Student evaluations are a part of every faculty member’s life. Some consider them to be a positive part of the academic life and others dismiss them as a meaningless exercise (or even worse, as a detriment to good teaching).

You might as well know that I come down on the side of student evaluations being a necessary and worthwhile component of teaching at the college and university level. I also received – and I believe, earned – great student evaluations over the 19 years that I taught undergraduate and graduate students. This wasn’t a fluke.

Here are six suggestions for ensuring that you earn and receive high evaluations from students:

1. Teach well. This may sound like I’m making a flip comment, but it is not intended to be so. First and foremost, if you want to earn great student evaluations, you need to be a great teacher. Some people teach well almost naturally, it seems. Others have to work VERY hard at becoming great teachers. No matter how good you already are, work to be even better. That’s your first tip – and not one to ignore.

2. Determine what you want students to write on your evaluations. For example, I wanted to students to write “I’ve never worked so hard in a class and I’ve never learned so much.” You may have a very clear sense of what you want students to write or you may need to do some extra thinking about this.

3. Tell students on the first day of class, “Here is what I am expecting to have you write on my evaluations at the end of the semester.” Then tell them. You have the phrasing for this after you complete tip #5. You are letting them know what you want and are beginning to install that kind of thinking for them. This also helps them know what your expectations are – and I always assure the students how I will be working so that I earn whatever the positive comments are that they will be making.

4. Teach your classes with whatever it is that you want students to write in mind. This includes your preparation, your demeanor in the classroom, your interactions with students, the grading of their assignments, etc. You are making sure that you earn and deserve the good evaluations that you are going to receive. The idea is that you are delivering on the “goods.”

5. Begin doing course evaluations no later than the end of the third week of class. This may sound crazy and even a little scary, but…you want to begin asking early and often (within reason, of course) how the class is going for the students. You can ask them to do informal evaluations or you can do more formal evaluations. I prefer short, frequent check-ins with students to see if there are areas where I am not doing well and that I am willing to address (e.g., if they think my expectations are too high, I am not likely to change that, but if they say I spend too long explaining something that had already been explained in the syllabus and they would rather I told people to go back and reread the syllabus, well…that’s good feedback for me).

No matter how magnificent you are as a teacher, you will always have a few students who don’t give you a “high” ranking. But if you use the ideas that are in this article, you will have the majority of students providing a fair, respectful, and good evaluation of your teaching. I know from experience and from helping lots of others with this.

When I teach, I often want to use supplemental material (or even need to because the text I use doesn’t cover something). What guidelines must I follow to ensure I’m not violating copyright? If it’s just a section of a text, can I copy it and hand it out? If it’s an article from the library can I copy it and hand it out? Must I get written permission from the publisher or is there ever an “intellectual merit – sharing knowledge for the greater good” domain? I feel like I teach my students not to plagiarize, but am afraid I am probably guilty of doing it myself . . .

Here’s my response:

Oh, my goodness. This is a VERY good question and smart to ask.

I noodled around on the internet looking for some good answers and this site seems to spell it out well:

http://www.umuc.edu/library/copy.shtml

For example:

When is Permission Required?

• When you intend to use the materials for commercial purposes.

• When you want to use the materials repeatedly.

• When you want to use a work in its entirety and it is longer than 2,500 words.

I know when I was a faculty member, I could put something in the library on reserve for students to read but only for one semester. And if it was in a course packet (like a whole article that was included), I needed to get permission. There is a copyright clearinghouse that most journals have gone to so it’s easy and usually I never had to pay anything. The only time I had to pay was if I was copying a chapter from a book and then that was about $50 – I think I had to do that once. I think this is the service (I remember it was CCC: http://www.copyright.com/)

Fair use is a big term in copyright law. And teachers, in particular, have assumed that fair use meant they could do anything almost…and that got some people into trouble.

When you find a good article in the newspaper and copy it because it’s current and you bring that in, you’re fine (citing the source, etc.). If it’s a segment from someone else’s book, you may need to look into it further.

We all need to be smart about this, especially when we are teaching and trying to model it for our students!!

• Persistence

Persistence

A defining aspect of a toxic academic work environment is whether or not the behavior persists. Are you experiencing a situation that even after talking with someone about particular behaviors, attitudes, or something else, the person persists – or it even becomes worse? Not a good sign.  If you have done everything you know how to do, i.e., used all the professional and personal skills you have and it’s not making any difference, you can imagine that things are likely to get worse.  Check the persistence of ‘misbehavior’ that is upsetting to you and to others.  The longer it continues unchecked, the worse it will get.  Toxic behavior in the academic work environment does NOT go away by itself. 

