Inspiration on how to evaluate a PhD course
On this page, you can find inspiration and advice on how to evaluate a PhD course.
Please note that evaluating a PhD course is optional and not a requirement from the Graduate School. The results would be for the department’s own use.
Things to consider when evaluating a PhD course
The purpose of the evaluation
It is important that you consider why you are evaluating the course.
What do you need to gain knowledge about?
Do you need to know an opinion on the specific course or on the courses offered in general by the department?
How will the purpose of the evaluation be communicated to the participants?
Depending on the purpose, it might be interesting to ask specifically (qualitatively or quantitatively) about:
- Information and communication to participants before the course
- Pedagogical tools and teaching during the course
- Which elements were particularly instructive or less instructive (teachers, material, texts, teaching elements, etc.)
- Did the participants miss anything in the course?
- Are the participants requesting other courses?
The form of the evaluation
It is important that you consider how you evaluate the course.
How do you get the information you need?
- Should you evaluate quantitatively e.g., by using a Likert scale, it might be useful to have the evaluation run from 1-6, in that it nudges the attending PhD students to make up their minds on whether a specific element of the course is above or below average.
- In case your course comprises of several modules and/or teachers, you might gain more concrete feedback when evaluating each day individually and add some overall course rating questions at the end of the evaluation form on the last day. It can be hard for the attendees to separate the different days in a course week. This results in better feedback for the individual teacher.
- For obtaining higher response rates, ask the students to fill out the survey during the last hour of the course/during a coffee break, while still in the classroom. This ensures that the PhD students get it done.
- You might want to leave the room while the students fill out the survey.
- Physical evaluations are also an option. This can be in the form of oral feedback from the attendees, a box where attendees are encouraged to add good ideas for future events and complaints/compliments, or a physical survey handed out.
Survey platforms
Please note that you must have KU-ID to use the platforms below:
- Microsoft 365 Forms (Available with a Microsoft Office 365 subscription. Go to the Start Menu on your computer and then the Office app). (UCPH has a license)
- Absalon (This is useful if you use Absalon for your course) (UCPH has a license)
- SurveyXact (UCPH has a license)