Comments from Fall 2012 On-line SEI participants
Brooks, Taggert
Things went well, but response rates dropped off. Dave can share global response rates with you.
Anecdotal evidence suggests some students prefer this system.
I think there is no question we should be doing this electronically...the only question in my mind
is how to achieve appropriate response rates? What types of incentives requirements?
Denton, Peggy
We have mixed feelings about the on-line SEI forms. It eliminated some of the upfront work for
the program assistants however, the rate of return was drastically less for our programs than the
paper form. The rate of return for fall 2011 (paper form) on average for our department was
93.4%. The rate of return for fall, 2012 (on-line format) was 59%. We're not happy about that
poor rate of return. The same courses were taught both fall semesters. There was no difference
between graduate programs and undergraduate programs in the return rate.
Anecdotally, we learned from the students that there were so many listed in their e-mail (It is not
unusual for our students to have between 10-12 courses per semester). If there was more than
one instructor for the course, then the list grew. Students told us that they waited until they were
done with classes to tackle these, however since they were due by the last day of class, they were
unable to complete them.
Interestingly, we have done electronic SEI forms for the on-line program since its inception. The
link to the SEI form we used was embedded on each course D2-L page. The rate of return for
this program dropped 32% when all of the SEI links were sent as an e-mail this year.
We have considered having the students bring their laptops to class and filling them out class by
class during the class period to help increase our rate of return. These SEI's play such a critical
role in tenure and promotion decisions that this poor rate of return is worrisome.
Gibson, Mark
Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback to the Senate regarding online SEI's and the
experience of the ESS Department in their use. Fall, 2012 was the first time that we utilized the
online format and we felt like it went relatively smooth. There are three concerns of note that we
experienced.
First, we did have what we felt was a relatively low response rate of ~65% of students. By not
"holding the students" at the end of a class period to complete the SEI's our response rate fell.
This may be the result of lack of emphasis by instructors to complete the SEI online or it may be
a general response rate for this format of evaluation. We will be encouraging more emphasis by
instructors to complete the SEI's in the future.
Second, the files sent to the department were not easily saved and then forwarded to faculty. We
ended up with a .pdf_pdf extension file name and had to manually convert all of the names in
order to forward them to faculty for easy access to their evaluations.
Third, we had relatively few comments by students compared to in-class SEI's. For some reason
students completed the evaluation scoring but did not provide subjective feedback that many
faculty find useful. Please let me know if you have questions or concerns regarding this
feedback for online SEI's.
House, Angela
My department, particularly myself because I was the one who got all the paper S.E.I. materials
together, did the schedule for professors to do each other's classes, etc., loved this process!
Howard, David
Here is a synopsis of Biology's experience with online SEIs in Fall 2013:
Online administration of SEIs certainly saved a significant amount of paper, and it reduced time
spent by the Biology departmental staff on the SEI process. The overall response rate for
Biology was 69%, which was about a 15% drop in response rate. However, the median SEI and
motivation item scores matched previous scores exactly. The variation in individual faculty &
staff SEI scores in Biology appeared to be within typical variation parameters. However, I did
not run statistics to compare to previous scores. So, while the response rate dropped
significantly, there is no evidence that the lower response rate changed the results.
Biology faced a few new problems caused by the online process used. First, in
undergraduate/graduate slash courses that had three grad students or fewer, we were not able to
provide the scores from graduate students to the faculty. With such small numbers, anonymity
becomes impossible. In the past, we included the grad student paper copies with the undergrad
scantrons, so the grad responses were folded into the undergrad scores to maintain anonymity.
Also, the evaluation of GA instructors had to be done by paper SEI evaluations.
Another problem is associated with Biology instructors who teach courses with a catalog prefix
other than BIO - for example NUT (Nutrition) or ENV (Environmental Studies). In the past, we
were able to utilize their SEI scores for these non-BIO courses in the calculation of the
Departmental Composite Fractional Median. However, the new system with WINGS does not
allow for that possibility. Because we have staff who teach >1/2 NUT courses, this problem
really does have the potential to have a major impact on our overall departmental calculations.
I know you asked for a paragraph, but these were all important points.
King, Judith
The online SEI format worked well. The only request is to continue the training since it is hard
to find the directions in WINGS on how to run the reports. I am not sure why the composites are
the same for department overall and the instructor overall. (The system calculated two reports
and they are both the same.) The reminders should also be automatically sent out every semester
on the deadline dates. I do not ever want to return to handwritten SEI's.
Langteau, Terry
Maybe an automatic reminder that goes out to students to do them because the professors didn't
seem to remind them enough. Our department only got 50 to 60 percent response. My faculty
will not continue to do the online with such a low response.
Monte, Aaron
I'll just say that I noticed this new method spread out the composite scores a bit. That is, people
who usually rank low, moved lower, and those who usually rank high did even better. Response
rates were generally fairly low -- I'd estimate 55-60%, but some courses lower than 50%.
Probably have the more "passionate" students responding -- hot or cold -- and losing some of the
middle ground.
Morgan, Betsy
This is the third semester in which Psychology has been with online SEIs. We are very
enthusiastic about the process. Even if the net result is a lower response rate for some classes,
we believe that the increased thoughtfulness of the comments and the ease of administration is
worthy of UW-L adopting the process.
Rindt, Jodie
Thanks for asking for our input on this topic. While SAA is supportive of the online SEI format,
we have seen a significant drop in the response rates with our online students and a less than
stellar response with our on-campus students. Previously, we provided our online students with a
direct link to the SEI within each course with clear reminders from the individual instructor.
Generally, we had a response rate that was equal or close to 100%. Given our history, our
suggestion is to provide a direct link to WINGS in D2L -- either on the homepage or within each
course (depends on what would work best for IT). Instructors from both online and on-campus
courses could direct their students to this easy-to-access link.
Vogt, Kimberly
The department of Sociology and Archaeology has now completed online SEIS for four
semesters. While we initially had concerns about response rates, we do not believe that our
scores have been impacted by any changes in response rates from paper to electronic seis.
Faculty love the fact that our qualitative comments are typed up and ready for them to read/use
in their preparation for the next semester and to use in retention/promotion if they choose to do
so. Our overall scores have not changed appreciably in any of the semesters compared to
previous years with paper seis. I recommend that we move forward with electronic seis. The one
factor that I think needs to be stressed is that response rates are higher if the faculty members
remind students throughout the sei period that they should go to WINGS and fill them out, to
report any problems they might have and remind students of the importance of the sei process for
faculty and the course/program. This helps with response rates from what we have seen
qualitatively.
Znidarsich, Teresa
Much easier on the support staff (especially with large departments) than doing it the old way!!