Faculty FAQ

For further questions, please reach out to your department or college contact (found on home page) or contact the Course Evaluations Administrator.

• How can I review the questions being asked of students?

  All of the forms we utilize are located on the Planning & Academic Resources website for you to view (Course Evaluation forms).

• What should I tell my students about the online course evaluation system?

  Faculty can tell their students that online course evaluation links will be sent to their cougar email address. Faculty will also be instrumental in achieving higher response rates as they can reinforce, at the end or beginning of lectures or activities, the importance of completing the evaluations.

• Does the online course evaluation system allow faculty to ask additional questions?

  Faculty are not currently able to modify the course evaluation form to add their own questions in the Class Climate System. However, there are four questions listed as “Item added by instructor”. These items are always included in the form. Faculty can utilize these questions by clearly notifying students of the questions before the evaluation has opened. Only the faculty and the students will know what questions were asked by the faculty, so these are not used by departments for evaluations.

   

• What actions will be taken to encourage students to respond?

  Our campus is working together to increase response rates, because we know how important this feedback is for instructor evaluation and to inform curricular decisions.

  Student communications have been updated to emphasize the importance of the course evaluation process and more strongly encourage participation. The invitations have also been updated to reduce the number of clicks for students to enter the evaluations. For non- responders, the system automatically generates reminder emails every three days during the survey window.

  The system will also send out response rate reports to faculty a week before the end of the semester so that they can reinforce the importance of evaluation completion to their

  students. We encourage faculty to review the document Strategies for Increasing Response Rates for tips they may wish to consider.

• What are the benefits to administering online evaluations?

  The most significant benefits associated with online course evaluations are quicker turnaround times for evaluation reports at the end of the semester, and a reduction in paper use. If all course evaluations are administered online, we save roughly 55,000 sheets of paper per semester, which helps the campus progress towards its sustainability goals.

  The quicker turnaround times are a result of not needing to scan paper course evaluations and so reports would be available days, instead of weeks, after grades are due. Given the volume of course evaluations conducted each semester, this also represents a cost savings in terms of person hours for the administrative units that facilitate this process.

• Will I be able to monitor response rates while the course evaluation is open?

  Faculty are notified of their response rate by email after the evaluations have been open for one week. In the future, we hope to implement a future that will allow faculty to monitor response rates in real-time.

• How will I know my course evaluation has been sent to my students?

  Faculty will receive an email confirmation from cc_admin@csusm.edu that their course has been sent to their students. Any faculty who did not receive a confirmation email but need to have their course evaluated should contact their college course evaluation coordinator (see our Course Evaluation website or the end of this document for a list of coordinators)

• How will I know when my evaluation results are available?

  Faculty will receive their evaluation results after grades have been submitted. The course evaluation timeline is posted on our website (Course Evaluations) with a timetable of the course evaluation process, including report distribution.

• How do I save a copy of my course evaluation results?

  Faculty are strongly encouraged to save a copy of their course evaluation results each semester, to be stored and used later as part of the WPAF process. The best way to save your course evaluation results is to open the pdf file that is sent through your campus email and save it as a pdf to a secure location. Once the file opens from the email, go to

  File->Save As->PDF, and then you can select a secure location to save the file to.

• Can I see my results from past semesters?

  If you were not able to save your reports from the email sent in prior semesters, evaluation reports may be requested from the Dean’s Office of your College.

• Who will have access to the results of my course evaluations?

  Access to your course evaluations will be granted to the evaluation coordinator and Dean/Assistant Dean associated with your College, as well as your Department Chair. Institutional Planning & Analysis has access to all course evaluation results due to its role in administering the process and distributing reports. Other than these select few individuals, no one will have access to your course evaluations and reports other than you.

• What if I am an instructor and I am also taking courses?

  You should have a student account to access Cougar Courses where you will see and be able to complete the evaluations for courses you are currently enrolled in. For courses you are currently teaching, you will be getting the results via email after grades have been submitted.

• Are students who withdrew from the course included in the evaluation process?

  We have a process in place that removes students who have withdrawn from the class prior to the evaluations being sent out.

• How do I add the Course Evaluations to my Cougar Courses navigation bar?
  To add Course Evaluations to your container in Cougar Courses, you will need to log in to Cougar Courses and select the section you would like to have the Course Evaluations show in.  Then, on the left hand side, scroll down and click on "Settings."  From this pane, at the top, go to "Navigation" and scroll down until you see "Course Evaluations."  Click on the three dots on the right of this line, and click the "+ Enable." Once that is done, drag "Course Evaluations" to where you would like it to be on the left-hand menu bar for your students.  Click "Save" when done.
• Can faculty give input regarding appropriate weeks in the semester to have the evaluations be accessible to students?

  Unless a course ends on a date other than the normal course schedule, we cannot currently accommodate a different evaluation schedule. Course evaluations are sent out so that students have two weeks to submit their responses. Evaluations are always sent out on Monday the week before the last week of class. Students then have until midnight on the last day of classes to submit their evaluation.

  Course Evaluation Coordinators By College: