' questions clearly.
  • Obviously the professor is very smart and really knows about what he is teaching, but how he teaches is very confusing and scattered. We sort of jump around from subject to subject so I get confused about what is related to what. The professor also doesn't answer questions clearly and ends up leaving many of us more confused than before. He does not communicate clearly what is expected for assignments so it leaves us guessing and hoping we did it right. He has a good amount of office hours available for extra help but only in the morning which is when many students are in classes so it can be difficult to meet with him outside of class.
  • Professor Blais is often vague or flippant in answering genuine questions asked by the class and greatly underestimates how long his assignments actually take.
  • Professor Blais is a really nice guy, considerate to students, loves what he is teaching. I think he needs to better explain the material though because we are most likely hearing all of this for the first time and might not be able to grasp the concepts and connections right away.
  • The professor is very knowledgeable. The topics seem difficult at first, but after a few days the material becomes easier. Believes his class is the only class a student is enrolled in
  • I have actually recommended this class to many of my friends and also the teacher.
  • Unclear or misleading at times, but very enthusiastic about the subject.
  • Assignments need to be improved because the course material did not connect enough between lectures and homework. Also needs to be much more organized. The grading system, well there sometimes isn't a grading system. He just distributes grades based off of aesthetic quality and relative .connection to the student