Abstract:

These is international recognition of evaluation of academics by students as a means of assessing their (academics) performance. Student evaluation of academics is recommended by Ellis (1993); Veld, Fussel & Neave (1996); Shelvin (2000) and King (2007). Rajkaran & Mammen (2012) propose that academics in Comprehensive Universities (CU) have themselves evaluated by students once in a 3-year cycle. Academics are required by institutional policy at one CU to have themselves evaluated every semester for semester courses and annually for year courses (Walter Sisulu University - Evaluation of Teaching Policy, 2009:54). Against this background, this lecturer had himself evaluated by his students in the last two years (2010 and 2011) using an instrument developed by the Centre of Learning and Teaching Development at Walter Sisulu University (WSU). The questionnaires were administered towards the end of the semester for two modules in 2010 and one in 2011. They were analysed manually and use was made of a hand-held calculator. The findings of the self-assessment indicate that the lecturer is on the right track but needed to make some adjustments to his modules regularlty. On course offering the average score was over 80%; on instruction it was 85%; on overall course rating it was over 85%/ and on overall instructor rating it was over 88%. Favourable comments from students included: "Good instructor, good motivator, always punctual, always prepared to give us a second change, keeps us on our toes, there is always work to be done and students are always kept busy in his class." Students had the following advice (amongst others) for their lecturer: "don't give us too much work; don't be too fast; and the module is heavily reliant on the textbook." This paper will outline the evaluation process used by the author and conclude with some suggestions for change to the instrument and the process used.

Keywords:

Self-assessment, quality monitoring, quality assessment.