Reflection on Evaluation Process

During Fall semester, I decided to develop a web site to support my teaching. Although I initially viewed the web site as a teaching resource for my students, it quickly expanded into a site that also supported my research and as a place to share information with colleagues.

The development of stevenlberg.info coincided with my five year review. Overall, the evaluation criteria served as a useful tool for organizing the web site because it focused on teaching, service, and professional development. Because the material on my web site was reflective, the dynamic nature of the Internet actually improved the reflective component of my evaluation and made the process more valuable for me to complete. For example, instead of simply saying that I supported the college by helping to coordinate Celebrate Learning, I was able to reflect on how taking students to that event advanced their learning.

The evaluation process, however, rarely influenced the web design. The one exception was getting links to course objectives prepared for ENG 200-online. Although my plans for the web site include the goal of explaining all assignments in terms of course objectives, I began with ENG 200 because that is the course that is being used as a focal point in my evaluation.

I did run into one major problem trying to integrate the evaluation materials onto the web site. As part of the evaluation, research is integrated into professional development. Although research is vital to my development as a professional, my background has trained me to think in terms of teaching, research, and service as the three vital components of a professor’s work. Therefore, while including research as part of professional development, I also have a tab to highlight research on my web site.

A second problem I had in preparing my evaluation materials also dealt with organizing the materials in professional development. Although I list major professional development activities such as attending a conference or seminar, there are many things I do that are not reflected in the list. For example, I frequently review films, read books and articles, or share information with colleagues.

As example of such activities would be reviewing movies to use in classes this semester. To say that I watched The Matinee Idol (1928) with a critical eye to how it could be used in the classroom does not seem important enough to list as a separate professional development activity. But to simply say that I review movies—with no reflection as to what this means—would be meaningless. Other related examples include reading the Association on Higher Education and Disability’s pamphlet Universal Design in Higher Education or various articles in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Once I realized this problem, I thought that I could report such activities in my blog. But, upon reflection, I realized that the blog is not an appropriate place to record this information. Instead, I need a section of my web site called “Briefly Noted” for such entries.

A similar issue concerns the section on service where I do not, for example, list all meetings I attend. But where do I put my reflections on meetings? A “Briefly Noted” section within service is an appropriate place.

In dealing with the issue of handling items that should be “Briefly Noted,” I am not so concerned about recording the events for a future evaluation. Instead, I want to capture my reflections; reflections that I can review in the future. While others may be interested in my thought processes, recording reflections in a tangle form will assist my continuous improvement as a professional.

As I finished my evaluation packet, a final administrative problem emerged. Because the evaluation materials have been so firmly integrated into my web site, they are appropriately future directed. Therefore, I will continue to reflect on my service and growth as a professional. Yet, the dynamic quality that promotes quality improvement causes an equally appropriate administrative concern because the nature of Schoolcraft College’s evaluation process assumes a fixed packet.

Fortunately, there was an easy fix to this problem. On 15 February 2007, I “froze” my web site by burning it to a disk; a disk that was given to my associate dean. Doing so not only maintains a permanent record of the materials I submitted for my evaluation, but it also negates any concern that I will be able to blur the record by modifying key evaluation materials during the evaluation process.

The process of preparing information for my evaluation as well as creating stevenlberg.info has been a valuable experience in part because it has forced me to develop an organizational system that I will be able to easily continue into the future. Although my formal evaluation concludes at the end of the 2007 Winter semester, my desire for continuous improvement will remain.