Instruction @ UCR

UCR Faculty Instructional Evaluations

Course evaluations are an important aspect of teaching and learning at UC Riverside.  Without responsible student input UCR cannot effectively assess and improve teaching performance and student learning.  Students are encouraged to be honest, fair, and constructive as they participate in this important campus process.

iEVAL allows students the opportunity to provide constructive feedback on the instruction received each quarter. Through the iEVAL system students are able to submit anonymous course evaluations at the end of each quarter.  The online evaluations can be submitted at any time starting once the evaluation period is announced.  Students will be sent reminders to participate in this important campus process.  Once students complete all of their course evaluations the reminders will stop.  Student comments should address what works well and what areas of the course need enhancements to improve the learning experience.

• BY LOGGING INTO iEVAL WILL THE INSTRUCTORS KNOW THE IDENTITY OF STUDENTS WHO PROVIDE FEEDBACK?

No, all evaluations are anonymous.  The logging in process confirms enrollment and submission of an evaluation for a specific course.  Student identity will not be connected to the feedback submitted, it will only be used to prevent students from submitting more than one evaluation per course.

• WILL THE EVALUATION PROVIDED BY A STUDENT AFFECT THEIR GRADE?

  No, instructors are not able to access the results of course evaluations until after the course grades have been posted.  In addition, the student ID is striped from the results before they are complied and made available to the instructor.

• IS THERE AN INCENTIVE FOR STUDENTS TO PARTICIPATE IN iEVAL?

The university has an established date when all grades are officially posted.  Students who participate in iEVAL will be given access on GROWL to the course grade for each class evaluated as soon as the instructor submits the course grade for each class.  Students who do not participate in iEVAL will have access to their grades on the official university grade posting date:

Fall 2009 Grades will post on GROWL:  January 4, 2010

Winter 2010 Grades will post on GROWL:  March 29, 2010

Spring 2010 Grade will post on GROWL:  June 21, 2010

Course grades for courses that do not use iEVAL will not be impacted by the university's grade posting policy.

WHY ARE COURSE EVALUATIONS IMPORTANT TO UCR?

Evaluations provide an opportunity to commend instructors for doing a great job or let them know where improvement is needed.

Course evaluations are anonymous, therefore students are encouraged to provide an honest assessment of the teaching and learning experience.

Comments are not edited. Feedback should be honest, fair, and constructive.  Students should be aware that although evaluations are anonymous, integrity, respect, and professionalism should be exercised. Harassment, threats or other statements that otherwise violate University policy will be forwarded to Student Conduct & Academic Integrity Programs (SCAIP) for disciplinary action.

Instructors will see their evaluation results after the grades have been posted.

All course evaluations are read by the faculty, department chairs, and campus administrators.

Faculty use course evaluation information to improve their courses and teaching methods.

Department chairs review course evaluations with faculty to assess teaching effectiveness.

Feedback from course evaluations is used to make teaching assignments.

Course evaluation data is used to recognize good instruction, and address issues that require improvement.

University Committees consider course evaluations carefully as part of the faculty reviews to determine who is retained and promoted.

Course evaluation data may be used for approved analysis and research as long as the identity of the participants is protected.

Course evaluation feedback helps UCR enhance its teaching and learning environments; thus it is important that students take the process seriously.

• INFORMATION FOR INSTRUCTORS AND DEPARTMENTS

In preparation for this campus process faculty and department representatives will be contacted by the Office of Instructional Development (OID) to verify the accuracy of course information that is imported from the UCR Student Information System (SIS) during the 5th week of instruction. Please be sure to notify gladis@ucr.edu if there are any discripancies in the course evaluation information.

Faculty can select to opt out of using iEVAL at www.ieval.ucr.eduduring 5-8 week of instruction or they can contact gladis@ucr.edu to indicate their  preference.  iEVAL will be the centralized mode of evaluation for the campus.  Faculty who select to not to use iEVAL may wish to speak to their department chair to discuss other modes of teaching evaluations that will be used in the department.  OID is only responsible for processing and maintaining records of evaluations that use iEVAL.

