Student course evaluation documents: Constituting evaluation practice

Abstract

Many documents are produced in evaluation processes; documentation of student evaluation can therefore be time-consuming. Nevertheless, we have little knowledge about how these documents are used. This paper is based upon analysis of documents that direct and report on internal student evaluation practice at a Norwegian university. Interviews with academics and students are used as supplementary data. We analyse how student evaluation practice is described in university documents compared to what academics and students express. The aim is to explore how documents can contribute to the constitution of evaluation practice. The study shows that the university mainly requested information about how evaluation was carried out and followed up. The academics reported on challenges with evaluation practice, use and results. These reports were supposed to serve as background for educational quality reports at departments and faculty level. However, the information from programme reports was nearly absent from reports at higher organisational levels; they mainly described a well-established evaluation practice. There were misalignments between how student evaluation practice was described at different levels, in documents and in interviews. This may hinder improvements to evaluation practice and may also contribute to an understanding of student evaluation as an accountability tool more than a practice promoting learning.