University of Ottawa Student Evaluation Integrity

We have recently found out that the Evaluation of Teaching and Courses done every session are carried out in a very unprofessional manner and this must stop!

It is well known that there are 2 parts to these evaluations.

The first is a survey portion where the student must identify certain areas of interest that the University of Ottawa uses to quantify the level of service given by the instructor and the University.

The second is a comment section where the student may freely comment and give constructive feedback to the professor.

The issue at hand is the fact that these 2 portions are split into 2 envelopes. The first portion is analyzed by the University to evaluate the professor and the class. The second is given directly to the professor so that they may freely read the students comments.

The majority of Universities type out the student comments so that the professor cannot place the comments to a specific student. This ensures the integrity of the Evaluation. Apparently, this is NOT the case at the University of Ottawa. This can lead to several problems!

For example, some professors hand out little cards to their students during exams to write their name, student number, course code, etc. These cards are kept by the professors and can be used to place a name to the written comments. This is WRONG!!! Especially if a student disagrees with a professors teaching style and unfortunately has to take another or several other classes with the same professor. A simple solution to this problem would be to have an independent body type up these written comments

We, the students of the University of Ottawa, disagree with the current practice and would like the University to ensure the integrity of these evaluations as soon as possible.