Faculty who are signed up to use iEVAL will receive an e-mail confirming their participation a week before the evaluation period starts. OID will notify the students via e-mail that iEVAL is available. Faculty will be sent periodic updates on their response rate, and can also access the information at any time at www.ieval.ucr.edu.

Please note that Section D - Department Specific Issues allows department or course specific questions to be addressed. It is up to the department and/or each instructor to determine what, if any, questions they wish to address in this section. Instructors should post the questions on the board, handout,e-mail, iLEARN, or other mode of communication and remind the students to indicate their responses in this section. Space is provided for up to 5 questions. OID will tabulate the results of this section but will NOT track the individual questions per department or course. It will be the responsibility of each department or professor to track these questions), and a section for comments.

To insure the confidentially of students OID will not process evaluations with less than 2 students enrolled.

Students are advised on the iEVAL home page that although the evaluation is anonymous, integrity, respect, and professionalism should be exercised. Harassment, threats or other statements that otherwise violate University policy will be forwarded to Student Conduct & Academic Integrity Programs (SCAIP) for disciplinary action.

• DATES THAT iEVAL WILL BE AVAILABLE:

iEVAL DATES FOR 2009/2010

QUARTER	START DATE	END DATE	RESULTS AVAILABLE TO FACULTY AT www.ieval.ucr.edu
FALL 2009	Friday, 11/20/09	Friday, 12/4/09	Monday, January 4, 2010
WINTER 2010	Wednesday, 3/3/10	Friday, 3/12/10	Monday, March 29, 2010
SPRING 2010	Wednesday, 5/26/10	Friday, 6/4/10	Monday, June 21, 2010

• COURSE EVALUATION RESULTS

Archived course evaluations reports dating back to Winter 2005 can be accessed by instructors at https://ieval.ucr.edu/ieval/login. This includes evaluations that were adminstered with Scantrons and online.  To access results instructors will need their UCR Net ID (Net ID can be found at the UCR Directory) and password (same as what is used to access UCR Webmail).

Starting in Fall 2009 final iEVAL results will be available to faculty on the day after the iGRADE deadline. As a result of this immediate access to iEVAL Reports there will be no editing of the comments.

• HOW WILL STUDENTS BE INFORMED OF iEVAL?

iEVAL dates will be announced through e-mails, web links, and postersthroughout campus.

During the evaluation period students will be sent periodic reminders with the a link to iEVAL.  The reminders will continue until the students submit a course evaluation for each class they are enrolled in

• SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING STUDENT RESPONSE RATE:

Instructors are encouraged to explain the importance of course evaluations and advise students that their feedback is useful in enhancing the teaching and learning experience at UCR.  Instructors may wish to use the iEVAL video,  to inform students of the value of iEVAL.

Instructors are encouraged to remind the students to submit a course evaluation through in class reminders, e-mails, and announcements on iLEARN.

Instructors are encouraged to remind students that iEVAL is environmentally friendly, easy to use, frees up class time, and allows students to log on when they have time to provide a constructive evaluation.

Instructors may wish to consider including iEVAL information on the course syllabus(the iEVAL link (www.ieval.ucr.edu) and the dates that the system will be available.

Instructors may post a direct link to iEVAL ( http://www.ieval.ucr.edu/ieval/login ) on the announcement section of iLEARN.

• HISTORY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE  UCR ACADEMIC SENATE APPROVED UCR FACULTY INSTRUCTION EVALUTION FORM

In Fall 2006 UCR began to use the new Academic Senate approved "UCR Faculty Instruction Evaluation Form". This evaluation form is the standard form that is used by the entire campus, it encompasses course information, student profile, instructor appraisal, course appraisal, department specific issues, and student comments. The scale of the form is 1 (Strongly Disagree) - 5 (Strongly Agree). Minutes of the Senate Committee Meeting approving the revised course evaluation form can be found at: SENATE AGENDA 5-30-06

In Fall 2009 the UCR Senate endorsed the campus move to online evaluations via iEVAL. The Office of Undergraduate Education and the Office of Instructional Development coordinated the transition.