Hello everyone. I’d like to use my column this week to talk about the online class/teacher evaluation system that the Senate is working on this semester and the possibility of a student-written honor code.
Last semester the Senate discussed the possibility of a student-written honor code as an addition to our culture at Rensselaer. Originally, the idea was not to focus on enforcement or hunting down those who have cheated but rather to have a document written by students explaining how we feel about academic dishonesty. While a Senator is continuing work on policies regarding cheaters who are caught, the idea of writing an honor code has been dropped. I would like to see if students are interested in this and if so would be willing to draft it. If this is something that you feel strongly about, I encourage you to lend some of your time. The new Senate website has a discussion board at http://senate.union.rpi.edu. Click on “Senate Discussion” on the left menu. I strongly encourage people to visit the site and voice your opinion on the topic. Other students and the Senate will benefit from your opinions.
Last week I talked about each project the Senate has undertaken this semester. This week, I’d like to focus on our progress in creating the online class/teacher evaluation system. The primary goal of the system would be to allow students to match teaching and class styles with their styles of learning. It would give them a better picture of the courses they will be taking.
We have begun discussions with the dean of undergraduate education about different possibilities. He has brought up the idea of publishing some of the data collected by the IDEA evaluation forms that students fill out at the end of each class. Specifically the data on the IDEA form that will help students evaluate class structure and teaching styles.
Thus far, we are interested in seeing how much information from the IDEA forms would be made public. As of now we would like to integrate data collected from the IDEA forms with a system that allows students to submit written comments and other information that we think would be useful to others.
We are clearly still in the draft phases of the project and will have a much clearer picture of what we will be doing by the weekend. Please post any comments or suggestion on our discussion board under the “Online Class/Teacher Evaluation” topic. You are also more than welcome to take an active role in the project in any capacity.
I will keep everyone informed on the progress of this and the other Senate projects. Good night everyone.
