Evaluating lecturer’s capability over time. Some evidence from surveys on university course quality

The attention towards the assessments of courses, degree programs and faculties has determined an increasing interest in collecting and analyzing longitudinal data on students' evaluations. This study focuses on students' opinions gathered in three following academic years. Our main aim is to test a method suitable to evaluate lectures' performance over time moving from students' assessment on several aspects of lecturers' capabilities. The use of the same measurement instrument to assess the performance allows to shed some lights on changes that occur over the time and to attribute such changes to specific characteristics. Longitudinal analysis permits to build up specific paths of performance of lecturer's ability and to highlight units characterized by particular positive or negative performance trends.