You have all (hopefully) filled out those inconvenient little course evaluations at the end of taking your favorite gen-ed courses. Ideally, you have written of how wonderful your professors have been and how you have grown and how being in this class changed your life, balanced your checkbook and helped you believe in love once more.
However, this ideal rarely actually comes to fruition. People use these course evaluations to complain. Now, I'm not saying that every professor is perfect or that these comments are never constructive, but let's all be honest here and admit that when someone is itching to fill out a course evaluation, he or she is rarely wanting to offer praise or constructive criticism.
The things we write on these evaluation forms are not always completely direct. Sometimes we are trying to be tactful; sometimes we are trying to sound smarter; sometimes we are trying to cover our own derrieres. Here are some of the wonderful things that students put on course evaluations and what they actually mean:
1. The professor does not know how to teach.
Translation: I didn't do the reading and the lecture didn't cover what I missed.
People who do all the assigned reading for a course are kind of like unicorns. They are rare and their blood can grant immortality. (Except for the immortality part.)
Most of us do not do all the reading. In fact, I think a lot of people spend a lot of money on books and never end up looking inside. So when your parents send a text message about how you have lost your "good student discount" and need to start paying for your own car insurance, it is so easy to immediately want to blame your professor for your bad grade. This is poor form. Find a study buddy or share notes with a fellow classmate. There are much better ways of resolving this than simply taking out your frustrations on a course evaluation.
2. The professor didn't relate well to students.
Translation: This class was boring.
You wouldn't know from my transcript, but I am the rare person who loves taking gen-eds. I am interested in just about everything, so it is rare that a course wouldn't interest me.
Even so, I am with you on this. We will all at one point or another have to take a class that is generally just a snoozer, but this is why most college campuses have coffee shops. THEY KNOW, so before the next dirge you have to sit through, you'll probably want to stop by and get that triple-shot caramel whatever so you won't have to complain about your grade later on.
3. Lecture was off-topic.
Translation: I am a buzz-kill.
This one is tricky, because this is often a legitimate complaint. However, in my experience, when professors go off-topic to talk about something else, it is usually an awesome moment that can shape our thinking and who we are as people, helping to foster societal growth as our generation comes of age.
But whatever. I guess you would rather make sure you can get an A.
4. I fell asleep in this class.
Translation: I fell asleep in this class.
This one is pretty straightforward. I mean, nobody is sneaky about being asleep in class. The problem is not a lack of accuracy or honesty, but a lack of courtesy.
Real talk: I have fallen asleep in class, but I wouldn't have the gall to willfully fall asleep in class. Neither would I have the audacity to put that on a course evaluation.
5. Expectations were unclear.
Translation: I didn't read the syllabus.
You have heard your professors complain about this many times, but it never seems to sink in. When people send an email asking a professor for information about when an assignment is due or how much weight it has in the final grade, many professors oblige and will give the information. Just know that these professors do, in fact, complain about it to their colleagues (in a very tasteful way, I am sure).
Imagine what would happen if there were a magical document with all the information one needed to complete the requirements of a course that everyone in the class could access. That would be marvelous.
There is not enough time to analyze the subtext of every carefully calculated comment on one of these infamous course evaluation forms. People have always and will always find a way to complain about circumstances instead of trying to constructively assess the situation or, God forbid, even suggest a potential solution.
The next time you take five minutes out of your life to give feedback on something, remember that real people are reading your responses. These people have feelings and pets who love them; the least you could do is cut the crap and say what you mean.
