Course Evaluations (Policy and Procedure)

The feedback students provide about your teaching on their end-of-semester course evaluations present valuable data which will enable you improve and refine your teaching. At Schulich, we strongly encourage all faculty to collect interim feedback on their courses in order to learn what is working well, and to gain insights and ideas about possible improvements or innovations, while allowing time to make adjustments during the current term. In fact, the opportunity to provide feedback is expected by our Schulich students.

Midterm / Interim Student Feedback

Anytime!

Use informal feedback to adjust your teaching plan on the fly:

  • Monitor nonverbal cues
  • Obtain verbal feedback

Take time after each class to note how things went:

  • Highlight key points to incorporate into next class
  • Note thoughts and ideas for the next time you teach

Leverage end-of-term evaluations to improve the next iteration of your course:

  • Learn more about Online Course Evaluations (ONCE) end-of-term course evaluation below.

At Schulich, we strongly encourage all faculty to collect anonymous interim feedback about their courses in order to determine what is working well, and to gain insights and ideas about possible improvements or innovations.

Qualtrics Survey Platform

All Schulich instructors have access to Qualtrics, a powerful surveying platform. Schulich’s Canvas Team have created a simple 3-question survey using the Qualtrics platform for the purposes of collecting interim feedback.  Instructors are able to use this survey, supplement it with their own questions or design their own survey.

The instructions linked below will describe how to:

1.  Create a Qualtrics account
2.  Select the 3-question survey mentioned above or create your own
3.  Share the Qualtrics survey using Canvas

Learn More

Data from this survey will be accessible only to instructors, but we encourage you to share any relevant findings with the Teaching & Learning team.

Interim Feedback Questionnaires (Word Docs)

You may also continue to use these questionnaires on paper. Click the links below to download the word documents.

Mid-Term Feedback – Open-Ended – A.docx

Mid-Term Feedback – Directed Questions – B.docx

Mid-Term Feedback – QuantQual – C.docx

It is not necessary to act on all of the suggestions, but the students do expect that instructors acknowledge their feedback.

Online Course Evaluations (ONCE)

The ONCE course evaluations and TEA rating survey have now been combined into one convenient questionnaire requiring only one login for students. Students no longer need to access two separate portals in order to submit their ONCE course evaluations or rate their instructors for a Teaching Excellence Award. Change is in effect as of Fall 2021.

The collection of end-of-term evaluations is a mandatory York University requirement, and is administered in-class via an online York application.

This questionnaire is comprised of two main sections:

ONCE – mandatory administration required by instructors

    • York Core Institutional Questions
    • Schulich-specific Course and Instructor Evaluation Questions

TEA – voluntary completion by students

    • Schulich Teaching Excellence Award (TEA) Instructor Rating Questions

See questionnaire here.

The collection of end-of-term evaluations is administered in-class via an online York application during the last two classes of each term in each of the Graduate and Undergraduate programs as follows:

  • Regular 6-wk courses: week 5 and 6
  • Regular 12-wk courses: week 11 and 12
  • Weekend courses: last two class sessions
  • Irregular courses: last two class sessions

The two-week evaluation window dates will vary depending on whether the course is a regular or irregularly scheduled course in either of the Graduate or Undergraduate programs.

All instructors and students are notified well in advance of their respective evaluation windows.

All Instructors and students will receive an email from the Office of the Associate Dean, Academic (ADAO), notifying them of their windows for both the ONCE and TEA.

Instructors will be notified by automated email of the ratings/evaluation period for the program in which they are teaching as follows:

  • 2-3 weeks before the opening of the ratings/evaluations – for planning purposes – determine in which of the two classes you will hold the ratings/evaluations period.

Students will be notified by automated email of the ratings/evaluation period as follows:

  • 1 day before the opening of the ratings/evaluations windows, and
  • 1 day before the closing of the ratings/evaluations windows – as a reminder
  • The notification emails (to instructors and students) will contain link and QR code to the ONCE and TEA portal
  • Instructors teaching courses with irregular term dates and course lengths will be notified of those respective ratings/evaluation windows, which will be comprised of the last two class sessions of that course. The students in these courses will also be notified accordingly.
  1. Instructors must provide 15-20 minutes of in-class time to the students, during one of the last two class sessions for the students to complete the course evaluations (mandatory per Schulich Faculty Council policy).
  2. Instructors must advise the students in which class the 15-20 minutes of in-class time will be provided for them to complete the evaluations.
  3. Encourage students to bring a laptop or mobile device to that class.  In-class completion of the evaluations  has proven to encourage a higher student participation rate than completion outside of class time.
  4. Instructors may leave the classroom but may also stay in the beginning to provide assistance.

All instructors and students are provided with the ONCE link well in advance of their respective evaluation windows.

Online course evaluations are run by York University and may be accessed at:

ONCE: http://courseevaluations.yorku.ca

  • Students use this link to complete their evaluation of the course and instructor.
  • Instructors use this link to view real-time participation and final results.

ONCE evaluation results are released as follows and may be viewed by instructors here:

  • Fall term results: January 15
  • Winter term results: May 15
  • Summer term results: September 15

Login to the ONCE website with your Passport York credentials and follow the instructions below:

Yes, a ‘Live View’ of the participation rate during the evaluation period may be viewed as follows:

Login to the ONCE website with your Passport York credentials and follow the instructions below:

The Online Course Evaluations (ONCE) collect course and instructor feedback from students, and may be used by instructors for continuous improvement of teaching efforts.  After the end of the term, and after all grades have been submitted, the evaluations are tabulated and become part of the instructor’s permanent file and will be taken into consideration for tenure and promotion decisions (for tenure-stream faculty) or reappointment (for part-time and contractually-limited appointments).

The Teaching Excellence Awards give students the opportunity to recognize instructors for their individual outstanding contribution to teaching and learning based on Seymour Schulich’s vision, where the winners demonstrate excellence in:

  • Knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, the subject matter
  • Exceptional teaching strategies and communication skills
  • Positive student learning experiences
  • Teaching innovation
  • Responsiveness to student needs and concerns

Student participation in the TEA is voluntary and self-promotion by the instructor is not permitted.

Results from ONCE and TEA are independent of each other, and neither influences nor impacts the other.