With your input, we are making significant progress in the way we gather useful student feedback about teaching.
As we continue to refine our new process of collecting this feedback, we are creating a policy about how it should be used in faculty evaluations.
Our transition from the old Student Assessment of Instruction Survey (SAIS) system to a new survey began two years ago when a task force of faculty, staff, and students recommended building a simpler survey to replace SAIS and began working on a new survey. Last year, a new online delivery system, Course Evaluation by Campus Labs, was put in place to make it easier for instructors and students to use the survey.
A research team led by Jennifer Ann Morrow, associate professor of educational psychology and counseling and coordinator of the Evaluation, Statistics, and Measurement PhD program, has been gathering input from faculty and students to refine the questions for the new survey.
Jennifer said the effort was a “resounding success.” Faculty and students provided constructive suggestions about the survey content, how the assessment data should be used, and how we can get better participation in the survey.
Last spring, we piloted the survey using the new delivery system with about three hundred faculty members and about five thousand students. Based on the results of the pilot, we are making necessary adjustments to the system. We will implement the plan this fall.
At the same time, we are developing a policy to standardize how the student survey is given and how its results are used. The new policy will address the way instructors administer the survey as well as how the results should be used in evaluating faculty.