Date of Award

2010

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Grilly, David

Subject Headings

Teachers -- Rating of, Students -- Academic workload, Teacher-student relationships, Student teacher evaluations, Workload, Student evaluations of teaching

Abstract

There are several intermingled factors that have been proposed to influence the results seen on student evaluations of teaching (SETs). Two suggested factors are workload and expected grade. Research has suggested both a positive and negative correlation with scores seen on SETs and workload levels. However, the direction of the relationship may depend upon whether the workload was perceived as "good" or "bad." For the purposes of this study, good workload can be defined as work that the student felt increased his or her knowledge of the subject at hand. Bad workload can be defined as work that the student considered to be "busy work," and did not help to advance his or her knowledge of the given subject. This study set out to determine if students that perceive higher levels of good workload and lower levels of bad workload report higher SET scores. It also explores the relationship between expected grade and SET ratings. Students from eight undergraduate courses were surveyed and asked questions similar to those seen on SETs. These included questions about good and bad workload levels, expected grade, teacher and course satisfaction as well as other questions that may influence a student's perception of the course. The results indicated that the amount of perceived good workload was positively correlated with SET scores and the amount of perceived bad workload was negatively correlated with SET scores. Expected grade was also positively correlated with SET ratings. Good and bad workload values significantly predicted course value. Although the relationships were in the predicted direction for the instructor satisfaction portion of SET ratings, they were not significant. The direction of the relationship may be due to chance as non significant results are not considered reliable. Research results suggest that expected grade plays a role in determining a student's satisfaction with a given course. Perceived good and bad workload may play a role in determining overall course satisfaction and possibly a smaller ro

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