This study measures the evaluation of teaching given by students against their final outcomes<br>in a subject. The subject in question had an enrolment across four campuses of 1073 students<br>at the time of the evaluation and is a statistics subject that is core (i.e. compulsory) to several<br>undergraduate business degrees. This study is based on the 373 students (34.8%) who<br>responded to the survey, and their final results. The evaluations were open for a period of six<br>weeks leading up to and just after the final exam. The study matches the responses to the<br>question "This unit was well taught" to final outcomes, in an attempt to ascertain whether<br>there is a link between student evaluation of teaching and performance. The analysis showed<br>that for the students who self-selected to complete the survey:<br>• Students who perform well in the subject generally give higher scores than lower<br>performing students.<br>• The same general pattern prevailed when other secondary factors were taken into<br>account, such as, when the evaluation was completed, campus and gender.<br>• The timing of when a student completes the evaluation seems the most important of<br>these secondary variables.<br>• In general, students who submitted their evaluations after the exam gave higher ratings<br>if they eventually obtained a pass grade or better, and lower grades if they failed.
The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education