Following complaints about biased and inappropriate student feedback on OMET surveys, Pitt is implementing new guidelines to remove harmful comments from end-of-the-semester professor evaluations.
The Office of Measurement and Evaluation of Teaching administers anonymous student feedback surveys twice a semester. At the end of the semester, survey results are distributed to faculty and department administrators for review, yet in recent years, there’s been an increase of harmful language across these evaluations. This October, OMET implemented new guidelines that allows professors to request the removal of negative comments.
Lisa Votodian, the survey assessment manager in the University Center for Teaching and Learning, explained how faculty will now be able to request a committee review and potential removal of incendiary and harmful comments in their teaching surveys. These comments affect the numeric results given to professors, which are calculated on a Likert scale using student feedback results.
“[Once a request] is submitted, a panel made up of faculty, students and teaching consultants will review the request and determine the appropriate next steps,” Votodian said. “[This] may include the removal of the comments as well as the corresponding numerical ratings.”
The new panel, made specifically for these requests, marks the first time professors are able to ask to remove negative comments. Castilleja Olmsted, a teaching assistant professor in the biology department, said this new committee has “been a long time coming.” In the past, Olmsted has found issues with her previous OMETs, including negativity and wanting her students’ comments to be more specific.
“I’ve gotten negative comments,” Olmsted said. “I think everybody has. It’s a lot harder to deal with feedback that’s not actionable. You’re allowed to say you hate the class, but there’s nothing I can do with that comment to actually change anything.”
The overly-critical evaluations from students is not a new behavior in teacher evaluations, according to Votodian.
“Such behavior has not only occurred here at Pitt but at other colleges and universities as well,” Votodian said. “This new review process aligns with other colleges and universities that have existing pathways in place to address incendiary or harmful survey comments.”
Olmsted mentors graduate students in the biology department and always makes sure to have a conversation with them about how to deal with negative OMET comments.
“I try to teach them what they can get out of [the comments], despite not being ideal,” Olmsted said. “So I’m glad [the University] is looking into it, since it’s not uncommon at a lot of universities to make it clear to students that comments that are inappropriate will be addressed.”
Some professors, including Olmsted, allot time during a class period for students to fill out the OMET. She believes it’s important to get as much feedback as possible.
“I want to make sure I’m getting a response from as many people as possible,” Olmsted said. “So, the data can be used to say what’s really going on in class as a whole, instead of just a couple of people who felt very strongly.”
Though John Stoner, a history professor, has not seen harmful language on his own evaluations, he has heard his peers express their concerns with negative comments on their OMETs.
“There is a lot of evidence now that faculty members of color and female faculty members — regardless of their race — are often objectified in a different way for purposes that have nothing to do with their teaching effectiveness,” Stoner said in reference to comments described as “sexist” and “racist” by Votodian in the University Times.
Stoner, who has taught at Pitt for 16 years, has seen “constructive change” with OMETs over time, such as switching from paper surveys to the current online system, which includes more questions for students to fill out.
“One of the reasons OMETs changed a number of years ago is that there was some information that leaders in certain schools at the University were literally using one question as a gauge of whether their faculty members were good teachers,” Stoner said. “And it was something like, ‘Is your professor a good teacher?’ What does that mean?”
Despite the system being improved, professors are still finding some faults with OMET surveys, according to Stoner. He thinks more detailed questions could guide students to give him the feedback that he is looking for.
“The questions still have some limitations,” Stoner said. “I think as faculty and as students we have a stake in having the questions be useful and the data be useful. If one of those things aren’t true, [OMETs] are not particularly helpful.”
Stoner explained how OMETs have provided him with helpful student feedback. These comments provide criticism on what he needs to work on as a professor, although some critiques have been unhelpful.
“Feedback I can work with is if [students] find the material interesting or the assignments acceptable,” Stoner said. “But if [students] say I wasn’t a good teacher, then I can’t take anything from that. It’s not constructive criticism.”
OMETs are very helpful when the students provide useful suggestions, according to Olmsted.
“I’ve had some of the best changes to my classes come from student feedback,” Olmsted said. “I can ask students for feedback on things that I particularly want their input on. I’ve given them more practice and material, and it was super productive, but this was all because a student gave me something that was specific and actionable as a comment [on OMETs].”
The University’s Center for Learning and Teaching provides online resources with advice on how students can give effective feedback on teaching surveys. This includes being specific, making suggestions, focusing on impact and taking steps to reduce unconscious bias.
According to Votodian, “more than 50% of students” typically fill the surveys out during the fall and spring semesters.
Stoner said it’s important for all students to utilize OMET surveys and fill them out each semester.
“Students provide a really important perspective on my teaching that my own peers can’t,” Stoner said. “So maybe students should be trained so they know what kind of feedback helps [professors] the most.”