Higher Education Observer

Perhaps no practice in higher education pushes veteran faculty to cynicism and younger faculty to frustration more than SET—student evaluation of teaching. If you have ever received SETs that left you angry, scratching your head, or laughing at the irony of it all; if you have ever wished there were other ways to evaluate your teaching; if you have ever wondered about the reliability and validity of the SET process, you are not alone. Although over thirty journal articles went into the preparation of this essay, that number represents only about 1% of all that have been published on the subject. According to Al-Isa & Suleiman (2007), 2988 journal articles on SET in higher education appeared in professional journals from 1990 to 2005. Furthermore, the ones published 30 years ago address the same concerns as the ones written in the last few years. As many of the articles echoed, faculty members routinely question the practice of SET. Until I came to DSC, my experience with SET a...

I was praying today for the other Christian faculty members on my campus. Not that I don't pray for the nonChristians--I do--but I pray that the Christians would be strong and winsome and wise. The ones I know are nice people and good colleagues and, while perhaps not the coolest people on campus, have good reputations. I would hope for more than just a good reputation, though, but spiritual influence. Being a Christian on a secular campus means conflict in a couple of areas. Sometimes it's in terms of politics, but it shouldn't be. I really try to keep my conservatism under raps because I don't want it confused with my faith. While there are connections between the two, I don't have a "what would Jesus do" view of how I vote. Perhaps I should, but I don't, at least not totally. I don't know how Jesus would vote on health care reform. I suspect He would prefer a fiscally solvent government system, no way for irresponsible women to kill the...

I work at a relatively small college that has grown rather quickly in the last few years with the addition of four-year programs and the influx of unemployed mill workers (the bulk of whom probably won't stick around when the mill reopen--sorry for the cynicism, but we have many students who sign up just to get the initial Pell check and then stop coming. They of course ruin their chances of ever getting any more scholarship money, but they waste a chunk of my taxes in the process, thank you very much.) Because of the size of the college, we have the opportunity to speak and socialize and collaborate across disciplines. It's a service-oriented college, so we often work on committees, in the Advising Center, that kind of thing. So, the historians can work with the nursing faculty who can work with the computer science faculty. It's quite nice. I am working on a project with a Social Work faculty member, for example. I would not like to work in a college where I could onl...

My conference went great, thanks to the wonderful teachers at Dalton State College who presented. The PowerPoints will be available at http://www.daltonstate.edu/teachinglearning/resources.htm by March 25.

If anyone reads this, come to Dalton State College, the Brown Center, firs floor, Friday morning, March 19, at 8:30. It's a conference on college teaching and learning. I'm very pleased. It will be awesome.

Over the weekend I read P.M. Forni's two books on Civility. They are book club selections for the Teaching and Learning Center I am in charge of (but not for much longer). They were chosen because teachers were interested, or concerned, about student incivility and many colleges are reading them. Not too many of our faculty are reading them, but I have to read all the selections to lead the discussions. I learned a few things, and can say I'm not sorry I took the time to read the books. But they are the kind of book that will have an impact on you if you have an open mind. He's not heavy handed, actually he's rather winsome, although a little preachy at times. We can't remember all the rules, but we can remember the basic principles of attention, awareness, and respect, among others. I am not sure why someone would want to follow his advice, though. His motivation is that if everyone did, society would be more, well, civilized. And there may be some truth t...

I have been on spring break (kind of early--the rest of the universe is starting theirs now or next week) but tomorrow must go back to the real world of 5:30 a.m alarm clock ringing. At least I don't have to drive in the dark now. I made the mistake (well, I was trying to be gracious and give them more time, but it meant more work for me) of having my students who needed extra time send in their outlines half-way through the week. I didn't get a good response--only about half got them in on time. On top of that, it had to be submitted to turnitin.com. One student flagged 82%. I wrote her a pretty scathing email. I wanted to say, "Do I have stupid written on my forehead," but instead made it about her, and that I could have her taken up before the disciplinary committee and fail the class or worse. I wanted to put them fear in them. Most had less than 15%, which I don't worry about. What's your opinion of turnitin? I don't like it, but is it a nec...