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[Phys-l] online student evaluations vs in-class student evaluations



It's time for student evaluations, and I have two choices. There's (a) the
traditional method of giving the students a paper form to fill in in-class,
and (b) an online version of the same form, presumably to be filled in at
their convenience.

One might expect that the online version would produce a reduced response
rate. Only students with strong opinions (either positive or negative)
would actually take the time to respond to a survey if they're not put on
the spot in a classroom. One could further imagine that this might bias the
results, depending on which of these extremes is a more powerful motivator.

Does anyone know of a comparison between these two methodologies, and does
anyone have any anecdotal evidence that would suggest which way (if any) a
bias is induced?

Richard Zajac