I know what you’re thinking: “I thought you were done with this student rating stuff. Get off it already.” I know, but I rethought my thought after receiving my weekly report that more people read my blogs this past week than at any other time over the past 3 months. Maybe I hit a note; maybe not. Anyway, these topics keep popping up on listservs and workshops.
But that’s not REEEAALLY what you were thinking. It is: “What in the world is a global item?” For those of you who are not of this world and are just passing through, as I am, here is a profile of the global item:
1. It provides a general, broad-stroke indication of teaching performance. It's intended to be an omnibus item, representing the collective judgments on all other items. But it isn't. Only the total scale score does that.
2. It doesn’t address specific teaching and course characteristics.
3. It usually appears at the end of the rating scale and should not be summed with the scores of all other items.
Using a "Strongly Agree-Strongly Disagree" anchor response scale, a couple of examples are given below:
Overall, my instructor is a dirtbag.
Overall, I learned squat in this course.
Of course, you know I’m kidding. Better items are:
Overall, my instructor is a moron.
Overall, this course is putrid.
Usually, there are 1 to 3 items. Frequently, administrators, such as your department chair, associate dean, or emperor or empress, will be encouraged to use the ratings on those items to provide a simple, quick-and-dirty measure of your teaching performance. Those ratings, in lieu of the total scale or subscale scores, are used in conjunction with other information to arrive at summative decisions regarding merit pay, contract renewal for full-time and adjunct faculty, and promotion and tenure recommendations. Are these important decisions about your career and life. You bet!!
Do you want those decisions to be rendered on the basis of 1 or 2 items? “Sure, why not?” Are you kidding me? There are several logical, psychometric, and legal reasons why global items should NOT be used for summative decisions. They will be described in my next blog. Stay tuned for more fun from RatingWorld.
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
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