STUDENT RATINGS OF INSTRUCTION

Georgia Southern University

Student Ratings of Instruction

Operating Procedures

I. Administering

Student Ratings of Instruction forms should be given two weeks before the last day of classes.

Effective Spring 2001, all instruments must comply with the University standard set of twenty-three questions first, followed by additional questions that must be approved at the Dean level, and ending with the two required open-ended questions. Additional open-ended questions may be added if approved at the Dean level. However, the normal time to complete the entire survey should not exceed thirty minutes.

Another instructor or graduate student should distribute the forms and read the following:
"I have been asked to conduct the teaching ratings for this class. These ratings are important to both the department and the instructor to improve teaching effectiveness. Please take your time and answer each question honestly and fairly. To ensure that your answers are confidential, do not put your name on the form. Use a number 2 pencil only to complete the form. After you complete them, I will collect the forms, put them in an envelope, and take them to the departmental office. Your instructor will not see the results until the semester is over."

Students' written comments are a valuable element in obtaining feedback for improvement because they may raise issues not related to the standardized ratings items. Faculty should have an opportunity to read the written comments in the early weeks of the following academic term. Department chairs should read the comments as well. Copies of the written comments for classes with enrollments of more than 15 students may be given to the faculty member, or the faculty member may read the original responses as long as they remain on file in the departmental office. Written comments for classes with enrollments of 15 or fewer students should be typed before they are shared with the faculty member.

Team-taught, independent study (defined on the curriculum file as type instruction=50), internship (defined on the curriculum file as type instruction=70), practicum (defined on the curriculum file as type instruction=80), labs, and classes with only one student are exempt from assessment.

For courses taught 100% on-line, using WebCT (i.e., those course sections ending in WWW, WEB, or NET), the Emerging Technology Center will post the Student Ratings of Instruction instrument to each applicable class site within WebCT.

For GSAMS courses (i.e., those off campus sites involved in Emerging Technology courses), it is the department's responsibility to compile and send the packet(s) for these courses to the Emerging Technology Center NO LATER than four weeks prior to the last day of class. The Emerging Technology Center will handle all mail functions. Upon receiving the returned packets at the conclusion of the semester, Emerging Technology will distribute the completed evaluations to the department, which will be responsible for scanning.

II. RUNNING the Forms

(New PinkScan Version 10/2001)

Turn on the computer, printer, and Scanmark in this order. There are two switches on the back of the Scanmark machine; turn on both.

Double-click on your "Department Icon" or "New Pink Scan." This will bring you right into the program. The menu bar has five options: File, Edit, Maintenance, Scan Forms, and Help.
In Maintenance, Scanner Set-Up:
Com Port: Com 1
Parity: none
Baud Rate: 9600
Word Length: eight
Stop Bits: two
Threshold: 42
Difference: 10
Read TimeOut: 60
Scanner Series: 2000

This information is given in case someone inadvertently changes the settings. PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THESE SETTINGS IF THEY ARE CORRECT! If you have questions, choose the Help option first. If still unable to proceed, call the Graduate Assistants in the Office of the Provost, ext. 1407.

Click on "Scan Forms" and type in data for the class you are about to scan.

PLEASE FOLLOW THE FORMAT BELOW:

Date: (Date the data was scanned will automatically append) e.g., 05/23/2001
Course: (Course prefix, number, section, and term) e.g., ENGL 1101C-Spring 2001
Instructor Name: (Insert title and full name) e.g., Dr. John Doe

If your department has included additional questions on the forms, then you may type those questions at the bottom of the screen starting with question # 24. Otherwise, the standard 23 questions are automatically in the system and do not need to be typed in. If you wish to view these questions, you may choose the "Maintenance" option and go to questions. Please DO NOT alter the questions included in this screen.

Please make sure the correct CRN (Course Reference Number) is on the first Scantron form for each data set (i.e., each Course Section). This CRN will then automatically paste to subsequent forms in that particular data set. Note: If the first form does not have a CRN, the scanner will prompt a message: "Invalid Form ID" and will reject the form.

Push the black toggle switch up on the Scanmark machine to lower the feed tray.

Place completed evaluations lengthwise (landscape) into feed tray facing forward with the black marks (called timing marks) toward the bottom.

Push black toggle switch up to raise feed tray.

Click on the "Scan" button to scan forms.

If a form is rejected, click "Scan Next Form" to try again. Re-feed rejected forms into the Scanmark machine after the original batch has been completed.

After the entire batch (i.e., one class section) is completed, press the turquoise button on the Scanmark machine OR click "Finished." If neither of the above are done after sixty seconds, the scanner will prompt an error:

"The scanner returned an error. Try again?" Select "No" and Click "Finished."

A "File Naming and Printing" screen will appear.
Please use the same filename for the spreadsheet and export file. They will not overwrite each other because one is the spreadsheet report and will contain the file extension .XLS and the other is the data file and will contain the extension .CSV. PLEASE FOLLOW THE FORMAT BELOW:

Spreadsheet and Export File Name: (use disk drive you want to save to, course prefix, number, and section without spacing and the extension will automatically attach to the file), e.g., A:\ENGL1101C. Please note that on some older computers the maximum number of characters for a filename is eight. If this is the case, you should remove the last letter from the course abbreviation, e.g., A:\ENG1101C. If your department has classes that have double section letters, please name: e.g., A:\EN1101CC.

