Policy

Principles

1. The overall goal of the CPS process is to continuously improve upon the education at USI.

2. The CPS are intended to provide USI faculty with feedback from students to evaluate, improve, and refine their methods of instructions.

3. The CPS should not be construed as the sole or primary evidence of competence or excellence in teaching. Rather, the CPS is part of a collection of materials that document teaching performance, including, but not limited to, peer observations, teaching portfolios, and/or student outcomes.

4. To ensure we receive the best response rate, no surveys will be distributed to the student body during the CPS distribution period for full term fall and spring courses (typically the full two weeks prior to finals).

Administration of the CPS

1. Prior to the beginning of each term (fall, spring, summer 1, and summer 2) the IAO will distribute an email to all faculty teaching in the upcoming term with the CPS distribution dates of each of their courses. This distribution calendar is created with the methodology of gathering responses from students in the last week(s) of instruction, prior to finals for their class. Full term courses are allowed two full weeks. For the best response rate, instructors should:

• Include the start and end dates of the surveys in the course syllabus.
• Remind students in class before the survey start date that they will be receiving an email to their USI eagles account and ask them to please check their junk and/or clutter if they do not see the email in their inbox.
• During the survey dates, check response rates by logging into Qualtrics (the red “Q” icon in myUSI) to view the “Response Rate Dashboard – Live” to view how many students have completed the CPS for each of your courses in real time.

2.  All CPS are administered online via Qualtrics Survey Software and distributed via invitation emails which are sent to each student's "@eagles.usi.edu" USI email address. Students will receive an invitation email containing an active link that they may click on to open the Course Perception Survey for that course in an internet browser (this can be performed from a desktop, smartphone, tablet etc.) Students are sent separate emails for each class allowing them to provide feedback in classes they are enrolled in at the time of distribution. Students who have dropped the course prior to distribution are NOT included.

The instructor's name, course ID, and course title appear in the invitation email and within the survey. Reminder emails are sent to students who have not completed the survey at least once before the survey period ends. Course Perception Surveys are no longer accessible in the course area of Blackboard.

3. Students enrolled in courses that are "team-taught" with more than one instructor, will receive one email for the course. The CPS consists of one section with course related questions (the student is asked once - all instructors may see the results) and one section with instructor related questions (the student is asked multiple times, one set of questions for each instructor - with the instructor name on each question). The instructor related questions are divided accordingly. All instructors will have access to the self-assessment section (asked once). For reference, view this copy of the USI CPS.

4. Students enrolled in courses with a lecture and a lab/clinical section taught by the same instructor, will receive one email/survey allowing them to provide feedback for the course overall. The CPS does not contain any lab or clinical specific questions.

5. Instructors are not permitted to incentivize students to complete their Course Perception Surveys, including but not limited to giving extra credit in the course.

Reporting of CPS Data to Faculty

All CPS data is reporting to faculty within their Qualtrics accounts, accessible through myUSI. All faculty members with results in Qualtrics for the CPS will have access to a dashboard with several views including an overall summary, trends, faculty specific summary, and comparison dashboards. Faculty can request a PDF of Scantron Class Climate course evaluation (Student Evaluation of Teaching or SET) reports for Fall 2014 through Spring 2019 by emailing opra@usi.edu.

Inclusions and Exclusions of CPS Data Collection

Course Perception Surveys are created for every course except student teaching, internship programs, field experiences, and independent study courses. Courses with enrollment of less than 6 will not be sent to protect student confidentiality. Instructors are evaluated regardless of their tenure status.