Course Evaluation Resources

Midterm Student Feedback

Stony Brook University does not centrally distribute midterm course evaluations. However, here at CELT we encourage faculty members to gather formative feedback from students around the midpoint of the term in order to make modifications to improve student learning.

Feedback can be collected in the form of a mid-point survey deployed through Qualtrics, Google Forms or another survey tool of your choice. The purpose of midterm feedback surveys is to improve the current learning experience, by giving the opportunity for students to share their reflections with instructors. CELT is happy to provide feedback and guidance on creating or customizing questions for mid-point surveys. Reach out to courseeval@stonybrook.edu for a consultation.

Tips for Deploying Midterm Surveys

- - Make it optional and informal (no grade should be attached!)
  - Choose whether or not to make it anonymous (this may depend on the questions you ask!)
  - Provide students the opportunity to reflect by using open-ended questions
  - Consider using class time for students to respond
  - Share results with students and discuss how feedback may impact the course moving forward

Midterm Feedback Examples

- - CELT's Midterm Student Feedback Template
    - - Please modify templated based on your midterm evaluation goals
  - Short Form (2 closed-ended question and 2 open-ended questions)
  - Start, Stop, and Keep Blog Post and Template
  - One-Minute Papers - Cornell University

Course Evaluations

Boost Your Response Rates

Feedback from course evaluations is far more valuable if you can maximize your response rates. Listed here are tried-and-true ways to increase response rates to your course surveys. If you have other ideas or suggestions that have worked for you, please let us know! Email the CELT Course Evaluation Team at CourseEval@stonybrook.edu.

Take some time to explain to students why their feedback is valuable and how it will be used to improve the course or program. Sharing examples of how you might have modified a course in response to student feedback will help them see their feedback matters. For example: "Last semester the evaluations said I should make better use of the course website, and that is why this year I have been posting notes online."
Leave a few minutes at the end of class and ask that students take the time to complete their evaluations on their own devices. The Course Evaluations platform is mobile friendly! You can even pull up your view of the response rate and watch the number rise in real time.
You can keep the students aware of their progress by just writing the response rates on the board at the beginning of each class, or providing updates via Brightspace announcements. Consider sharing a specific goal to reach, such as a 90% response rate. You could also project the response rates for all your classes and have a competition between classes for the highest response rate.

You can monitor your response rates by logging into the course evaluations portal. When surveys are active, your response rates will be visible on the landing page after loggin in.
Periodically remind students about completing their course evaluations in class, through online announcements and email. Students have 3 to 4 weeks to submit their evaluations, so doing more than one announcement when they open will maximize your responses.
While you are able to add custom questions for your own class, keep in mind the amount of time it will take students to complete the survey. The core survey for all questions at Stony Brook includes 10 total questions (2 of these are open-ended). Response rates are higher when a survey is kept to 10 minutes or less (Galesiki & Bosjniak, 2009).

Adding Custom Questions

- - Questions do not carry over from previous semesters
  - Additional questions must be added each semester
  - Adding questions faculty to ask questions specific to their course section
  - CELT suggests adding a maximum of three or questions to avoid survey fatigue
  - A guide to adding faculty questions for instructors

Online Evaluations Guidance

1. Confirm accurate teaching assignments in SOLAR/PeopleSoft

- - Instructors will not be evaluated if they are not properly assigned to their course in PeopleSoft. Please note: only primary and secondary instructors are evaluated. For TAs to be evaluated they must be listed as a primary or secondary instructor in PeopleSoft.

2. Update department adminstrator access in the evaluation system

- - Deans, Department Chairs and their designees can request access to view evaluation results for all courses in their assigned college/school or department. To update or request administrator access, please email us at CourseEval@stonybrook.edu or call 2-8032.

3. If needed, submit an exception request

- - All courses and course sections are evaluated, EXCEPT those designated as TUT or SUP in PeopleSoft. If you require an exception to these rules, you must submit a request prior to the start of evaluations. Requests should be submitted in the following circumstances:
    - You want your TUT or SUP courses evaluated
    - Your lecture and recitation (LEC and REC) or lecture and lab (LEC and LAB) course sections are identical (i.e. same instructor and students) and you only want students to complete evaluations for one of these sections
    - You would like another exception request considered.
      - Any request to remove courses from evaluations will require approval from department chairpersons.

Submit an exception request

Please Note: Departments and faculty who have already submitted exception requests do not need to re-submit. If you’re unsure if your request was submitted, please email us at CourseEval@stonybrook.edu.