"Student Evaluations of Teaching and Student Cyberaggression: The Impact of Keyboard Warriors in Tertiary Education"

Abstract

It is well established that student evaluations of teaching in universities have long been contested. Many see value in them for ongoing improvement and to hold faculty to account for their pedagogical practice. However, the anonymity of these online surveys that permit students enrolled in units to provide feedback on teaching and learning can produce ‘keyboard warriors’. Anonymous surveys can serve to provide a platform for students to engage in cyber-aggressive behaviours that are damaging for staff health and wellbeing and are of a concern to workplace safety. We draw on published results from an existing study of student evaluations of teaching to signal that in the worst instances student evaluations of teaching evoke student cyberaggression.