As with any serious academic exercise, the making of judgments on the basis of data is an infinitely more challenging exercise than the collection of data itself. Academic staff as evaluators may be likened to their students as assignment writers; they typically spend far longer on information gathering than on reflection on that information or on its communication through a balanced argument. The comparison of academic staff with their students can be taken a step further, for, as with students when they tackle assignments, the following three unsatisfactory outcomes often occur:
Below, we provide advice to inform the making of judgments and the planning of actions. Once again, some of this is repeated elsewhere in the module, but it is important advice and it is better to have it overemphasized rather than overlooked.
>Consider collected data most carefully; focus on what it suggests which you did not know as much as on what it confirms you did know.
While we should be clear what we want to know about, we must expect that, given the opportunity, our respondents will provide insights we could not have anticipated. We should show our openness to their point of view.
It is very tempting to dismiss criticisms as unfounded rather than to consider them seriously; however, respondents can only tell us what they perceive. We have a professional responsibility to consider these perceptions and reflect on why respondents are not reading the situation as we intended.
The professional responsibility is to consider data and make an informed professional decision about how to act, rather than to necessarily act in the way suggested by those you sought information from.
Typically, evidence from difference sources will reflect different positions and consequently, point towards different and even conflicting action. Take into account the biases of sources of evidence when weighing up what has been said and what should be done.
Devise plans to address those things which you or your team have identified as priorities before you consider new or different concerns.
It is useful to use colleagues or peers as sounding boards for our judgments. As fellow professionals, they are typically in a good position to make comment on the judgments we are forming and on the action we are contemplating.
Outline what you will do, and what others will do, by when, in order to ensure that desired changes happen. Include a consideration of how you will evaluate the success of these changes.
Find out who will make decisions about larger changes and what sort of documentation they need to come to a decision.
Change may require the approval of your local colleagues or of a faculty or university committee. Ensure you understand where and how the decision about change will be made. Provide those involved in making a decision with a clear picture and succinct account of your proposal. Too much documentation, particularly if it lacks clarity, as well as too little information, can lead to failure.
Report back to all evaluatees, whether they be students, peers or employers. Explain how their feedback helped to inform the actions you intend to take and explain what those actions are. If you have been unable to act on part of their comments explain why.
Following an evaluation, the appropriate course of action is sometimes clear and obvious. Frequently, however, it is less so; without doubt, one of the biggest challenges facing those tertiary teachers who collect feedback data is deciding how to act appropriately.
Typically, there are two major problems academic staff face: the first is concerned with deciding what the evaluative data is saying; the second is knowing what to do as a result of making the decision about what is being said. The guidelines given above should be of some assistance in addressing these problems, but we provide further help by giving below a series of problems often voiced by academic staff, together with a range of possible ways to resolve these problems. Once again, we emphasize that the suggestions made in this manual are intended as guides for action, not as blueprints; they may not suit the purposes and situations faced by all members of academic staff.
Further comments on evaluation. Evaluation: A brief note