It’s nearing the end of the quarter and your date with the Course and Teacher Evaluation Council is looming near. Sure, it sounds official and a tad intimidating, but many students take CTECs almost as seriously as the most recent posting on Gossip Gay.
But they’re actually worth a little serious effort. Breaking down what CTEC stands for might just tell you something that you didn’t already know about those yellow bar graphs we love to hate. Notice the words “Course” and “Teacher.” Sure, you’re evaluating both; but you’d be surprised at who else is evaluating your CTECs.
According to Maria DiBenedetto, senior assistant registrar in charge of CTEC, approximately 70 percent of Northwestern students respond to CTECs each quarter. Unfortunately, this means many students aren’t responding to — or reaping the benefits of — them. And let’s be honest, not every person who does responds takes CTECs seriously. Various unhelpful comments like “drop it like its hot!” are a clear indication of many people’s relative indifference.
“I think CTECs are a very overrated tool that Northwestern students put too much stock in,” Medill junior Dave Boucher said of the resource. “I really never use them, because half of the people usually love the teacher and the class and the other half were disappointed in both. It just isn’t helpful. I don’t write them either, it’s just another waste of time.”
Many at NU share this sentiment, but CTECs really can make a bigger difference than you may think. Most students make the erroneous assumption that CTECs are just for us. But in reality, what you write on your CTECs might matter as much to your professor as the next student considering the class. Think of your CTECs as your professors’ employee evaluations, because their bosses just might be watching.
“It depends on the individual, and on the department,” DiBenedetto said of possible penalties instructors may face from their departments for “bad” CTECs. “Some [departments] use them extensively. We regularly receive requests for historical reports which are used by departments when they are deciding promotions, tenure, and changes to curriculum.” Who knew departments cared about what you thought of classes? It seems here we are the customers and our CTECs sort of function as a satisfaction survey.
“I pay attention to them,” English Professor Regina Schwartz said of CTEC evaluations. “The comments are much more useful [than the other fields]. Anybody who goes through the trouble to actually write something is making more of an effort to give me feedback.”
Since professors and higher-ups are reading and taking your (hopefully) well-thought out comments seriously, CTECs can actually provide more insight into a class than you’d think. If you want to get the most out of your CTECs, read the comment section, but not just for the last offering of the course. Go back and read the comments from the last three or four offerings and see if the negatives reported in 2004 have disappeared from the 2007 evaluations.
In addition, it’s better to check up on a professor rather than a course. If you look at the course CTECs and notice that the current professor hasn’t taught the class before, stop looking at those CTECs! Instead, read comments about the professor, even ones written about different courses. You’re better off going in with insights about the professor’s overall style than obsessing strictly on the course itself because classes can change drastically from quarter to quarter, depending on which professor is behind the podium.
Professors themselves though, typically aren’t as malleable. Even though they do read their CTEC evaluations and some of them are sure to adjust their teaching style accordingly, the odds of these changes occurring fully and immediately after reading bad CTECs are slim.
Don’t count on professors to change their style, especially if they’re tenured. So don’t take a 9 a.m. British history lecture with a guy whose CTECs for American history said he’s mind-numbingly boring — the subject of Brit. hist alone probably isn’t enough to liven him up.
Remember, first and foremost, CTECs are a tool for Northwestern students by Northwestern students and they are what you make of them. If you blow off your CTECs in the comments section, you’re putting the students that follow you at a disadvantage and giving up your chance to improve the standards of teaching at Northwestern. After all, present and future students want reliable information about classes as much as you do.
Making the most of your CTECs is more than just navigating them to find easy professors during registration — pay it forward and write the kind of CTECs you’d actually want to read this quarter. Or, if you’re feeling more vindictive than helpful, let your professor — and his department head — know what you think of him.