At the end of every semester, students are encouraged to participate in the course evaluations through POVIS during the period of about 2 weeks. The purpose of evaluations is to find out what students are satisfied with and what they need for better education environments. Students who do not participate in the course evaluations cannot view their course grades during a specified period. Course evaluations have been conducted from the first semester of 1997 and online evaluations were introduced in the first semester of 2000. As POSTECH is a bilingual campus, students must take several courses in English. Students can express their level of satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5. (A score of 1 indicates the lowest degree of satisfaction and 5 the highest.)
In the first semester 2015, a total of 743 courses were opened and 451 courses were evaluated by students. The total response rate of students was 84.21%, the average satisfaction of undergraduates was 4.50 and that of graduate students was 4.59. During the last 3 years, the total average of undergraduates and graduate students’ satisfaction has increased from 4.40 in the second semester to 4.52 in the last semester.
In the undergraduate studies, 86.89% of students participated in evaluations. Taken as a whole, students were more satisfied with studies of general educations than majors.The average satisfaction of HSS was 4.60. However, students of 2 departments were more satisfied with their major courses than humanities courses. These were CHEM and MSE, whose satisfaction was 4.62 and 4.61, respectively. Students of CiTE participated in evaluations most actively, with a response rate of 92.31%. MATH and EE had the largest difference of satisfaction compared to the second semester of last year: MATH increased by 0.19 and EE decreased by 0.11.
Unlike undergraduates, only 73.41% of graduate students participated. However, graduates were more satisfied with courses than undergaduates, total average satisfactions was 0.09 higher than that of undergraduates. Students of IBIO were most satisfied with courses. Their average satisfaction was 4.82. IBB and CiTE had the largest differences compared to the second semester of last year: IBB increased by 0.29 and CiTE decreased by 0.24.
About 87% of freshmen participated in evaluations. The total average satisfaction was 4.38, and CHEM106 (General Chemistry) had highest satisfaction rating, 4.62.  Students of LIFE103H (General Life Science (H)) had the highest participation rate, 93.75% of students participated.
Evaluating courses may seem trivial. However, courses can be improved if students take the time to give thoughtful, honest, and constructive evaluations. Education is the strength of POSTECH and that strength can be bolstered through students’ attention and effort.