Evaluations of performance assessments

The standardized questionnaire is suitable for most oral and written performance assessments that are directly related to a course and have at least 5 participants. For other types of exams or exams with a lower number of participants, we recommend using other survey instruments.

Regular

The conceptual framework stipulates that 50% of all performance assessments are evaluated regularly (at least every 3 years). The faculties plan the evaluations accordingly, i.e. they select the performance assessments to be evaluated on a compulsory basis, taking into account their specific regulations.

Voluntary

Lecturers can of course have their performance assessments evaluated on a voluntary basis.

For more information on the purposes of course evaluations click here.

IMPROVEMENT-FOCUSED

The evaluation of performance assessments has two goals: on the one hand, it offers instructors the opportunity to review and improve the quality of their own performance assessments. On the other hand, faculty examination boards can use the results to develop recommendations for improving performance assessments.

• Immediately after the assessment, before grades are released
• Default: starting week 11 of the semester

In order to minimize the risk of any negative effects associated with the evaluation of performance assessments, surveys are conducted after the performance assessment has been completed, but before grades are released. Evaluation results will be released only after grades have been finalized. Particular attention is paid to compliance with data protection.

CONTENT

The standardized questionnaire for the evaluation of exams (oral and written performance assessments) is based on the Good Teaching Model and covers the following topics:

• constructive alignment (How well matched were the course content, the teaching methods and the exam?) (questions 2.1-2.5),
• the suitability of the form of the exam (question 3.1),
• the students' exam preparation, and learning success (questions 4.1-4.2).

In addition, the framework (quastions 5.1-5.2) and the perceived difficulty of the exam (quastion 6.1) are also queried.

The perceived "fairness" of an exam or grade is outside the scope of this evaluation.

Starting in the spring semester of 2023 a new questionnaire version will be used:

METHOD

Evaluations of performance assessments by means of the standard questionnaire are conducted online (individual links, TAN) only.

LANGUAGES

The questionnaire is trilingual in German, English and French.

Brief summaries of the procedures for evaluations of performance assessments are available as fact sheets for written and oral performance assessments.

1. Registration

In case of a mandatory evaluation of a performance assessment according to the evaluation plan, performance assessments will be registered for evaluation in KSL by the faculty’s QM department. 

If lecturers would like to have their performance assessment evaluated on a voluntary basis, they can either contact the person in charge of evaluations in their institute/faculty or register their performance assessment themselves. More information on this can be found here. Please note the registration deadlines before registering.

2. Preparation of surveys

Starting in week 11 of the semester the Evaluation Office starts to prepare the surveys for the registered performance assessments. Each survey is scheduled such that it must be conducted immediately after the performance assessment. For oral exams, this means that the survey is activated after the last student has been examined.

3. Information 

Prior to the performance assessment, the Evaluation Office notifies lecturers by email of the upcoming evaluation and of the closing date of the survey.

4. Data collection

Written exams:

After the performance assessment, students will receive an email with the link to the survey (usually at 8:00pm on the day of the exam). The survey remains open for 4 days and is automatically closed.

Oral exams:

Students receive an email with the link to the survey after the performance assessment (usually at 8:00pm on the day of the exam). The survey remains open for 24 hours and is closed automatically.

5. Release of grades

After the survey is closed (at the earliest 24h or 4 days after the performance assessment has concluded) lecturers or a designated person can enter the grades into KSL and forward them to the dean's office for transferal. Lecturers are free to decide on the grades earlier, but they may not be made known to the students yet. Afterwards lecturers confirm to the Evaluation Office that they have entered the grades and forwarded them to the dean's office.

6. Validation

After the Evaluation Office has received the confirmation that grades have been entered and forwarded, we checks the transferal of the grades and the response rate in order to protect the students' anonymity (survey validity).

7. Report/Information

If the evaluation is valid, the Evaluation Office manually sends out the report with an automated summary of the survey results and the students' comments. If the response rate is too low or the grades were released before the survey was closed, the Evaluation Office will inform the lecturer that the evaluation is not valid.

8. Sharing results

Lecturers may choose to inform their students of the evaluation results. They can, for example, publish the presentation slide on the last page of the report on ILIAS or send it to the students by email. 

9. Adjustments

If necessary, the didactic concept and/or performance assessment should be adjusted.

10. Follow up

The faculty's examination board carries out checks on a selection of performance assessments specified in advance by the faculty. It develops recommendations for the improvement of performance assessments and submits an anonymous report to the faculty.

Information on how to register evaluations of performance assessments