On November 13, 2008, the Queens College Academic Senate approved an amended proposal from the Committee on Teaching Excellence and Evaluation to conduct course/faculty evaluations online during the fall 2008 semester.

The existing instrument for course/faculty evaluations is a paper questionnaire consisting of 18 scalar response questions about various aspects of the course and the instructor, 4 scalar response questions about background information about the course and the student, and 3 written response questions for prose comments.

This questionnaire has been converted into an online form that students will access from the Course and Faculty Evaluation website, at http://www.qc.cuny.edu/courseevaluation. To see what the questionnaire looks like online, click here for a sample electronic print-out.

Timeline for fall 2008

IMPORTANT: The evaluation period has been extended, to December 16.

Evaluation Period. Students will be notified that the evaluation website will be accessible between November 24 and December 11 December 16, by means of announcements sent by email, posted on the College web and in the Blackboard course management system, and appearing on plasma boards and kiosks around campus. (Here is an example of the announcement that students received on November 24. The blue icon on the right will also appear on Queens College web pages, including the home page.)

Results. Summary data for this semester's completed evaluations will be live soon after grades are due, early to mid January. As in recent semesters, the data will be disseminated online via the Queens College Course Information System, at http://courses.qc.cuny.edu.

Encouraging participation

Response rates will be higher (and therefore more reliable) if you actively encourage your students to participate, by citing the reasons this procedure is in place.

• Point out that the information students provide via these evaluations will help future students considering taking your class make informed decisions. As far as we can tell, the Queens College Course Information System website is an underused but very valuable resource. Tell them that it exists, and explain to them how to read the information it contains.
• Describe the value you find in their written comments, and how evaluations by students in earlier semesters have helped to improve your course.
• Consider talking with your students about the role that course and faculty evaluations play in tenure and promotion decisions.

You could also point out some of the anticipated benefits of the online system:

• Cut in costs to administer the questionnaire and analyze the data.
• More efficient and rapid dissemination of data.

You might also remind students that there are incentives in place for them; each time they complete an evaluation, they are entered into a raffle in for one of the following:

• 1 iPod Touch, 1 iPod Nano, and 3 iPod Shuffles
• 2 spring semester parking decals (value $90 each);
• 25 bookstore vouchers (value $75 each);
• 50 $5 food coupons, redeemable at any of the campus food services;
• 5 pairs of AMC Loews Theatre movie tickets.

It's not unreasonable to give students time to complete the evaluations during class time, if technologically feasible (i.e., if you are planning a session in a computer laboratory, or if they have laptops and wireless access). You should leave the room while they are completing the evaluation forms, if you opt to do this.

You could give your students a small incentive for completing the evaluations, if you feel comfortable doing this. One option is to ask them to confirm with you when they have completed the course evaluation. Here is a screenshot of a sample survey, created for a Blackboard course.

(To use the survey, download this file, and import it to your Blackboard course via the Import Package area of the Control Panel. To deploy the survey, go to any content area for your course and select Survey from the pull-down menu at the top-right of the page. A survey called "Course/Faculty Evaluations" will be listed.) 

Written comments

In the past, paper forms have been returned to faculty. The handwritten comments they contain prove to be highly valuable sources of information. In addition to offering informative reading for instructors, handwritten comments are examined carefully (when provided) during tenure and promotion deliberations.

Comments provided by your students will be available via the Course and Faculty Evaluation website, soon after grades are due, in early to mid January. For login, use your Active Directory user ID and password and be sure to select "Faculty" from the pull-down menu.  (This user ID is the one you use to submit grades and to login to computers on campus; if you don't have an Active Directory account, you can set one up at the Queens College Account Management System website,  https://cams.qc.cuny.edu.

In the past, faculty have incorporated the bundle of completed paper forms in the teaching section of the supporting materials included in "The Box". With the online system, you may print comments.

Additional features of the online system

Multiple instructors assigned to the same class or lab will have separate evaluation forms in the system. This will ensure accuracy of evaluations for team-taught courses.

The online system makes it possible to incorporate course-specific questions, responses to which would be available only to the instructor. This is a feature for future implementation --- stay tuned for more information.

Where to go if you have questions

For technical support, please contact the Help Desk.

The Committee on Teaching Excellence and Evaluation and the Center for Teaching and Learning are available for other queries related to course/faculty evaluations.

Documents linked to from this page

• Paper questionnaire
• Sample online questionnaire
• Example of announcement received by students
• Sample survey to use in Blackboard (and screenshot of that survey)