Student Course Evaluations
Student course evaluations have been helping to consistently review the quality of teaching at RWTH since 2004.
The student course evaluations serve to ensure and improve the quality of the individual course and primarily pursue the goal of constantly reviewing the teaching and learning methods practiced and giving the individual teachers constructive feedback on their courses from the perspective of the participating students. The instructors receive information and assessments and can use this input to make modifications at short notice or obtain ideas for further development for the following semesters.
All instructors at RWTH take part in the student course evaluation with every course they hold each semester. The students thus evaluate the quality of teaching and learning across the board each semester. If the response rate is less than five, no evaluation is carried out for data protection reasons. The instructors should discuss the results with the students.
The participation of all individuals involved is an active contribution to quality development and assurance in studying and teaching at RWTH, with teaching further developed in a future-oriented manner.
You can find further information on the following topics on the RWTH intranet:
- Surveys (sample, individualization, submission, sources of error)
- Process overview (general information, survey methods, settings in RWTHonline)
- Results and evaluations (preparation, discussion, derivation of measures, global evaluations)
Common Questions About Student Course Evaluations
What is the purpose of student course evaluations?
- Promotion of dialogue between learners and teachers
- Constantly reviewing teaching and learning methods so that instructors receive constructive feedback on praise, criticisms, requests, and suggestions about courses from the students' perspective
- Confirmation of strengths as well as detection of weaknesses in the teaching process
- Quality development and assurance in teaching and learning
- Increasing student satisfaction by optimizing teaching and study operations
- Important data basis for quality management in teaching and learning
Which aspects should be investigated with the help of the questionnaires?
- Concept of the course
- Use of media
- Grading of the course
- Teaching and behavior of the teacher
- Didactic components
- Grading of the teacher
- General conditions
- Comments that can be individually written
- Statistical data
What is the legal basis for student course evaluations?
The Higher Education Act stipulates in state law that the work of higher education institutions in teaching should be subject to regular evaluation. This includes the duty of all members and affiliates of a university to participate in accreditations and evaluations to the extent required. In addition, the results of evaluations are to be published.
Specific regulations for student course evaluations are set forth in the Evaluation Regulations.
Data protection and traceability
The RWTH surveys are conducted in compliance with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation. Participation is voluntary and anonymous. It is possible to skip individual questions without answering them. Likewise, the surveys can be canceled at any time without saving the entries. Answers and feedback are processed and stored without a connection to the person completing the survey. No TAN or other additional data, such as web browser or IP address, are stored in the data set with the responses received, meaning that no assignment of the responses to a person can be made on the basis of these. Due to the fact that the collection, storage, processing and communication of the data and their evaluation are limited exclusively to RWTH, there is no risk of data misuse and therefore no disadvantage to be expected from answering the questionnaires. It is not possible to draw any conclusions about individual response behavior. An evaluation is only carried out after five responses have been received and the results are only published in anonymized and aggregated form.