Online Course Ratings

April 11, 2011

Dear Colleagues,

As the end of the semester approaches, I write to make sure you are aware of the new online system for student course ratings and provide additional information about the process. This spring, students in NSSR, Parsons, Lang, Drama, and University-wide lecture courses (ULEC) courses are being asked to submit course evaluations online. The new online system was developed with the participation and support of full-time and part-time faculty and informed by research about national best practices. It represents an improvement over the former paper ratings in several respects:

• The course ratings survey will go directly to students via email. You no longer need to distribute and collect paper forms in the classroom.
• Since online course ratings forms are preferred by the majority of students (for their ease, flexibility, and anonymity), we believe they will generate more thoughtful responses.
• The feedback from the surveys will be available to you quickly (as soon as you have submitted your grades) and in an easily digestible form.
• Since the ratings format and questions will be more consistent across programs and divisions, the information derived from them will be more helpful to faculty members who work across divisions and supportive of courses that serve students from more than one division.
• Online ratings are an environmentally friendly alternative to paper.

The period for completing course evaluations is April 18 to May 6. Students in your courses will receive an email message with a link to the survey, which consists of 17 questions rated on a five-point scale and four questions for narrative responses. These questions were developed based on the evaluation forms in use in many programs and divisions up to now.

To ensure you have the opportunity to learn more about the new ratings system, we have created a website that includes FAQs, a summary of the research findings that informed our new approach, and tips for full-time faculty to improve students' response rate and to interpret responses.

Please visit www.newschool.edu/courseratings to learn more. If you have questions after reviewing the website, your program director or dean is likely your best resource, but also feel free to write to us at provost@newschool.edu.

Our goal is to support your efforts to provide an optimal learning experience for your students. Thanks for your shared commitment to excellence.

Best regards,

Bryna Sanger
Deputy Provost