What to put in a summary of course evaluations? - summary and thanks

[Don Rudawsky]

Some of you may recall this thread from a few months ago when I posed the question.  Well, completing my first batch of job applications and the fact that I thought that the responses I received were going to the whole list kept me from posting a summary and a thanks.  So without further ado - Thanks to all who provided helpful suggestions.  That is of course if they help me get a job (heavy sarcasm).  And, here's a summary of responses:

When I started I was focused on a summary of teaching evaluations, which is what the job announcements that I was applying for requested.  However, most responses suggested that this summary be put in the context of a teaching portfolio which includes a statement of teaching philosophy, and potentially many other items.  As it turns out, there are many sources (both web-based and old school paper/book format) for help with preparing teaching portfolios.  Here are a few of the web based sources:

Hugh Foley provides a unique perspective for those of us looking to psychology programs at liberal arts institutions with teaching as a major focus:  http://www.skidmore.edu/~hfoley/sla_advice.htm

My web searching turned up numerous sites, all very similar in content, that were not psychology specific, and were often hosted by university departments of teaching, or professional development, or faculty development etc.  Here are a few of those link, in no particular order:

http://www.psu.edu/celt/portfolio.html
http://www.osu.edu/education/ftad/portfolio/
http://www.utexas.edu/academic/cte/teachfolio.html
http://grad.uwyo.edu/pict/Portref.htm - this one provides a reference list of articles, chapters and books, but many of the others do also
http://www.tss.uoguelph.ca/trc/packagetd.html
http://www.college.uchicago.edu/writing-program/jobs/portfolio.htm

and I'm sure you can find many more if you try, they tend to agree with each other anyway.

Instead of trying to summarize further I'll describe what I did, since my decisions were based on the info in these sources and you can easily read the sources yourself:

1.  Cover Page
2.  Table of Contents
3.  Executive Summary - I think I may have come up with this on my own, but since I felt that this was a lengthy document and some of the positions I'm applying for may be more research oriented I decided it was a good idea and it may convince people to read it all.
4.  Teaching Philosophy - 2 pages, why I teach the way I teach, some key moments that have affected my teaching, and what I do to continue to develop as a teacher
5.  Course Evaluation Summary - not much changed from my gut instincts about what to include here.
        - It is chronological, so it can show my development. 
        - Each course has a brief description detailing class size, composition, meeting times, content, requirements, and any changes made based on previous experience teaching. 
        - Quantitative summary of rating scale questions. 
        - Qualitative summary of open-ended questions, including the most consistent positive comments, most consistent negative comments, and any mention of mixed feedback.  At least one Tipster suggested I provide copies of the actual student responses, to show that my summary is not biased.  I chose not to do this due to length (In order to really show my summary is not biased I'd have to send all, not just a sample, since I could easily say it was random and then send a sample of the best evals, and I've taught around 1,000 students so far).  Based on that suggestion, I did try to include more direct quotes to make my point, and I feel that when compared to the quantitative summary my qualitative summary should appear accurate.  Last point on this, I do offer to send either a sample of evaluations, or all evaluations for any courses at their request.
        - Not an actual section, but I try to intersperse reflection on student comments throughout the document.
6.  Sample course evaluation form - to show what questions I ask
7.  Student letter of recommendation - I included one letter from a student who also served as a research assistant for my dissertation.
8.  2 sample syllabi from recent classes - I didn't choose the most recent, but 2 of the last 4.  I wanted to show diversity in terms of class size and content.

So that's it.  I hope it's helpful to others.  I'm sure it can be improved and it probably will with the next batch of applications I send out, so comments are still welcome.  Good luck to others in their academic job searches and thanks again to those who helped.

Don

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Donald J. Rudawsky
University of Cincinnati
Dept. of Psychology
PO Box 210376
Cincinnati, OH  45210-0376
513.558.3146
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://homepages.uc.edu/~rudawsdj