Please consider what is happening in your department, lab, unit, or college. Check the length of time, persistence, severity, effect on others, and the loss of good people. It’s better to take care of potential problems EARLY. Once a bullying culture has been established, it is VERY difficult to change – and VERY expensive. You can’t afford that and neither can the country.

Sadly, toxicity exists in the academic work environment. If you would like to access a free teleseminar (*Antioxidants for a Toxic Academic Work Environment*) that was hosted by Gina Hiatt of The Academic Ladder (http://www.AcademicLadder.com), feel free to go to http://meggin.com/academicladder.php.

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!

• Severity

Severity

The severity is a key issue to take a look at. When someone murmurs “Oh gosh, I can’t believe we’ve got this meeting again” or, “Who made her queen?” or similar statements that sometimes people make, that’s not that the end of the world. It’s neither helpful nor necessary, but it’s really not toxic.

But once it becomes severe and the statements are more personal and more intentionally hurtful, that is when people start to feel fearful. They’re afraid for their jobs. They’re afraid for their tenure. They’re afraid for access to people, access to materials or space. When fear and anger are starting to permeate the environment and really become part of the ‘accepted’ culture, that’s when warning signs should be going off – to everyone (including the department chair, dean, etc.) Of course, sometimes they are the ones who are causing the toxicity, right? But that’s a different article.

Please consider what is happening in your department, lab, unit, or college. Check the length of time, persistence, severity, effect on others, and the loss of good people. It’s better to take care of potential problems EARLY. Once a bullying culture has been established, it is VERY difficult to change – and VERY expensive. You can’t afford that and neither can the country.

Sadly, toxicity exists in the academic work environment. If you would like to access a free teleseminar (*Antioxidants for a Toxic Academic Work Environment*) that was hosted by Gina Hiatt of The Academic Ladder (http://www.AcademicLadder.com), feel free to go to http://meggin.com/academicladder.php.

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!

• Loss of good people

Loss of good people

In a toxic environment, you also start to notice that you’re losing good people. Either you lose them altogether or you keep them physically but you lose them mentally and emotionally. Administrators must pay attention to this. If there’s some sort of unusual turnover in a department or in any other unit, then the administrator ought to be taking a look and wonder (and find out), ‘What is going on and why?”

Please consider what is happening in your department, lab, unit, or college. Check the length of time, persistence, severity, effect on others, and the loss of good people. It’s better to take care of potential problems EARLY. Once a bullying culture has been established, it is VERY difficult to change – and VERY expensive. You can’t afford that and neither can the country.

Sadly, toxicity exists in the academic work environment. If you would like to access a free teleseminar (*Antioxidants for a Toxic Academic Work Environment*) that was hosted by Gina Hiatt of The Academic Ladder (http://www.AcademicLadder.com), feel free to go to http://meggin.com/academicladder.php.

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!

• Effect on employees, students, public, &/or shareholders

Effect on employees, students, public, &/or shareholders

Another defining aspect is the effect that the rudeness, fear, or negativity is having. When it has a deleterious effect on the people who work in a department, in a college, in a lab, wherever it might be, you can also assume that it is having an effect on the students (undergrad or grad) and on the general public, i.e., those who are supposedly served by the college or university. No one is helped by this. The public ends up knowing about the problem as will other shareholders or stakeholders (state legislators, etc.). This negativity just keeps building and feeding on itself, and if anyone deludes himself or herself that it’s a secret, it’s not.

Please consider what is happening in your department, lab, unit, or college. Check the length of time, persistence, severity, effect on others, and the loss of good people. It’s better to take care of potential problems EARLY. Once a bullying culture has been established, it is VERY difficult to change – and VERY expensive. You can’t afford that and neither can the country.

Sadly, toxicity exists in the academic work environment. If you would like to access a free teleseminar (*Antioxidants for a Toxic Academic Work Environment*) that was hosted by Gina Hiatt of The Academic Ladder (http://www.AcademicLadder.com), feel free to go to http://meggin.com/academicladder.php.

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!

In preparing for a workshop I was doing recently entitled “Input, Throughput, Output,” where I used the metaphor of a conveyor belt, I found the greatest clipart!  It showed a guy sitting at his desk and the desk was a conveyor belt.  I want you to get that picture in your mind…and then ask yourself whether your desk is a conveyor belt or, uh, maybe something else. 

• Is your desk maybe a toxic dump?
• Is your desk possibly a clogged up drain?
• Is your desk a place for incoming, but not much outgoing?  Sort of an inbound terminal?

