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Questions tagged [evaluation]

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Questions relating to academic evaluation and the process of evaluation.

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4
votes
1answer
142 views

Is it common to have peer teaching evaluation for tenured/tenure-track faculty every year?

Is it common for US public universities to enforce peer teaching evaluations (have professors sit in each others' classes) for tenured faculty member every year? What about requiring evaluation twice ...
27
votes
9answers
7k views

Is it reasonable to ask candidates to create a profile on Google Scholar?

I was in the evaluation committee for the adjunct lecturers this year, and it was a complete nightmare. There were over thirty candidates and many of them didn't have an account on Google Scholar, ...
33
votes
6answers
7k views

Is it safe for a student to give negative feedback in student evaluations? [closed]

It's common for students to be asked for their evaluations of a teacher/course at the end of the semester. Is it safe for the student to give negative feedback? After all, even if the lecturer will ...
-1
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1answer
182 views

Reasonable sanction [closed]

A lecturer with more than 10 years of experience and proven record of excellence in both teaching and academic service failed to complete his teaching self-assessment. In general, the teaching ...
16
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7answers
6k views

What is a common way to tell if an academic is “above average,” or outstanding in their field? Is their h-index (Hirsh index) one of them?

If one claimed that a particular scholar was "above average" or "noted" in their field, is there any good metric by which to support or deny such a claim? Is there a generally accepted way to ...
2
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0answers
47 views

What is an appropriate academic search engine and ranking system for classics faculty and programs?

Google Scholar and the h-index are widely used in computer science to evaluate academic programs and faculty. Right now I need to evaluate classics programs. I went to Google Scholar and found that ...
5
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2answers
986 views

How to evaluate the research level of a paper before any publication?

There are three differents cases when the research level of a paper must be evaluated before any publication: for author: to choose the most appropriate journal, for referee: to recommend ...
7
votes
4answers
295 views

Do German universities internally track the scientific output of single work groups/professors and with which internal/external goals?

We are asked in our group to send new publications for journals and conferences to our secretary, who told me she has to input this information also into a database of the university. Over the years ...
0
votes
1answer
103 views

Including positive and negative evaluation comments during job search

This may sound like a "humble brag," but I assure you that I am asking this as a legitimate question for the sole purpose of increasing my chances of getting a job -- not internet bragging points. I ...
12
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2answers
314 views

How can I provide a great external evaluaton of a faculty member's promotion and tenure case?

I recently received an email asking if I would be willing to evaluate a colleague's application for promotion and tenure. We are both at R1 universities in the US. According to the guidelines, I am ...
4
votes
1answer
224 views

Pros and cons of informing students about the outcome of their course’s evaluation

Is it a good practice that a university informs the students of a class about the final outcome (that is, the overall score of the instructor based on the evaluation forms) of their own evaluation of ...
0
votes
1answer
115 views

Writing a paper on user interface without empirical evaluation

I am writing a paper proposing an improvement in the design of a specific user interface. However, this improvement is only based on axiomatic and theoretical assumptions and I haven't made an ...
3
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3answers
423 views

Can a thesis not answer the research question and still be good?

I have written a thesis about applying some AI techniques to a simulation that my professor introduced. To make this happen, I had to implement a very large amount of software, because the simulation ...
0
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4answers
782 views

Incompetent student

I am a PhD candidate and I have recently received an undergraduate (Bachelor degree student) to work for a short duration. For purpose of discussion, the work is mainly mathematical in this project. ...
1
vote
1answer
114 views

Comparing the scientific outputs of researchers [closed]

We want to compare the scientific outputs of researchers across various fields (such as theoretical physics versus organic chemistry) quantitatively. Is the following formula appropriate? Let us ...
0
votes
1answer
35 views

How to get in situ anonymous global evaluation from students about the works of their peers

My undergraduate students are going to present their group works to the whole class. I would like that their companions globally and anonymously evaluate them, so that each team can in situ get a ...
14
votes
4answers
538 views

How is an experimental particle physicist evaluated?

