Resources for Teaching Evaluations
Recognizing that course and instructor evaluations often provide only partial information about teaching effectiveness, the Center for Teaching Excellence has gathered additional resources for reflecting on and evaluating teaching. These resources include articles and other scholarship as well as frameworks and tools that have been developed and used successfully at other institutions.
On this page, you will find recommended resources for getting started. We also invite you to explore additional resources for a deeper dive into teaching evaluations.
Getting Started
In a timely article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Before teaching can be evaluated, good teaching must be defined, McMurtrie (2024) addresses the limitations of student course evaluations and reviews alternatives being implemented at various universities.
Establishing a framework for assessing teaching effectiveness (Simonson et al., 2022) defines effective teaching and provides a comprehensive tool for evaluating teaching.
The roadmap designed by Indiana University in Identifying Pathways for Excellence in Teaching provides a year-by-year plan for instructors to evaluate and document teaching effectiveness.
The Teaching Quality Framework initiative at CU Boulder includes a toolkit for departments to evaluate teaching in a more comprehensive and robust manner.
Classroom observation is frequently recommended for obtaining feedback on teaching. The Center for Excellence provides consultations and classroom observations at an instructor's request. In addition to engaging in pre-observation reflection, you may wish to use this post-observation reflection tool from the University of Texas at Austin.
Additional Resources
Further reading, frameworks, and tools can be found in our Teaching Evaluation Resource Collection.
Handbooks
The Faculty Teaching Handbook contains information on teaching-related policies and procedures at Rice, as well as walkthroughs to help new faculty access their rosters, set up their course sites, navigate the add/drop period, enter grades, etc.
The Adaptive Teaching Guide is intended to introduce a variety of strategies and techniques to help guide faculty members and instructors as they prepare for, and teach their classes in-person, online, and in dual-learning modalities. The guide features answers and suggestions to common pedagogical questions and challenges that faculty members may encounter. Instructors may also enroll in the CTE's Self-Paced Adaptive Course Design Institute through Canvas.
The Guide to Teaching Continuity is intended to assist Rice instructors in considering how to adjust their course plans during short and long-term disruption to the residential courses. Teaching during times of disruption may involve using technological tools not previously integrated into the course and thinking creatively about how to develop students’ knowledge and skills to complete course assignments. This resource provides guidance on what to consider when developing a plan for teaching your course remotely and high- and low-tech tips to manage your course and support your students.