So let’s go back to the idea of ‘desk as conveyor belt.’  You have to deliberately design your desk to function smoothly or it certainly won’t happen.  I know that from experience!  If we use the word PREPARE as our acronym, here are some tips to get you going:

P – Partition your desk/workspace into its various functions.  Think about the top of your desk as VERY pricey land (real estate).  Do you have it apportioned appropriately? 

R – Reduce the options of where incoming work (mail, folders, forms, etc.) can go.  If your desk and office are not functioning like a smooth-running conveyor belt, part of the problem may be that you (and others) put things all over the place.  This gives you the sense that you have incoming EVERYWHERE.  And for many, that’s true.  It’s an overwhelming feeling and leads to frustration rather than productivity.  Figure out a place where all of your ‘incoming’ will go (Hello?!  How about an inbox?)

E – Eliminate as many knick-knacks, pictures, plants, and other paraphernalia from your desk as possible.  Your desk is a place where you work.  Put the photo-gallery/memory-lane display somewhere else. 

P – Place what you is functional FOR YOU in easy-to-reach locations on your desk.  You want what you use often to be within easy reach and the items you don’t need as often further away. 

A – Allocate the appropriate amount of space for the kind of work you do – at any particular time. There is not a specified amount of space that is ‘right’ for every faculty member.  If it’s finals week and you are in the midst of grading projects, papers, and exams, then allocate your working space for that task.  At other times, if you are in the midst of writing a grant, then allocate (and re-allocate) your space so that it’s serving you for the current work you’re doing.  Visualize your work space as fluid. 

R – Route work back OUT of your office.  A conveyor belt keeps moving.  Sometimes, faculty members have offices where a great deal comes in but very little goes back out.  Set up systems that route out-going…OUT.  When mail is ready to be mailed, have a place for that.  If you have work that needs to go home with you, have a place for that.  If you have materials that need to go with you to class, have a place for that. 

E – Educate others about your new system.  If you have been a professor for any length of time, you – and those around you – have gotten used to the way that you do things.  As you begin to set up your desk (and office) as a conveyor belt, you’ll need to educate others about how your system works.  And they may need reminding. 

Keep the visual image of a desk as a conveyor belt.  Imagine paperwork, projects, requests, and so forth that come into your work space, are then dealt with, and then go right back out….everything is smoothly running because you have systems for “input,” systems for “throughput”, and then systems for “output.”

If you have any specific suggestions for resources related to keeping, managing, and using To Do lists, several people have also asked me for ideas in this area. Since this is one I struggle with, I haven’t been much help. Anything you can pass along would be great!

Anyway, here are some tips and resources (not in any particular order): 

1. Everyone must use some type of to-do list, either paper or electronic.
2. It needs to be updated daily rather than some GIANT to-do list which overwhelms us and makes it impossible to focus on what needs to be done now.
3. Paper: Either have a daily to-do list in your planner (like the Franklin planner, Day-Timer, Day-Runner or other type or carry around a notebook that is designated as your ‘list of things to do.’ Personally, I use the to-do list in my Franklin planner. I can have it available anytime, anywhere (on a plane, in bright sunlight, etc.) so it works for me.
4. Electronic: Oh, my…lots of options

• Apparently Gmail now offers a to-do list. I haven’t used it but notice it’s now there.
• Outlook offers a to-do list (as do most of the other standard email programs)
• http://www.tadalist.com/ which seems pretty nifty and now that I have an iPhone, I’m sort of tempted to give this a try.
• Gina Trapani’s website, www.LifeHacker.com has a bunch of articles that are useful, too.

People need to have a to-do list that they compile each day, based on what else is going on. And, they need to refer to it constantly to make sure they are staying on track rather than veering off into the urgent but not important activities. It’s part of why I like the paper because it’s staring at me all day. Although, with digital, you can set alarms, too.

And if people also want to know about a ‘not-to-do list,’ then they can click to get info on the not-to-do list.  

Hope these ideas help some…Feel free to send them along…

I don’t know about you, but most academics find that they are simply exhausted at this time of year. It’s not just near the end of the semester, but the end of a long academic year. All you want to do at this time is take a good long rest!But of course, there is still plenty to do, and keeping up momentum on your writing project at this stage is more important than ever. I’m reminded of a marathon runner in the last few miles of the race – the finish line is almost in sight and you just have to keep on running for a little while longer to reach your goal.

A few tips to help you push through this time of year:

1) Keep your eye on the prize – remind yourself of your long-term goal, be it finishing your dissertation, getting tenure, or just learning to enjoy academic writing (yes, that is possible) and getting your thoughts out into the scholarly world. Write your goal on a sticky that you post next to your computer.