As an undergraduate student majoring in physics, I intend to apply for a Ph.D. in experimental particle physics. I have known that working as physicists in this field is kind of different, as they are ...
1
vote
1answer
98 views

How do I request that previously taken classes be counted toward my current program?

I'm in need of some advice. I am a nontraditional student coming back to school for a degree in nursing. Before I initially left school I only had 2 prerequisites that I still needed to fill. Now I'm ...
0
votes
2answers
143 views

How to properly assess a student's knowledge of a subject [closed]

Good afternoon, Often times (in my experiences) tests questions are based upon irrelevant specific details that do not necessarily reflect a student's knowledge of the subject matter. For instance, I ...
-2
votes
1answer
117 views

precision vs. usefulness [closed]

I presented a testing (specifically, symbolic execution) approach for special language. I have a problem in evaluating my approach. I am going to evaluate correctness and usefulness of the approach. ...
15
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4answers
2k views

How should feedback be given for “silly mistakes” on an exam

I am a TA currently grading a set of 80 midterms for an engineering math course for fourth-year engineer undergrads. The test had four questions, each question had around four parts. Of course, ...
0
votes
1answer
85 views

Traspararent evaluation in lab exams — good or bad idea?

In a traditional evaluation, instructors only let their students know their total marks when the semester results are released. The marks given for each student for each question is kept confidential. ...
1
vote
1answer
114 views

How should I behave when my undergraduate research marks reduce without any reason in the evaluation process?

I'm an undergraduate IT students currently in 4th year. I am doing my individual research these days. My supervisor guides me well and under her supervision I'm doing my research well. But the ...
6
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2answers
941 views

How to evaluate a book, rather than a paper, on a scientific subject?

In academia we collectively evaluate the validity, quality and significance of shorter publications - papers - with a complex system of conferences and journals. With all its flaws, you can get a ...
10
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2answers
337 views

Diverse forms of testing and grading

I am close to an academic who is facing heavy criticism for having used an unorthodox grading scheme in a final exams (there was a multiplication involved to ensure a good grade would mean decent ...
10
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1answer
1k views

Conflict with conference Program Committee

I was reviewing a paper for a conference. As I wrote in the review, it was IMO a completely average paper (boring problem, boring techniques, average write-up). I gave a scoring of "0" (ranging from -...
6
votes
1answer
276 views

How to organize my binder of activities for review of time as assistant professor?

I am up for review and I must compile a lot of materials from my time as an assistant professor. Everything has to be submitted in hard copy in a binder. I would like to make it as easy as possible ...
3
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2answers
1k views

How to evaluate a software implementation for master thesis

I have developed a software to meet a specific requirement in a research field. There is only one such software developed so far, mine is second. In the thesis, I explain the implementation of the ...
67
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6answers
16k views

3 3-hour exams in a row with no time in between. What can I do?

I am currently studying computer science in a University in Canada. I have just received my Schedule for the semester, and I have noticed that, during the finals week, 3 of my 6 courses put their ...
10
votes
2answers
216 views

How to do on-site institute evaluation as a member of the evaluation panel?

Many academic institutes are routinely evaluated by an advisory board. In addition to the public performance metrics, such as publications and funding, the board usually goes on site to meet the ...
1
vote
1answer
117 views

How to give feedback on a course when no evaluation was offered?

I just finished a course in organic chemistry this semester, where we had absolutely everything go wrong. Our TA had immigration problems, and only showed up to the first few days. Our stockroom was ...
15
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2answers
475 views

Evaluation of professors: publications vs. teaching quality

From my experience (in Europe), I have often seen that professors give their research highest priority and see teaching only as a necessity that gets a low priority. I feel that this is due to the ...
0
votes
1answer
108 views

Can an algorithm tested only on artificial data be accepted in a high rank conference?

I devised a classification algorithm which is useful for specific complicated distribution of classes of data. The method works good on the artificial data which cannot be solved by typical algorithms ...
4
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2answers
163 views

What to keep and what to say in a 5 minutes power point presentation?

