Course Evaluations

Key Links

Full-Time Faculty

Chapter V, Section A.2 of the Faculty Handbook provides the following requirements for the number of course evaluations to be conducted by members of the full-time faculty.

"Courses of all faculty members are to be evaluated regularly during the academic year -- at least two, but no more than three, courses for tenured members and three, and only three, for all others, at least one being a lower level and one being an upper level course, insofar as the individual's schedule permits. Two evaluations are required during an academic year containing a leave."

“The burden will be on the faculty member to select the requisite number of courses to be evaluated during the academic year, pursuant to” the above. To select the courses to be evaluated, please use the Course Chooser form after reviewing the the sections below.

All required evaluations should be of courses for which you receive teaching load credit. Tutorials may be evaluated, but should be done as an additional third course for tenured faculty members.

The approved online evaluation form and system must be used. Course evaluations are filled out electronically by students in your class following an automated invitation. Results will be made available to you electronically through a secure website. Some departments have received approval from the FPC to use a second form; it must be used in addition to the standard form.

If you want to survey more than those allowed by this system, in order to obtain more feedback for your own information, then we suggest that you consider designing and administering your own evaluation, enlisting the aid of your student board, or using a printed copy of the standard online evaluation (PDF version). Note that the PDF version does not include text box responses for each of the prompts with Likert-scale responses. You may want to add these if you opt to use this form.

Part-Time Faculty

All courses taught by Part-Time instructors and lecturers are automatically selected for evaluation. Senior Lecturers must choose a minimum of one class per semester to be evaluated (in any semester in which they are teaching) using the Course Chooser form.

The approved online evaluation form and system must be used. Course evaluations are filled out electronically by students in your class following an automated invitation. Results will be made available electronically through a secure website. Some departments have received approval from the FPC to use a second form; it must be used in addition to the standard form.

Selecting Courses to be Evaluated

Only Full-Time faculty and Part-Time Senior Lecturers are required to select the courses students will be asked to evaluate. It is the faculty member’s responsibility to select the correct number and type of courses to be evaluated. See the sections above for the relevant requirements. Selections can be made at the Course Chooser website. This is a personalized website that will list all the courses a faculty member is scheduled to teach for the academic year. Courses are selected by clicking the checkbox next to the course to be evaluated. Courses must be selected by the following dates and times.

  • Fall 2022 First Module Courses: Tuesday, October 4, 2022 at 11 p.m. (EDT)
  • Fall 2022 Second Module Courses: Sunday, December 4, 2022 at 11 p.m. (EDT)
  • Fall 2022 Full Semester Courses: Sunday, December 4, 2022 at 11 p.m. (EDT)
  • Spring 2023 First Module Courses: Tuesday, February 28, 2023 at 11 p.m. (EDT)
  • Spring 2023 Second Module Courses: Tuesday, April 25, 2023 at 11 p.m. (EDT)
  • Spring 2023 Full Semester Courses: Tuesday, April 25, 2023 at 11 p.m. (EDT)

It is not possible to make changes to selections after these dates and times. For that reason, it is critical that faculty make appropriate selections before the deadlines above.

Evaluation Periods

Evaluations will be administered during the last five class days of the term. Course evaluations may not be administered during final examinations. Course evaluations will be available to students according to the following schedule:

Session Start End
Fall 2022 First Module Courses Wednesday, October 5, 2022 at midnight Tuesday, October 11, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. 
Fall 2022 Second Module Courses Monday, December 5, 2022 at midnight  Friday, December 9, 2022 at 11:59 p.m.
Fall 2022 Full Semester Courses  Monday, December 5, 2022 at midnight   Friday, December 9, 2022 at 11:59 p.m.
Spring 2023 First Module Courses Wednesday, March 1, 2023 at midnight Tuesday, March 7, 2023 at 11:59 p.m.
Spring 2023 Second Module Courses Wednesday, April 26, 2023 at midnight Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at 11:59 p.m.
Spring 2023 Full Semester Courses Wednesday, April 26, 2023 at midnight Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at 11:59 p.m.

Procedure to Administer

At the start of the evaluation period, students will receive automated invitations to complete evaluations for the courses Full-Time faculty and Part-Time senior lecturers have selected to be evaluated and for all courses taught by Part-Time instructors and lecturers. They will also receive periodic reminders if they do not complete an evaluation. Full-Time Faculty and Part-Time senior lecturers do not need to do anything other than select the courses to be evaluated. Part-Time instructors and lecturers do not need to do anything.

Faculty are encouraged to inform students that they will receive an invitation to complete a course evaluation. Reminders from faculty may encourage students to respond to the invitation. During the evaluation period, all faculty are encouraged to remind students to complete their course evaluations during the evaluation period. Faculty may allocate class time for students to fill out the evaluations. This is not required, but it may increase response rates. If you choose to use class time for students to complete the evaluations, leave the room while the students complete the evaluations.

When communicating with students, it might be valuable to inform them that you will never see the evaluation forms and that you will receive only the numerical summaries and the comments.

Faculty can monitor response rates for the evaluations in their courses at the EvaluationKit website. If your response rates are below 80%, you might consider sending a reminder to your students or allocating class time to complete the evaluations.

Improving Response Rates

The response rate for course evaluations was near 85% when they were administered in class via paper forms. This is the response rate we wish to achieve now that evaluations are distributed electronically. High response rates provide more comprehensive information to you and to the Faculty Personnel Committee. To help keep the response rate high, there are a few things you can do to help. 

Remind students that faculty value and attend to their feedback. Remind them that we care about creating excellent educational experiences and that course evaluations help us to reflect on our teaching and improve our courses for future students.

Consider setting aside time during a class meeting to complete evaluations. Since the evaluations are online, you can prompt the students to bring their electronic devices to class on evaluation day. Then, as we did when evaluations were on paper, leave the room to allow the class to complete them. 

If you choose to do the evaluations outside of class time, send an email reminder to your students about the evaluations. You can monitor the response rate of your course evaluations at this website. 

Reading Course Evaluations

Course evaluations will be available for faculty to read shortly following the due date for grade submission. Evaluations can be read at the Course Evaluation website. Please look for an email from Academic Affairs of when Course Evaluations are set to be arrived.

Course Evaluation Form

A PDF version of the online evaluation form can be downloaded if you would like to review the prompts presented to students through the online evaluation system. Please do not use this form to evaluate your courses as part of the official course evaluation process.