Teaching Tools
Evaluation and Assessment | Teaching Practices | Teaching with Technology | Resources for Funding
1. Evaluation and Assessment
1.3. Evaluation
Student/Teacher Evaluation Information
The Student/Teacher Evaluation survey gives students the opportunity to provide honest feedback regarding teaching to their instructors. The surveys are an invaluable tool for informing faculty members of the strengths and weaknesses in their teaching.
The results of the surveys are published on the web for both students and faculty to review. The evaluation results are helpful to students during registration for choosing classes and are used by departments for promotion, retention and salary decisions for faculty.
The College offices are responsible for the administration of the Student/Teacher Evaluations. The collection, processing, and publishing of results of the surveys are handled by the Office of Academic Technology and the Office of Institutional Planning and Research. The evaluations are administered each Fall and Spring semester as well as during the Summer sessions. Approximately 1,500 to 2,000 courses are evaluated every Fall and Spring, with considerably less evaluated during the Summer sessions. The evaluation period is three weeks prior to the last week of classes.
Any instructor teaching an undergraduate or graduate course must have his/her class evaluated.
Below are the steps involved in the administration of the Student/Teacher Evaluation:
- The Dean's office supplies the departments with the evaluation form and instructions to the student picking them up from the department office.
- The Department overseer then prepares an envelope for each course/section, putting the following information on the front of the manila envelope: College, Course Number, Section Number, Instructor's Name, Term and Number of Students enrolled in the section.
- These evaluation forms are counted out for each envelope and a copy of the instructions for administering the evaluation are included in the envelope.
- When the envelope is returned to the department office, the instruction sheet is removed along with any blank evaluation forms. A header form is placed in the envelope.
- When the evaluation period is over and final grades are turned in, all the envelopes are turned into the Dean's office to be checked one last time and sent off to the Office of Academic Technology (OAT) for scanning.
- After scanning and tabulation of reports, the Office of Institutional Planning and Research processes the data and makes it available on the Web and returns the paper forms and reports to the Dean's offices. Once there, they are checked over and returned to the departments for instructors information.
Policies and Procedures
The College Dean's offices are responsible for the administration of the Student/ Teacher Evaluations, not the enforcement of the evaluation policy. Any evaluation policy questions should be directed to the appropriate Department Head, Dean, or the Provost's Office. Some examples of policy type questions/problems are as follows:
- Student / Faculty requests the evaluation policy there is a copy of the evaluation policy in the Faculty Handbook. This is obtained from the Faculty Senate Office. The Student/Teacher Evaluation envelope also contains instructions for the administration of the evaluations.
- The correct procedure for returning completed surveys is as follows. The instructor designates a student to pick-up, distribute, collect, and deliver the completed forms to the department office.
- The instructor must leave the room when the evaluation is in progress.
- Completed forms received after the posted deadline, envelopes received after the deadline are returned to the department head with a note explaining they were received too late to be processed. This will be done after we have returned the processed statistical sheets and completed survey forms back to the department head for inspection.
- Faculty are not to see their results prior to the final grades being posted on ISIS.
- Separate survey forms sent to the department office after the official Student/Teacher Evaluation envelope has been received will not be processed.
If you have any questions regarding the Student/Teacher Evaluation process or the Student/Teacher Evaluation web inquiry screen please contact your college's representative in charge of evaluations.
Adapted from the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence at Carnegie Mellon University
