A new statewide resolution to change teacher evaluations into an electronic form will be presented to the California State Student Association for its second reading Friday.
CSSA Technology Officer Michael Quibuyen — a Cal State Long Beach student and Associated Students, Inc. senator — sponsored the resolution. He is also responsible for finding ways to save students’ money through academic technology.
According to Quibuyen, a colleague at San Francisco State said that a switch to an electronic version would save the SFSU campus $400,000. Quibuyen said he believes that if every department at Cal State Long Beach adopted the electronic evaluation, the savings could be even greater.
In addition to cost savings, Quibuyen said electronic evaluation would also provide improved “data storage,” ultimately making it easier to track a teacher’s effectiveness.
Quibuyen based most of his research on the University of Mississippi, which has been paperless since 2004. In his research, he found that response rates on the paper and electronic versions were the same.
To encourage students to fill out the evaluation, universities could provide incentives such as registering for classes a day early or being able to view final grades sooner, Quibuyen said.
“It is definitely something that we can implement on our campus because the program [the University of Mississippi] uses is exactly the same as MyCSULB, pretty much, and it is really easy to integrate into our system” Quibuyen said.
However, as the resolution is written, converting to an electronic teacher evaluation is optional.
“In the end, it is up to each department to figure out whether they want to do electronic evaluations, but I think it will definitely be a step in the right direction once we get the idea on the table,” Quibuyen said.
The resolution will be distributed to the CSU directors of academic technology, CSU directors of information technology, the Chancellor’s Office, Board of Trustees, system-wide and campus academic senates, CSU presidents, CSU Associated Students and the California Faculty Association.
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