I have a power point presentation in front of our Head regarding my research and achievements. Time limit is 4 minutes presentation and 1 minute discussion. I am wondering what to keep in the PPT? I ...
24
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2answers
1k views

Implications for the candidate if a contacted external evaluator declines

I seem to have reached the phase of my career where I receive regular requests to externally evaluate faculty: this means that I am evaluating the research program of tenure-track faculty (so far ...
2
votes
1answer
52 views

Needs for ethics approval required on service evaluation for quality improvement in NGO? How to obtain ethics approval for small NGO?

I am working for a non-government organization providing elderly rehabilitation services. We offered various rehabilitation arrangement to our clients. Our clients are free to choose rehabilitation ...
0
votes
1answer
86 views

PhD funding agency, and conflict of research and development

I am doing PhD which is funded by Science and technology department. Those coming to check progress (first time) are mainly software engineers, while in PhD the work is research based. So far I have ...
44
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7answers
11k views

Why does a mathematics department want student evaluations of a famous professor?

If a professor is very famous for his research and belongs to the most prestigious academies of science for his lifetime work, I find it unusual that the math department would ask us to evaluate him. ...
14
votes
2answers
799 views

How do judge the quality of your own PhD?

I'm close to finishing my PhD and I'd like to evaluate the quality of my PhD. I'm doing my PhD in the field of software engineering at a Central European university. My PhD thesis consists of ...
51
votes
7answers
8k views

What do polarized student evaluation results say about my teaching?

I taught my first class last quarter. The results for evaluations are very polarized. The raw data shows that my scores are either very high or very low for a majority of items. That implies some ...
62
votes
9answers
28k views

How to react professionally when you receive a complaint from a student

I got a surprising email from the department chair today, saying that one student has made a complaint against me. It seems that he felt that my tone in an office hour was mocking, and felt ...
2
votes
2answers
136 views

In teaching evaluation, does the number of students a faculty teaches matter? [closed]

Does it matter if a faculty member teaches a small class or large class? Does anyone cares about the size of the class or only the number of classes the faculty teach each semester?
4
votes
3answers
168 views

When should we use publication list for peer evaluation?

This is a second attempt to ask about peer evaluation, after a pretty unsuccessful one which was probably much too broad. Let me start again, with a more precise subquestion. The point is commonly ...
2
votes
2answers
210 views

How should we evaluate our peers?

This is a quite broad question, to which I have some personal answers, but I think I need more different perspectives. I am not talking about evaluating a peer's submitted work as a referee, but ...
4
votes
1answer
290 views

Non-English language papers submitted to REF for evaluation?

So this is a little U.K. specific - I'm just curious whether any of you have seen or heard about such submissions. Now I'm completely aware that in many disciplines this seems unlikely, but how about ...
10
votes
1answer
171 views

Qualitative approach to evaluation of academic production

In Brazil, a government agency, named CAPES, takes care of evaluation of the postgraduate courses. Among other things, they receive criticism, because such evaluation is based on bibliometric approach....
3
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6answers
1k views

Would the announcement of penalty for blank answers in a test improve the global results of the class?

In a multiple-choice test evaluation, normally (as far as I know) the wrong answers are penalized, but blank answers not. This makes some students afraid to answer given questions, prefering to leave ...
15
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2answers
1k views

Sign of researcher's professional maturity

When one applies for an academic position (especially for a permanent one) or for a significant funding, (s)he is often asked to show his/her professional maturity in research in the motivation letter/...
11
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2answers
3k views

What to do about negative teaching evaluations during job interviews?

This past year I taught two undergraduate freshman-level required religion courses (one in the Fall and one in the Spring) and the teaching evaluations from students were rather average-to-poor. These ...
56
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8answers
11k views

Anonymous Student Feedback: Moving forward from abusive comments

I'm looking for some guidance from some senior/experienced academics situated in the teaching space. As a relatively new lecturer (though I have some experience in lecturing in the past) I'm always ...

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