Academic Assessment: SEOIs

Online SEOI - FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

• ​One of the best methods to increase the response rate is to encourage students to respond
• Another effective method is to tell students how you have used SEOI feedback to improve your teaching.
• It also helps to administer short surveys throughout your course (before SEOIs) and use good suggestions.
• Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) are great examples. A great CAT resource!

2. Why transition from paper to online SEOI administration?

There are several reasons to switch from paper to online SEOIs including saving instructional time for administration, saving staff time in administering forms and typing student comments, protection of faculty privacy, and overall administrative effort and cost.

3. Is there a cost savings for the switch from paper to online?

There is an anticipated cost savings of at least $25,000 when comparing staff, supply, and fee costs between online and paper administration methods.

4. Will the paper be saved?

CWU is using approximately 80,000 paper SEOIs a year. Each sheet goes through inter-campus mail three times. Thus, going online is environmentally friendly!

5. What is the basic process for online SEOIs administration?

• Department staff will assign SEOI forms for each course section in their department (as per past practice – week 4 of a quarter).
• Faculty, Chairs, and Deans can collaborate to create up to 10 “custom questions” (week 6-7 of quarter).
• Students are contacted via e-mail two weeks before the first day of finals (weeks 8 & 9 of a quarter). An announcement e-mail and up to three reminder e-mails may be sent based on participation or lack thereof. Access is obtained through a secure web-link in e-mail.
• Faculty, Chairs, and Deans will have access to results/reports within two weeks after quarter completion.

6. Who is responsible for the SEOI process?

The Faculty Senate

7. When will students complete SEOIs?

Students will be able to access and complete SEOIs two weeks prior to Final Exam week.

8. How do faculty access EvaluationKIT?

• Faculty, staff, and students can log on to EvaluationKIT by clicking “SEOIs” in the Applications toolbox in the upper right corner of MyCWU
• Faculty can log in to EvaluationKIT while in Canvas. The “Course Evaluations” link is in the upper right corner of their “Personal Settings.”
• Students see a link to “Course Evaluations” in the left frame of Canvas (while SEOIs are in progress)

9. What will be done to encourage students to complete the online SEOIs?

The Office of Assessment will enhance student process knowledge and encourage student participation through:

1. Student e-mail invitations and reminders
2. Web and print media advertisement
3. Canvas (Pop-up messages)
4. Faculty reminder to encourage students and data access showing individual class participation.

*Departments and individual faculty will also play an important role in encouraging students to complete the online SEOIs.

What SEOI forms are being used?

SEOI forms will reflect those newly created by the SEOI task force and approved by the Faculty Senate/Provost council in 2010-2011.

• Form A 2010 - Lecture
• Form C 2010 - Skills Acquisition
• Form D 2010 - Laboratory
• Form E 2010 - Visual and Performing Arts
• Form W 2010 - Online
• Form F - Field Experience / Student Teaching

12. Can I still use the old SEOI forms?

Although the SEOI forms will be new, the ability to create custom questions will allow faculty/chairs/deans to add past SEOI form questions or generate new ones as needed or where an interest exists. A staff person in each department will still have access to the former SEOI reports if you need them.

13. When can I access my class reports?

SEOI reports are usually available in EvaluationKIT within a week after grades are due each quarter. SEOI Reports are now loaded into Faculty180 at approximately the same time.

14. How do I access my SEOI reports?

CWU uses six different SEOI forms. Each form is in its own “project” each quarter. Faculty can log on to EvaluationKIT. They will see recent “Project Results” in the center of the dashboard with a list of courses for each project.

15. How do I see results from past quarters?

1. Log on to EvaluationKIT
2. Click “Results” in the upper blue menu bar
3. Then click “Instructor Results”
4. You will see a list of all of your SEOI reports from past quarters and projects
5. You can sort by the column headings of the list
6. If you want to download some or all of your reports then:

• select the reports
• click “Batch Report” in blue letters above “Results”
• we usually use the second option “download multiple PDF Reports…”
• click the bottom box to view the ‘short report’
• then click GO. EvaluationKIT may need to email you the reports if you selected quite a few of them

16. Where can I view the SEOI Task Force final report?

The final report of the SEOI Task Force included mock-ups of the five new SEOI forms along with a history and methodology. The report is at SEOI Task Force Final Report.

17. How do online SEOIs work for team-taught courses?

Courses will be set up as team-taught only if they are entered into SAFARI with both instructors. Online SEOIs can individualize responses to each faculty in team-taught courses. Each faculty receive responses individually on questions relating to “Student Learning Environment” and “Teaching for Student Learning” as well as a text question that asks “Please provide any additional comments about the course or instructor.” Students only answer “General information” questions once. Both faculty see those results.

18. How are responses to cross-listed courses managed?

Responses to cross-listed courses will be attributed to the correct department. Assume that students can take a course enrolled under department A or B. Responses from students enrolled in department A are used to compute that department’s average responses. Responses to Department B are used to compute summary statistics for Department B.

19. Will storage and retrieval of text responses improve?

Text comments will be archived online saving storage for departments.

20. How are student rosters generated for the online SEOIs?
Courses, students, and faculty are downloaded using Campus Solutions (SAFARI) queries.

21. Can faculty give students credit for completing the online SEOIs?

The idea of giving credit confounds the possible objectiveness of the student. It is recommended that credit not be given.

22. How do I add custom questions?

Adding custom questions to SEOIs is a four-step process:

1. Create a separate survey with your custom questions
2. Link that small survey to your SEOIs
3. Verify that it is linked
4. Tell your students that you added some questions to the end of your SEOIs that you want them to please answer.

For more detailed instructions on how to add custom questions.

23. Can faculty see which students have/have not completed online SEOIs in their courses?

No. The Faculty Senate asked for the removal of this feature.

If you have any suggestions or items to add or if you see any errors to this FAQ list please Contact Us.