Concerns Regarding Rarely Attending Students

Does online CAPE adversely affect the ratings an instructor receives, either from lower overall response, or from increased response by those who don’t attend regularly?

663 courses with the same instructor were evaluated in both WI10 and previous quarters. For 195 courses (29.4%), WI10 recorded the lowest instructor rating. In another 111 (16.7%), WI10 tied for the lowest, although it could also have been a consistent rating and therefore also the highest rating. For 357 courses (53.8%), some other quarter was lower. 
By contrast, for 99 of the courses (14.9%), WI10 recorded the highest instructor rating, and for another 201 it tied for the highest rating (again, the instructor may have had the same rating consistently in some cases). This leaves a very similar 363 (54.8%) for which WI10 was not the highest rating.

Only 3.2% of respondents claimed that they rarely attend class. 321 (31%) of the 1048 classes with responses had someone who stated they rarely attend. In 164 of those classes (51%), the average rating from those rarely attending was lower than the overall average. For 6%, the rating was the same, leaving 43% where the average rating was actually higher. Of course, in a small class, or if there are few responses, even one negative response can have a major impact on the overall rating.