Lecturers Get Their Grades
Artist's Impression of Our Sole
During the final weeks of term, the old winter chestnut of Lecturer Evaluation will rear its head once again. While the theory is the same, the process has now been named SOLE – Student On-Line Evaluation, in an attempt to shake off the negative image that LEQs (Lecturer Evaluation Questionnaires) managed to gain during their final round last year.
For those of you who are unaware, the LEQ/SOLE is a system that allows the students to evaluate how their lecturer is doing. The idea is that any problems with the teaching are then brought to light in a secure system, which cannot be traced back to the student.
While this is, in principle, a good idea, the organisation of such a system has always proved controversial, and last year this came to a head when the system became electronic. Within hours of the system coming online, it was shown to be highly insecure by a group of student hackers within College. This had poor implications for the anonymity of the system, which ensured a dramatic drop in confidence within the student body.
Last year’s failed attempt at a joint system between the Union and College led to many accusations of a rushed job which were cited as the reasons for the failure in security. This has prompted the Union to carefully examine its role in the proceedings this year, since a second year of failure would perhaps reflect worse on the Union itself rather than College. After lengthy consideration on the subject of security, Andrew Smith (Deputy President of Education & Welfare) and Sen Ganesh (President) decided that they were not confident that a repeat performance of last year would not happen again.
Speaking to Felix, Mr. Ganesh said, “We value the importance of student feedback on the matter of teaching, but do not feel that there has been enough testing for us to put a guarantee on the system’s success.”
This will certainly be seen as a ‘bad thing’ by all those within both the Union and College responsible for quality of education, but Felix believes changing the name will not dispel the memories of last year’s fiasco. Several successful years will probably be required before confidence is once again restored.