2) Keep your daily goals both reasonable and doable. I notice at this time of year some people try for too much and then get down on themselves for not attaining their goals.

3) Don’t go it alone. Reach out to others who know what you are going through and talk about the writing process.

4) Make yourself accountable. It can be easy to let things slide when we are the only ones expecting progress. It’s time to put a support structure in place which not only creates accountability but which helps you make real, lasting changes in your writing productivity.

The Academic Writing Club helps grad students, post docs, or professors who wants to finish their dissertation, article, grant proposal or book more quickly. We provide the structure, guidance, accountability, coaching feedback and interactivity with peers that you need in order to write productively.

Join the Academic Writing Club and discover how much more you can get done, and how much less painful writing can be, when you have this kind of support.

Plus you’ll get extra tips on how to become a more productive writer, and how to maximize your time in the Club, in our free teleclass, “Six Strategies for Successful Academic Writing.”

All this, plus our free telephone group coaching Q & A session, will help you jump start and continue your productive writing throughout the year. (You will receive recordings of both teleclasses in downloadable MP3 format).  Just the teleclass and telephone group are worth the Writing Club fee!

Check out the Writing Club at: http://www.academicwritingclub.com/

So, for an introvert to consider displaying at a vendor table at a conference is putting ourselves out there and WAY beyond our comfort zones. However, I decided that I wanted to do just that.  A little over a year ago, in addition to attending a conference, I signed up for a vendor table.

On the Friday afternoon of the conference (from 2:00 – 6:00, I had a 2′ x 8′ table (alongside 12 other vendors, including a coach for professors, a nationally-known consultant for universities, and many publishers of materials for professors).

Here’s what I displayed:

• A huge sign for a special summer workshop I was planning;
• Letter openers to give away;
• Postcards – every single one I’ve ever sent out to members of this group;
• Various items that I give out in my workshops (signs, etc.);
• Handouts about the various free resources I have available;
• Oh…and since it was close to Halloween, I brought candy in my suitcase. Who doesn’t like M&Ms, Snickers, etc? Lots of people stopped just to get some candy…and it gave me an opportunity to step out and offer it to people and make light conversation that way.

To display the various items, I had purchased these nifty little wooden stands from Wal-Mart and Bed, Bath, and Beyond so that my postcards weren’t just lying flat on the table. They were standing right up there so people could see them. That caused people to stop by just to see what I had.

To top it all off, because I was an early (maybe the first!) person to sign up for a vendor table, I had the table that could be seen the minute anyone walked through the door. So as long as I didn’t run away, I was able to see everyone who came through the door (and they could see me whether they wanted to or not!)

And it worked! For the first time, in no uncertain terms, I had sense that all my marketing over the years has been worth it! People remembered what I had sent out! They caught sight of one or more of the postcards and said, “I have that postcard on my refrigerator,” or “I have that postcard on my office door.” Some people said, “Oh, you are the person who sends us all these cool things?!” There were comments on how colorful my materials are, how well-designed they are, how much they like them….and oh, “What do I do, by the way?”

It was awesome! I got to talk to people about why I send what I send, the different workshops I have that I could do at their colleges or universities, ways that they could get in touch with me if they want to, and so on and so on….

By the end of the four hours, I was about to fall over, but when I got to my room, ordered a glass of wine and some room service, and called my husband, I was exhilarated, too. I told him, “This is exactly what I was hoping would happen.”

Lessons for introverts (and others, too):

• Marketing over time works. It especially works if whatever it is that you do somehow fits together. Mine does and people recognized it.     

• Building relationships in this 21st century world is different and interesting. People felt like they knew me because they subscribe to the Top Ten Productivity Tips or Keeping Chaos at Bay. And then when they found out others standing around also subscribed, they were a little community and they talked about which ones they like the best and what they do with them when they arrive in their in-box.     

• Getting to put a real face/person with the marketing materials was positive. Now they really can see who it is that is sending them things and realize that I am a real person and that I do want to assist them as individuals or the professors and staff at their colleges and universities.     

• Getting to actually talk to people F2F allowed me to know them better and gave them the opportunity to find out more about who I am and what I might be able to bring to them. It did it in a way that no flat piece of mail could.     

• We are marketing ourselves. Make no mistake about that. It doesn’t matter if you’re a professor, a teacher, an entrepreneur, an author, a coach…you are marketing yourself. Our materials have to match who we are and what we represent.
  

Suffice it to say, I learned a lot and will continue to sign up for a trade show booth – as long as I have plenty of time to gear up this introverted personality – and to be able to rest afterwards!