The Student Government Association’s main focus is to serve the interests of Saint Louis University’s students. In order to better help students find out more about the classes they are interested in, the SGA formed the Faculty Course Ratings Committee several years ago.
The committee was designed primarily to compile various information about as many of the numerous courses offered by SLU as possible. This is done by handing out Student Surveys to students at the end of each course, and also by requesting general course information for the course professor.
The information contained generally included the questions asked in the Student Survey, a chart showing the average answers to each question of the Student Survery, the title of the course, the name of the professor teaching the course, and whether or not the students recommend the course to other students.
Issues of the Faculty Course Booklets have since been circulating, one per semester. The name of the booklet has changed over the years, from the initial “The Grapevine” to last year’s “Faculty Course Evaluation Booklet” to this year’s “Faculty Course Information Booklet”. Likewise, the name of the committee putting the book together has also changed from the previous “Faculty Course Ratings Committee” to the current “Faculty Course Information Committee”.
The next issue of the Faculty Course Information Booklet will be released this Monday, November 8. For the most part, the upcoming issue is the same as the issue released last spring semester at the end of April 1999.
“Next semester’s Faculty Course Information Booklet will be aimed for release during advising week, rather than during registration week,” says Angela Haas, Chair of the Faculty Course Information Committee.
Several other changes that the Faculty Course Information Committee is currently making to the Faculty Course Information Booklet. Changes include reducing the number of questions on the Student Survey of courses distributed at the end of each course from a current 16 to 7.
Some example questions from the Fall 1998 booklet include: how accesible was the professor outside of class; how well did the professor encourage students to participate; and the degree to which the course was challenging. The wording of the questions is also being worked on as to make them more objective.
The committee also plans to add more information to the booklet per course. This includes the number of exams given throughout the course, the names of the books and other sources required as well as their costs, the teaching style of the professor, and the subject matter actually covered in the class relative to the course title. The committee also is working to raise the number of professors participating above the thirty-five included in the Fall 1998 issue in the publication.
In addition to this, the Committee hopes to add the course’s syllabus to its respective section in the booklet. The committee is also looking to into making the information available on-line so that students may search course information while looking at the courses offered for a particular term and/or registering for classes. “This way, there will be one place where a listing of the courses offered, what they cover, and how professors cover it can be located.” said committee member Nick Fagan.
The committee has been continuously searching for ways to benefit both SLU professors and students through the publication of the Faculty Course Information Booklet. One major step taken to achieve this was to invite members of the faculty to the meetings. “We are trying to work with the faculty in hopes to form a partnership to see what they do and don’t like about the booklet,” Fagan said.
