First, it is NOT an objectively valid method of evaluating important aspects of teaching. Secondly, because such evaluations take place during the programme they are often confused with formative evaluation, but for the student they are usually summative they are asked to comment on the teaching when it is over for them and the teaching they receive will not be influenced at all. Consequently, an end of module student questionnaire is more a measure of students transient satisfaction than of the teaching and learning. Student satisfaction is of importance, but we should not confuse its measurement with the evaluation of teaching and we should not overemphasise it at the expense of the many other aspects of a programme which should be evaluated. The strategy required, then, encompasses much more than student satisfaction with teaching.
Students are a good source of data for many things besides their satisfaction with lectures.
It is also good to include them in carrying out evaluations. On one level doing so both causes students to reflect on the programme and their own involvement with it, and offers a further opportunity to gain transferable skills and build their CVs. Evaluation is about making judgements on evidence to meet a particular purpose. The success of the judgements depends on valid, reliable data from the most appropriate sources. The data ought to be complete and show relationships and trends as well as facts.