Faculty - Frequently Asked Questions
Why did we change the course evaluation form?
The previous form was very long and very specific. Therefore, Faculty Senate passed a resolution that the university would ask only three questions as part of the new UCA process.
What will happen to the response rate if the evaluation is online?
Several studies have shown that the best way to encourage your students to respond is to share with them why their feedback is important to you and what you do with the information. Most students don't believe faculty even read the evaluations and report that they would be more likely to complete UCAs if they believed they were read and used for improving teaching and education on campus.
The most valuable source of information to me is the comments. How will online administration affect the quantity and quality of comments?
Studies have found that a greater percentage of students comment and write longer comments when completing a course assessment online compared to one given in-class with a paper-and-pencil. No differences have been found between online and in-class in the percentage of comments that are classified as positive, negative or mixed.
Have any differences been found in the ratings students give when responding on-line vs in the classroom?
Our own studies and those done at other institutions have found no systematic differences in FCE ratings or the characteristics of students who complete FCEs in-class vs. online. In one of our studies we randomly assigned students from each of two large courses into an online vs. in-class administration and found no differences in the ratings or the characteristics of the students in terms of anticipated grades, GPA, or other potentially relevant variables.
Won't some students decline to respond because they believe they are less anonymous online than on paper-and-pencil?
The university takes the issue of student privacy and anonymity very seriously, and all reasonable precautions to protect it are being taken. View the complete privacy statement. The system uses Andrew IDs to identify the courses students are enrolled in and to ensure that they have the opportunity to evaluate their courses. Once they begin to fill out an evaluation, their Andrew ID and all personally-identifying information are discarded. No personally-identifying information appears anywhere on the evaluation.
When can I see my ratings?
As soon as your grades are submitted, and the deadline for grade submission has occurred, you will have access to your results. You will have the ability to view the data in several different ways, such as viewing only the summary statistics for each section, viewing response distributions and averages for each question, viewing only comments, or paging through individual evaluations. You will also be able to look at your ratings in comparison to those of your department, school, and the university. The online tool also provides some basic statistical tools that will allow you to filter your data to look at subgroups of interest (such as majors vs non-majors, or sophomores vs. seniors), or groups that answered specific questions differently (such as only those who anticipate receiving A's, or those who rated the course as "much too difficult".) In addition, you will be able to view relationships between different items, such as the relationship between anticipated grade and rating of course, or between learning and rating of instructor.
Who can see my ratings?
Nothing has changed in the policy of who gets to see the data. As always, you the instructor, your department head, and your dean can view all the information if the response rate is above 35%. If under 35%, only you will have access. Students will only have access to the ratings for the questions; they do not have access to the comments.
How long will the data remain online?
The ratings from the questions will remain online in the same way as the old FCE but comments will be purged after one full year (i.e., F07 comments will be purged in F07). If you want to maintain access to your comments beyond that period you must download the data and store it yourself.
I teach a course that is cross-listed with other course numbers. How will I see my results?
Each course will have its own rating and comments.
My courses include several TA-led recitations - will they be evaluated as well?
No. However, the Eberly Center does have both early course and end-of-course evaluation instruments designed to address the specific roles and responsibilities of teaching assistants in different instructional settings, such as discussion recitations, problem-solving recitations, labs, studios, grading, and/or project management. Many departments already use these instruments or some variation of them. These instruments are available for downloading at http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/courseeval_forms.html.
I co-teach a class with two other instructors. How will students evaluate me?
You will see only the feedback given about you. Likewise, you will be unable to view feedback for the other instructors.
Will my course be evaluated if I only have one student officially enrolled?
No, courses will only be evaluated if there are four or more students enrolled.
