This semester, students will have one more way to evaluate their classes and instructors and all involved can access the responses online.

The Undergraduate Student Government Academic Assembly has put together a test version of the Course Evaluator Web site where students answer questions about instructor persona, teaching style and classroom atmosphere, instructor/student relations and student performance according to which instructor they have. They can also access the Web site to learn about different classes.

"It is a service to students to evaluate gen eds (general education courses) and to use as a guide when scheduling classes," said Amanda Hudnall, USG Academic Assembly Instructor Evaluator Chair.

"If there is a demand for higher level classes we will think about that," Huchall added.

Students in Laura Bivins' Economics 002 (Microeconomics Analysis) class and Semih Eser's Materials Science 101 (Energy and Environment) and Earth and Mineral Sciences 121 (Minerals and Modern Society) classes will participate in the pilot program on the test Web site.

They will be asked to visit the Course Evaluator and answer the questionnaire. During the next two weeks, Academic Assembly will advertise the site in these three classes.

In a letter, Hudnall explained that the purpose of the testing phase "is to ensure the logistics of the site and computation of results."

After this initial period, all the data will be erased and all students and instructors will be able to visit the actual site.

"I see this being operational in a few weeks. We want to get to the point where students will be able to type in any professor," Hudnall said.

The Academic Assembly has had an evaluator for a while, but it was geared toward the class rather than the instructor.

"When instructors had changed, the class information changed," Hudnall said.

She is working to develop a database of information about instructors that will be available when they return to teaching that subject.

She has worked since October on reviving the Course Evaluator.

Since then, faculty have expressed some concern about the evaluator.

"A demanding professor can be portrayed as inferior," said Tor Winston, lecturer of economics.

Students may want a rigorous professor but may get a negative impression from the results on the Web site, Winston said.

"If a professor is demanding and is evaluated poorly it will be harmful for both the professor and student later," he said.

Despite his reservations, Winston will encourage students to use it.

"It provides information that is useful to students," he said.

Bivins, a graduate assistant, does not see drawbacks to participating or anticipate any problems.

"It is interesting to get additional feedback," she said.

Steven Keating, instructor of microbiology received e-mails about the Course Evaluator last semester and said it has definite advantages for an instructor.

"It provides more rapid feedback," he said, adding instructors don't get the results of the SRTE (Student Rating of Teaching Effectiveness) semester evaluations until the following semester.

"It (Course Evaluator) has its risks," he said.

Keating is unsure of how the Web site will be screened.

"It only takes one or two disgruntled students to create a distorted picture. Outsiders see this and think it (the class) must be really bad when it may not be bad," he said.

Eser, an associate professor of energy and geo-environmental engineering, believes the site is a good instrument to receive feedback from students but has suggestions to improve its content.

"I have looked at the Course Evaluator page very briefly and I'd like to see that the questions used for course evaluations include questions that access student's learning and learning methods."

Eser added the new Course Evaluator might have an impact on his teaching methods.

"If I see a consistent trend signaling a problem in students' learning," he said, "I will consider changing the methods I use to teach."