Dal鈥檚 Student Ratings of Instruction (SRI) are entering the digital age this year.
This semester, for the first time, course evaluations in nearly all Dalhousie faculties will be completed online. Students will be able to access the secure website during instructor-designated class time on any Internet-enabled electronic devices they bring with them (laptops, smartphones, etc.), or they can complete the evaluations on their own time, between November 19 and midnight on December 4, the last day of classes.
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Deborah Kiceniuk, associate director (institutional initiatives) with the Centre for Learning and Teaching, says the new system is designed to improve the administration of the universal course evaluation form, a critical tool for assessing teaching and learning effectiveness across the university.
鈥淔rom an environmental and a cost-saving perspective, and in terms of data collection and user experience, this is certainly a more efficient system,鈥� she says.
In the old system, the CLT team would have to send out nearly 60,000 paper forms across Dal, then collect, scan and share the results back with departments 鈥� a process that often took well into the subsequent term, and contained a lot more possibility for human error. Now, students鈥� confidential feedback is collated instantly, and faculty will be able to independently access their courses鈥� evaluations and comments soon after the grades have been submitted.
New way of facilitating a familiar process
The online SRI form will be used for the vast majority of Dal courses this term. (The exceptions: the Faculty of Medicine and the College of Pharmacy, which use their own course evaluation system; the Faculty of Agriculture, which will be integrated in the near future; and courses with more than one instructor and have TAs, for which students will receive a separate online survey using the OPINIO software.)
The SRI process kicks off next week as teaching faculty and department administrators will be invited to access the system to add their custom questions. These allow both individual instructors and departments to ask students for specific feedback. The custom questions are in addition to the eight universal questions on every SRI form, which students rate on a scale from one (the lowest) to five (the highest).聽 The eight areas included in the universal questions are:
鈥⒙犅� 聽Stimulation of learning
鈥⒙犅� 聽Organization
鈥⒙犅� 聽Communication
鈥⒙犅� 聽Enthusiasm
鈥⒙犅� 聽Fairness
鈥⒙犅� 聽Feedback
鈥⒙犅� 聽Concern for students
鈥⒙犅� 聽Overall teaching effectiveness
From there, it鈥檚 over to the students: on November 19, students will receive an email invitation to a secure website, hosted on Dal鈥檚 servers, where they can fill out their evaluations and add additional comments. They have until midnight on December 4 to complete the online form for each class, and they don鈥檛 have to complete all of them at once: each time students log into the website, they will see which evaluations still need to be completed. (Though they can鈥檛 change an evaluation form once it鈥檚 been officially 鈥渟ubmitted.鈥�)
As well, faculty will be asked to allow some class time during the course evaluation period for students to complete the SRI forms on their laptops or smartphones, similar to what they would have done with the paper forms. The difference this year is that if students aren鈥檛 in class 鈥� or if they don鈥檛 have an Internet-ready device that day 鈥攖hey can complete the evaluations at any time until the end of classes.
This process also means that faculty who elect to make the results of the eight common questions available to students, in accordance with Senate鈥檚 SRI policy, can do so with the touch of a button once they review the results. Students can then search these results under the learning resources tab in MyDal.
Students: Have your say
The new online system was trialed this summer in several courses in the Faculty of Computer Science.
鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 all that different,鈥� says Derek Reilly, assistant professor in Computer Science, who used the online evaluation with his undergrad students in a combined honours/graduate course.
鈥淚 got to add my own questions, which was important as you don鈥檛 always get answers specific to your own course from the standard questions. And though my class was small, and everyone was in attendance that day, I could see it being useful in a big class where you may only have two-thirds of the students there on the day where you ask them to fill it out.鈥�
And that鈥檚 a crucial point: while the new system comes with its benefits, it does place more responsibility on students to complete the forms. 聽
Dr. Kiceniuk says it鈥檚 worth their while.
鈥淚 think students can sometimes underestimate how valuable these evaluations are, and how their feedback can have a direct impact on teaching effectiveness and career decisions at Dalhousie,鈥� she says. 聽
She reminds students that the system is anonymous and that no identifying information is provided to instructors or administrators.
鈥淚nstructors will read all of these: they鈥檒l get the results, they鈥檒l read all the comments, and they鈥檒l be able to incorporate the suggestions into their teaching practices right away.鈥�
She adds that the evaluations are also used in processes for tenure and promotion, and other human resource decisions. 聽
鈥淭his is not the only way we evaluate teaching at Dalhousie, but it鈥檚 the point of the process where the students鈥� voice is the most present,鈥� says Dr. Kiceniuk. 鈥淪o it鈥檚 important that they have their say.鈥�
Faculty and students who have questions about the new SRI system, or simply want to learn more about it, can find contacts and more information at the .