Where will student evaluations be stored and for how long?
Evaluations will be available online and retained
behind a password protected wall. CES data will receive the same
level of protection as provided all sensitive UH data, including
statutorily-protected personal and student data. At this time,
there is no purge of old surveys. All past electronic eCAFE/CES surveys are
available in CES. No purge is planned at this time. With respect
to student evaluations that are going to the department chair,
chairs will be able to view the results by going through the
password protected CES site. Only the current department chair
will be able to access departmental results.
Will these evaluations be used for personnel decisions?
While the CES will be distributed to all
students in all courses, faculty retain control of whether to use
the CES results to demonstrate effective teaching in personnel
decisions. Along with CAPP, the OVCAA confirms that the primary
purpose of the course evaluation is to aid the instructor by
providing feedback about the course. It is also important to note
that many, if not most, faculty use course evaluations when making
their case for teaching excellence in tenure and promotion
decisions. Faculty members are required to provide evidence of
teaching effectiveness and most faculty currently use eCAFE or
some other form of student evaluation to do so.
Will the results of the course evaluation be made available to upper administration?
No.
In the "Update on Implementation of Course Evaluation System (CES)" President
Lassner states that, "No results, aggregate or other, will be
shared directly with administrators (Chancellors, VCs, Deans).
Administrators will only see results that are publicly published
by individual faculty or provided by the individual faculty member
in the course of personnel procedures (e.g., tenure, promotion) in
accord with applicable policies, procedures and collective
bargaining agreements."
Will the department chair be able to see the results of the course evaluation?
Each campus must decide
how to handle sharing for their campus. They may make sharing
mandatory or let the lower organizations decide. Each organization
can choose between:
(a) All results will be shared with the
faculty chair (tenured faculty, non-tenured faculty and
lecturers).
(b) Only non-tenured faculty and lecturer
results will be shared with the faculty chair.
(c) Only
lecturer results will be shared with the faculty chair.
(d)
No results will be shared with the faculty chair. (default)
In a survey of UHM faculty, when asked if department chairs
should see the results 78% of those responding (317 total) said
that results should go to the department chairs.
What if there is no department chair in my college? Who will receive the results?
There are several academic units where there are no department chairs. In this case
there is no easy answer, but we recommend that if the department
would like to identify an individual to whom all results are sent,
they can do so. However, the department can also choose the
default option where no results are submitted to the department
chair.
My department has been using the same questions for years. Can we still include these questions on the new
evaluation?
Yes. If the questions are not listed when you
try to set up a survey, contact ces-help@lists.hawaii.edu.
When do individual instructors add their own questions?
Instructors can add questions to their personal
question bank at anytime during the year. The instructor can only
add questions to his/her surveys during the instructor set up
period.
I team-teach a course and/or I am responsible for
multiple sections or labs that have TA/GAs. How will the CES
function for team taught courses and multiple sections?
Since this is a course evaluation and not an individual faculty
evaluation, the evaluation is based on the CRN for the course. If
the course is taught by multiple faculty, questions about specific
faculty will need to be added at the instructor level (i.e.
Faculty X was ..., Faculty Y was ...). Both faculty X and Y will
see the results for individual questions. Individual questions
specific to a GA/TA would also need to be included.
Students in cross-listed courses will get the evaluation based
upon the CRN for which they sign up. The instructor on record will
receive a CES for each CRN.
What is the difference between traditional and
non-traditional courses?
CES is set up to conduct surveys
based on the general academic schedule. The surveys are all
conducted at the same time at the end of the semester. There are
some courses that start and end at different times of the year. It
does not make sense for those courses to have evaluation period at
the end of the academic school year. In CES, a course with a
different schedule is called 'non-traditional'. Non-traditional
surveys are evaluated the last two weeks of the course.
When is the survey open for students to take?
Students can take the survey in the week before finals,
with the last day being the Friday before finals week. The surveys
for the non-traditional courses will open two weeks before the
last day of instruction. The non-traditional surveys most often
close on the last day of instruction but the instructors are able
to extend the surveys.
Why is the student open period when it is? Why
isn't it after the semester ends, or for a shorter or longer
period?
Historically the duration of the survey period has fluctuated. At this time
surveys are open 2 weeks before finals week.
Why is there a survey for my course. I do not want it?
UH requires all courses to have an evaluation.
This is change implemented with CES starting Fall 2018.
What does it mean to publish?
