Abstract
Research has demonstrated that student evaluations of instruction are influenced by variables extraneous to the instructional procedures being evaluated. One of the most important of these is the student's motivation to take the course. The Instructional Development and Effectiveness Assessment (IDEA) system controls this variable by comparing a course evaluation to a norm group of courses having students with similar motivation. The present study examined the possibility that the IDEA procedure of having students rate their precourse motivation at theend of a course might be unacceptable, because the rating would be influenced by experiences within the course itself. The data indicated that postcourse ratings of precourse motivation do deviate somewhat from actual precourse ratings, but the deviation is not of an order of magnitude which would seriously distort the interpretation of the ratings.
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Howard, G.S., Schmeck, R.R. Relationship of changes in student motivation to student evaluations of instruction. Res High Educ 10, 305–315 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00975522
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00975522