Do Tommies lie when they evaluate their courses?

TommieMedia looks at whether faculty- and course evaluation forms are reliable, given statistics such as this:

About 35 percent of students said they gave a “better-than-deserved” evaluation, while nearly 49 percent admitted to lying to make their instructor look worse, according to a 2010 University of Northern Iowa study.

But Michael Cogan, director of institutional research and analysis at the University of St. Thomas, told the news service:

“I don’t think our students are like that. For the most part, I think our students are pretty honest about what’s going on and forthright about what’s happening.”

Riiight.

Read the full story here.

About the blogger

Alex Friedrich

afriedrich@mpr.org

Alex Friedrich reports on higher education issues for MPR News. Among the stories he has covered: the fall of the Berlin Wall, aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, 2003 Moscow suicide bombing and 2004 presidential elections in the Republic of Georgia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s in European political economy from the London School of Economics.