Elapsed Time Between Teaching and Evaluation: Does It Matter?

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Abstract
Web-based course evaluation systems offer the potential advantage of timely evaluations. The authors examined whether elapsed time between teaching and student evaluation of teaching impacts preclinical courses' quality ratings. The overall relationship of elapsed time with evaluation rating was explored with regression and ANOVA. Time between teaching event and evaluation was categorized by weeks. Within-teaching-events means and variances in evaluations related to elapsed weeks were compared using repeated-measures ANOVA. With more elapsed weeks, quality mean ratings increased (P < .001) and variability decreased (P < .001); effect sizes were small (average effect size = 0.06). Trends were similar in regression analysis and for data aggregated by event. Summaries of event quality are negligibly impacted by evaluation timing. Future studies should examine the impact of other Web-based evaluation features on evaluation.