Choose "Printer." Then, choose "Detail," "Summary," or "Both." The Office of the Provost will only need the summary report, which is one page. However, the department may also choose to print the detail report, which is four pages, for its own records. Please note: the Office of the Provost will ONLY need the summary report with the 23 standard questions. Click "OK." The report will print and will also be saved on your disk (the file with extension .XLS) and the data will also be retained (the file with extension .CSV).

Repeat Steps 3-11 for evaluations for each course section administered in the present semester.

III. Scoring

Departments are required to submit a printed summary report and data disk containing the data file for each course evaluated. Materials must be submitted to the Provost's Office no later than the second week of classes for the following term. Departments should verify that each course has the correct CRN (Course Reference Number) on the first form. The software program will append that CRN to remaining forms in the set. Departments should also check the .CSV file to ensure that the CRN is in the first cell of each row. If it is incorrect or blank, this should be corrected before being sent.

For courses with low enrollment, it is permissible to group multiple sections of a course taught by the SAME PROFESSOR and to aggregate as one course. This ONLY applies to enrollment of fifteen or less. Cross-listed courses may also be treated as a single course. ALL departments should include a written description of the section/courses combined to accompany the reports and data disk.

For courses taught on-line, the Emerging Technology Center will provide the data, a copy of the WebCT frequency distribution report, and the written comments to the home department of the course. It is the department's responsibility to provide the feedback in the form of the report and the written comments to the faculty at the conclusion of the semester and to submit the report to the Office of the Provost.

For GSAMS courses, the Emerging Technology Center will distribute the completed evaluation forms for each class to the department in which the course was taught. It is the department's responsibility to scan the evaluations, provide feedback in the form of the report and written comments to the faculty at the conclusion of the semester, and to submit the report and data file to the Office of the Provost.

A list of courses with missing evaluations and explanations MUST be submitted along with the printed summary report and data disk. This needs to be done for every single course not evaluated, regardless of the reason. A comprehensive list will be compiled and distributed to the Provost and Deans.

IV. Filing

Departments should retain student responses (Scantron forms) on student ratings of instruction for the entire probationary period of the faculty member.

At any given time after the tenure, departments should have on file: student responses (Scantron forms) on student ratings of instruction for the previous five years for each tenured faculty member.

Summaries of student responses on student ratings of instruction should be retained by the department as long as the faculty member is employed, and for three years following termination, except in the case of a non-renewal, a pending complaint, or a legal action.

V. Compiling (Provost's Office)

Effective Fall 97, the official curriculum file will be used to verify that all courses less the exceptions (see item I #5.) have been evaluated.

Data files are copied onto the network directory for analysis. Original data disks and printed reports are filed.

Printed report & data file will be checked against the curriculum to correct for mislabeled information (instructor, control number, prefix, number, and section). The number of respondents printed on the report should equal the number of data lines in the file. Respondents should not exceed enrollment in the class unless the department informs us that grouping occurred.

Where numerical discrepancies occur or data or reports are missing, departments will be notified to provide explanation and/or to re-scan.

VI. Avoiding Common Problems

Make sure all Scantron forms are straightened, have no bent corners, are not bound by staples, paper clips. etc., and that the stack of forms is aligned properly when being fed through the Scanmark machine.

Provide a list of all courses missing in the data set with an explanation as to why. These data files are checked based on the official curriculum file; therefore, if a class is missing, discrepancies will exist and the department will be contacted to provide explanations for missing courses. In order to prevent future contradictions, PLEASE compile a comprehensive list BEFORE submitting the data set to the Provost's Office.

Please double-check that the course prefix, number, and section have the correct Course Reference Number (listed in the "Schedule of Classes" bulletin), which should match on the Scantron forms, the printed spreadsheet report, and in the data file for that particular course included on the data disk.

PLEASE follow the file naming guidelines stated above in Part I #3 and #12.

If grouping courses as specified under criteria stated above (Part II #2), please send a note explaining the classes relevant to this method of reporting.

If you save any files to the hard drive, please remember to copy those files onto a data disk and then DELETE those files from the hard drive directory. Please note: files saved to the hard drive without a specified path will automatically be saved in the ISD-Eval folder.

The Provost's Office does not need a copy of the written comments. The office only needs a disk copy of the data (.CSV files), summary report (.XLS files), and a photocopy of the summary report.

VII. Final Thoughts

PLEASE remember that administering, scoring, and filing Student Ratings of Instruction is a series of steps, and each step is performed by a different entity. Therefore, it is often difficult to maintain continuity throughout the process. For this reason, the Graduate Assistants in the Office of the Provost have made themselves available at any time for questions, concerns, or problems (ext 1407). Please do not hesitate to contact that Office at any point in the student evaluation process. The ultimate goal of these guidelines is to make processing of Student Ratings of Instruction a little less painful for all departments across campus.