Policy and Procedures for Student Course Feedback - UTDPP1074

Policy Statement

Preamble

In order to provide faculty members and the University with information on “end-of-course student evaluations of faculty,” all faculty will be evaluated by students registered in organized courses pursuant to these policies and procedures in adherence to Texas Administrative Code (TAC), Title 19, Part 1, Chapter 4, Subchapter N, Rule 4.227(10) and Texas Education Code Section 51.974(3)(h).

The TAC Rule 4.227(10) requires all organized undergraduate courses with five or more enrolled students be evaluated. The statute excludes (1) independent studies and (2) directed reading courses due to the variable subject content tailored to individual students. The statute further excludes the following courses from being evaluated: (1) laboratory, (2) practicum, and (3) discussion because they are “required parts of larger lecture courses and are directly supervised by the same instructor(s) of record for those large courses.” In addition to undergraduate courses, UT Dallas’ graduate organized courses will also be evaluated similarly in adherence to the TAC statute. Moreover, UT Dallas’ processes allow schools and/or programs to request laboratory course section(s) with enrollments of five or more be evaluated by emailing the Office of Institutional Success and Decision Support (OISDS) program coordinator. The same can be said for cross-listed courses by combining the multiple sections if they meet the student enrollment threshold.

UT Dallas uses a mechanism called an auto-enrollment or a secondary enrollment option to automatically enroll students into a multiple component class, such as a lab, and/or recitation or discussion section when the student enrolls into a lecture course. This mechanism is known locally as “non-enrolled” or “non-enrolling” sections. This type is common when mathematics and science courses are offered with lab and recitation courses. Course evaluations will not be enabled for this type of non-enrolled course sections for several reasons: (1) discussion/recitation sections are extensions of the primary lecture that will be evaluated, and (2) student feedback is intermingled and does not identify specific instructors of record when they team-teach a large non-enrolled recitation section. However, if faculty from a school/department/program feel that additional feedback is needed, they may email the OISDS program coordinator with rationales and the office will review the request and determine whether the request will be granted.

When course evaluations are enabled for that specific period, all course evaluations will be run during that schedule. It is not possible to grant requests by faculty to extend their course evaluations period beyond the schedule that is established at the beginning of the semester.

Policies

1. The University of Texas at Dallas will conduct “end-of-course student evaluations of faculty” for each semester term and make them available on the institution’s website in adherence to Texas statutory regulations.
2. The teaching performance of all faculty members is to be reviewed and evaluated by the students in each organized course, using, at a minimum, the procedures described in this document.
3. Student course evaluations allow students to provide valuable feedback about their learning experiences within their organized courses. The school and/or department also benefit from students’ feedback as part of its efforts to improve teaching effectiveness.
4. The results of the student course feedback should not be considered as the only method to measure teaching effectiveness; other data points should be considered and used as a means for improving teaching effectiveness.
5. Student course feedback should be reviewed in the larger context of the instructor’s historical reviews where available, including student comments that should be reviewed holistically.
6. Instructors of record may provide additional feedback within the students’ feedback to provide classroom context. The additional feedback is not mandatory.
7. The reviews and evaluations submitted by the students are the property of the University and, within the limits of law and court decisions, The University of Texas System Board of Regulations and Rules, administrative procedures, and this policy, are to be made available in a timely manner to the faculty member, to review committees, to administrators, and to other properly constituted functions of the University.

Procedures

1. Two weeks prior to the finals week, an email will be generated with a link to the online student course feedback survey, and will be distributed to each registered student who enrolled in an organized course with five or more enrolled students to fulfill the “end-of-course” requirement. The dates that course evaluations open and close will be published on the UES Student Course Feedback webpage.
2. To protect students’ privacy, no institutional-level course evaluations will be enabled for any course with less than five enrolled students in adherence to Texas statutory regulations.
3. The following minimum standards govern the administration of all teaching evaluations by students:
   1. The instructor has the discretion to select a class day during the two weeks before the finals week to provide students the opportunity to complete the online student course feedback survey in class with the caveat that the instructor shall not be present. Students may be allocated fifteen to thirty minutes to take the online survey during classes.
   2. The instructor also could remind students to complete their student course feedback survey at any time before the end of course and also advise them that these surveys could be completed on mobile devices.
   3. The instructor can direct students to go to the webpage, UES Student Course Feedback, “Your Open Evaluations” section. This section will display any evaluations for students to complete their course evaluations if they are logged in with their UT Dallas credentials.

1. The University shall oversee the processing of the student course feedback survey results and shall publish standardized statistical summaries on the course feedback/evaluation website. School deans and/or their delegates will have access for their areas; they may have special access to the additional reports, such as the “UES Reporter” to obtain snapshots of key data points. The faculty member shall not have access to student responses or comments that may identify the student until after the grades for the course have been submitted.
2. Generated reports will be made available approximately two weeks after the grades are posted as outlined in the University’s Academic Calendar and on the “UES Student Course Feedback” webpage. Instructors of record will have the capability, based on login credentials, to see their full report with comments within CourseBook.

The online statistical summaries and student comments are retained within the University’s online course evaluation system for a minimum of three years, or as long as either the faculty member or the administration deems them valuable, except that for tenure-track faculty and instructors, all review materials related to teaching evaluations are to be kept until three years after a decision has been made regarding tenure. School deans and/or their delegates will have access to these statistical summaries and student comments. There are two exceptions in allowing instructors of record access: instructors of record who resigned from UT Dallas and graduate students who serve as teaching assistants will not have access to student evaluation data.