Before the SES Opens

Before the SES Opens

Before either the midterm student experience survey (M-SES) or the end-of-term student experience survey (E-SES) opens, there are actions faculty can take to personalize each SES to their course. This personalization can help you understand your students' experience better and help students navigate to their survey in the SES system. It is also beneficial to plan how to motivate students to engage with the SES before you ask them to do it. 

  • The M-SES opens at 8am on Monday of Week 4.
  • The E-SES opens at 8am on Wednesday of Week 9.

Consider taking these actions before SES opens:

 

Make a Plan to Motivate Student Participation

In your syllabus and as the surveys are approaching communicate the value of the survey responses. Particularly for the M-SES, detail how you’ll use student feedback to improve your teaching. The Office of the Provost’s student-facing page on SES has more ideas for discussing their value and the Provost's office's In-Class Protocol for running the E-SES suggests the following syllabus language:

“The midterm and end-of-course Student Experience Surveys will be conducted on {insert dates}. These are your opportunities to provide feedback about your learning experience in this class. It’s important to remember that the learning process is collaborative and requires significant effort from me, you, and the class as a whole. Students should provide thoughtful assessments of their experience, as well as of their own effort, with comments focused on the specific teaching and learning elements included. Comments regarding personal characteristics of the instructor are not appropriate and will not be considered. For this feedback to be as comprehensive as possible, all students should complete the survey.”

We have developed SES activities in Canvas. You can import them directly into your course to encourage participation. To access the assignments, you will need to be logged into the Academic instance of Canvas. Then go to Canvas Commons and search "Student Experience Surveys." You should import these assignments before the surveys open so that they pop up for students right away when the surveys become available to them. 

You can offer students credit, if it works in your context. Both student experience surveys are entirely anonymous, but you can offer to the entire class credit if the class reaches a high response rate (75% for example). You can also use our Canvas activities and rely on the “honor system” for students submitting the activities. This credit could be extra credit or as a piece of your existing grading scheme. Your plan should be set at the start of the term so you can include the details in your syllabus.

 

Add Your Own Questions to the SES

Starting Winter 2023, instructors can add up to two of their own questions to UO Student Experience Surveys. Instructors can add and edit their own questions before the survey opens for students. The questions appear at the end of the survey for students. 

Adding additional questions to either SES is optional. The surveys will run automatically with the default questions asked even if you do not add your own questions.

Once added, instructor questions are automatically copied to the next term for the same course taught by the same instructor. However, instructors can edit their questions any time prior to the survey opening for students.

For the M-SES, faculty can add questions from Wednesday of week 2 until the survey opens. For the E-SES, faculty can add questions from Wednesday of week 7 until the survey opens.

Steps to Add Questions to the Surveys

  1. Log in to DuckWeb, select “Course Surveys," and click “Open the Course Surveys site”
  2. Navigate to "My Questions" in the top menu
  3. In the "My Questions" page, select the term, course, and "Show only my questions." Then:
    • Select the correct term for the current survey. (M-SES is midway, E-SES is the end of term survey)
    • Select the course you want to add questions
    • Select "Show Questions" to view all survey questions for that course.
    • Select "Show Only My Questions" to view instructor added questions for the selected course.
  4. Click "Add New Question"
  5. If you want this question added to the surveys for all your courses for the selected term, not just this particular course, check that box.
  6. Enter an abbreviation for the question. This is just a word or phrase to identify the question (so if asking about a new class activity, the abbreviation might be "activity"). Note: The abbreviation is displayed in some reports.
  7. Select a question type and confirm the answer choices are appropriate.
    • For written questions, no action is needed.
    • For quantitative questions, select answer choices that match your question.
  8. Click "Create."
  9. Repeat steps 4 to 8 to add a second question

 

Add A Picture to the SES

Instructors can add a small photo to be displayed alongside the links to their student experience surveys. If uploaded, the photo will be displayed to students on their landing page, making it easier to identify which surveys are for which instructors.  

This is especially helpful for courses with multiple instructors of record, where students are given a separate survey for each instructor for the same course.

Steps to Add a Photo to Your SES

  1. Login to DuckWeb, select “Course Surveys," and click “Open the Course Surveys site”
  2. In the Home drop-down menu, select “My Courses”
  3. In the right corner near the top of the screen, click the "Upload Photo" link.
    • Click the Select an Image link and pick an image to be your photo (or avatar).
    • Click the Open button.
    • Use the adjustment box as needed to change the size of the photo.
    • Click the Save Photo button. The photo displays on the My Courses page and will appear on your students' landing pages and evaluation forms.
  4. Note: If you need to change the photo, click it on the My Courses page.

Has the SES opened for students? Consider these actions.