I recently had an instructor reach out and noticed that one of the course evaluations they receive is not about them. The qualitative response showed that a student had accidentally reviewed a different instructor. How do you handle issues like this after a survey has been submitted and the course evaluations period has ended? Thank you for any suggestions!
We have a redaction policy and process when an instructor asks for a comment to be removed, either for inappropriate comments or in the case that it seems the student accidentally evaluated the wrong course. Redaction requests are reviewed by a panel made up of faculty and staff, and if they decide the redaction is warranted, we remove the comment through the Results > Response Editor. Our policy states that if the redaction is approved, the entire comment is removed and no selective editing is allowed.
We provide instructors with these examples of the types of comments that will be considered for redaction. This isn't a complete list but is meant to set the expectation for how inappropriate a comment must be to be redacted:
-comments that threaten or incite violence -comments that clearly indicate the primary intention of the commenter is to offend, or that are primarily ad hominem attacks on the instructor well beyond their capacities and performance as an instructor. -comments that are wholly irrelevant to the given course and its instruction, such as clearly mistaken comments on the wrong course or wrong instructor.
Happy to answer any other questions about how we handle redaction requests.
Thank you for your response. This was the first time we have experience this which has made us really think about a process for handling similar instances.
This time, it was clear the the evaluation was for the wrong instructor as the student included the wrong instructor's name in a qualitative question. In this instance would you only remove the response to this question or all of their responses for the one particular course survey? There is a very high probability that the responses to the other other questions in the evaluation/survey were for a different instructor as well.
Yes, it's rare, but if there is clear evidence a student has evaluated the wrong course, we will include that in the information we provide the redaction panel. If they agree and approve the redaction, we have requested through CES support to have the entire form submission removed. One instance that comes to mind is the student referenced the wrong course so we checked the responses for that course and found almost identical quantitative and qualitative responses for both courses using the Response Report. So, the redaction panel agreed the entire form submission should be removed for the incorrect course.
Comments
Hi Chris,
We have a redaction policy and process when an instructor asks for a comment to be removed, either for inappropriate comments or in the case that it seems the student accidentally evaluated the wrong course. Redaction requests are reviewed by a panel made up of faculty and staff, and if they decide the redaction is warranted, we remove the comment through the Results > Response Editor. Our policy states that if the redaction is approved, the entire comment is removed and no selective editing is allowed.
We provide instructors with these examples of the types of comments that will be considered for redaction. This isn't a complete list but is meant to set the expectation for how inappropriate a comment must be to be redacted:
-comments that threaten or incite violence
-comments that clearly indicate the primary intention of the commenter is to offend, or that are primarily ad hominem attacks on the instructor well beyond their capacities and performance as an instructor.
-comments that are wholly irrelevant to the given course and its instruction, such as clearly mistaken comments on the wrong course or wrong instructor.
Happy to answer any other questions about how we handle redaction requests.
Thanks!
Greg
Hi Greg,
Thank you for your response. This was the first time we have experience this which has made us really think about a process for handling similar instances.
This time, it was clear the the evaluation was for the wrong instructor as the student included the wrong instructor's name in a qualitative question. In this instance would you only remove the response to this question or all of their responses for the one particular course survey? There is a very high probability that the responses to the other other questions in the evaluation/survey were for a different instructor as well.
Thank you again!
Hi Chris,
Yes, it's rare, but if there is clear evidence a student has evaluated the wrong course, we will include that in the information we provide the redaction panel. If they agree and approve the redaction, we have requested through CES support to have the entire form submission removed. One instance that comes to mind is the student referenced the wrong course so we checked the responses for that course and found almost identical quantitative and qualitative responses for both courses using the Response Report. So, the redaction panel agreed the entire form submission should be removed for the incorrect course.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Thanks!
Greg
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