Document Type
Conference Paper
Publication Date
2026
Abstract
Student evaluations of teaching are commonly used to inform instructional improvement, personnel decisions, and course development. At many institutions, including those using the Student Perceptions of Teaching (SPOT) instrument, instructor effectiveness and course structure are evaluated within a single, unified survey. While efficient, this approach can unintentionally conflate student perceptions of course difficulty, content sequencing, or assessment design with perceptions of instructor performance. As a result, feedback intended to support reflective teaching practice may become ambiguous or difficult to interpret.
This poster proposes an effective teaching practice centered on distinguishing between instructor-focused and course-focused feedback within traditional SPOT reviews. Rather than restructuring the institutional instrument itself, this approach encourages faculty to analyze evaluation items and student comments through two lenses: those related to instructional delivery and those related to course design and structure. By separating these types of feedback, instructors can more clearly identify whether concerns relate to pedagogical practice or curricular organization. This practice is intended to promote more targeted self-reflection, reduce misinterpretation of student responses, and enhance the usefulness of evaluations for continuous instructional improvement, particularly in technically rigorous courses where student difficulty with content may not accurately reflect instructional quality.
In addition to conceptualizing a distinction between instructor-focused and course-focused feedback, this manuscript proposes a framework faculty can use to sort their existing SPOT results into these two categories. Rather than advocating immediate institutional redesign, this approach offers an actionable method for interpreting current evaluation data in a more structured and reflective manner. By organizing feedback in this way, faculty may be better positioned to identify patterns, prioritize instructional adjustments, and differentiate between pedagogical concerns and course design considerations.
Recommended Citation
Rusnak, C. (2026). Rethinking Student Feedback: Separating Instructor and Course Evaluation to Improve Teaching Practice. In Proceedings of the 2026 Scholarly Teaching Conference at West Virginia University (pp. 1-4).