‘Your voice counts’: Understanding how online student evaluations encourage lecturers’ pedagogies during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Student evaluations are used frequently within higher education institutions, as lecturers are expected to respond to these in a way that improves course delivery and addresses students’ concerns. The purpose of this article was to understand how online student evaluations encourage lecturers’ pedagogies in a comprehensive open distance and e-Learning university in South Africa. This article argues that student pre-evaluation questions, which are posted on the learning management system at the beginning of a course, may reduce the transactional distance in a module, if implemented correctly. This qualitative study makes use of documentary analysis, email interviews, and an observation schedule to (1) understand the pedagogical shifts first year students require in student evaluations, (2) explore if student evaluations encourage lecturers to alter their pedagogies and, (3) to investigate the impact of student evaluations on lecturer pedagogies. Moore’s theory of transactional distance was used to analyse the findings in this study. The findings revealed that students are very vocal in online student evaluations as they aware of their pedagogical needs in a module and lecturers were encouraged and influenced by the student evaluations. The results may inform teaching and policy decisions as more institutions transition to online course evaluation collection methods, particularly given the restrictions imposed by the current COVID-19 crisis. Suggestions for future research include examining the usability of student evaluation comments as well as trends in student feedback quality following the transition to emergency remote teaching during the global pandemic.