Five Quick Ways to Get Better Online Teaching Evaluations

One fear that instructors have is that their teaching evaluations, and thus their prospects for promotion and tenure, will head south when they start teaching online. Not the good south in the beaches-of-Miami way, but the ugly one. This fear is well-founded as we often hear depressing stories of once-loved classroom teaching stars bathed in criticism and contempt after their first online teaching foray. No need to despair - here's five small changes instructors can make to lead to happier evaluations.

1. Always, always answer student emails within 24 hours. Just one slip, one late day, and your evaluation from that student will fall precisely 20 percent (this exact statistical calculation is based on my personal experience and occasional failure to follow this rule).
2. Speaking of rules, be a little more flexible about student deadlines and rules. Making exceptions, being understanding, and nice has its rewards. And smile when you make exceptions, even if nobody can see you.
3. Let them know you as a person, not just an information-dispenser/course guide. Tell them about your weekend, your seven cats, your allergy to corkscrew-shaped pasta, the musical Eiffel Tower bookends you bought for 50 percent off at Target yesterday, your obsession with Newhart reruns, whatever. Tell them something about you every week, and include pictures and audio sometimes. And be funny sometimes.
4. Do an informal formative evaluation midway through the term, and actually make some changes based on the results. Tell them the overall results of the evaluation and the changes you are making.
5. Increase the amount of personal feedback you are giving - go beyond the blanket stuff to the whole class. Yes, this one is actually not so quick.