Publishing is agreeing to display the aggregated results of a survey on a
public site. After the student survey period closes, you will be
able to view your results and decide if you want to publish the
survey result or not. If you choose to publish, you will be shown
what will be posted, and you will have a chance to omit individual
responses to open-ended questions before submitting the results
for publishing. You will also be able to revoke your decision at
any time. To see what published results look like, go to
https://www.hawaii.edu/ces and click on the "View Published
Surveys." Note: If you do not want to publish, there is nothing
you need to do. By default, results are not published. Results are
only published through an explicit action that would have to be
taken by you.
What happens if I select 'I would like to publish this survey result?'
This is declaring your intent to make
your results public at the end of the semester. If you select
"Yes," the CES system will let your students know that you plan to
make the results public. This gives them an incentive to
participate. Declaring your intent to publish does not mean that
you are forced to publish, or that publishing your results will
happen automatically. You will still need to log in during the
results period and click a "Publish"" button before it actually
takes place. Even if you select "No," you can still publish the
results later if you choose to do so. Note that if you do not want
to publish, there is nothing you need to do, by default, results
are not published. Results are only published through an explicit
action that would have to be taken by you.
How is the mean computed?
The mean is computed by assigning values to each answer and taking the average
of those values. For example, let's say there's a multiple choice
question with possible answers of Strongly Disagree, Disagree,
Neutral, Agree, and Strongly Agree. Strongly Agree is assigned a
value of 5 and Strongly Disagree is assigned a value of 1. If six
students responded with three students answering Strongly Agree,
two answering Agree, and one answering Neutral, the math would
look like this: ((3*5)+(2*4)+(1*3))/6. = 15+8+3/6 = 26/6 = 4.33.
We round off the mean at two digits after the decimal.
I missed the survey set-up period.
If you missed the survey set-up period, it means that it is too late for
you to add additional questions to your surveys. Depending on the
timing and your department's rules we may or may not be able to
help you. You can contact ces-help@lists.hawaii.edu and we can
look into the situation.
When do I get to see the results?
The earliest date results will be posted is listed on the CES home
page. The results will be release on the advertised date if the
grades are set and 'rolled' in Banner for all registered students.
Please note that it can take up to 48hrs before CES get the latest
information from Banner. If your survey isn't released after the
listed date and you have set the grades for all student, contact
us at ces-help@lists.hawaii.edu.
Does anyone get to see my results?
Individuals assigned the role of department chair may have access
to your survey results. Additional staff from your department may
also have access to the aggregate result of your survey. It is up
to each campus/college/division and department to decide if survey
results are shared with the department chair. The general public
including all other UH personnel and student will only be able to
see the results if YOU choose to publish the results or explicitly
grant an individual access through the system.
How do I find out how many students have
completed the survey during the student open period?
When you log in, immediately under each class listing, you'll see text
in italics that reads something like this: "33 enrolled, 0
completed, 0 opted-out." You will also get periodic emails from us
with the up to date completion rates.
How do I let someone see my results?
There are three ways to share your results:
- Publish your results.
- Email your results to an individual. This is done via
the "Email Results" button next to each of your past results.
- Set an individual to have indefinite access to all your
results. This is done via the "Share results" button at the top
of the Past Results section. This privileges can be revoked by
you at any time.
Can you tell me which students did my survey?
No, we can not. The issue is student privacy. Let's say that you
have a class of 5 students, 2 of whom do the survey thinking that
the class has enough people that you won't be able to tell who did
it, but then we send you a list of the two who did the survey. At
that point, it becomes much easier to figure out which response
belongs to which student.
The most common question we get from students is "Are my survey
responses anonymous." We assure them that they are. If we start
telling instructors who did the surveys, then we have to put an
asterisk next to our statement of anonymity, and that might be
enough to scare the students away from filling out the surveys.
If you are offering your students extra credit for filling out the
survey, ask the student to screen shot his/her CES home page and
send the image to you. The page will show the student's name and
it will say "Completed" next to the survey if the student
completed it.
Why do I need to send an email to my students,
why can't the system do it?
CES send emails directly to the student. We ask that you email your
students because we find
that some students assume that the system emails are spam or a
phishing attempts and they delete the emails without reading the
message.
I forwarded the email CES sent me to my students.
The students say that the link doesn't work. Why?
It appears that if you use Outlook as your email reader, it sometimes
modifies the original URL. Please make sure that when you click on
the url, it goes to https://www.hawaii.edu/ces and not through a
redirect.