Student Course Evaluations: Are They Worth It?

Toward the end of most undergraduate and some graduate courses, students complete evaluations of the course just taken. While the cycle grinds on, the controversy over these evaluations grinds on as a sort of undertone to the academic process. Some students take course evaluations seriously; others don’t. Some faculty find course evaluations helpful; others hate them. In general, the controversy over student course evaluations swirls around several issues: