While the SES Is Open

While the SES Is Open

Once student experience surveys open, you will likely need to aide students in participating in the surveys. The E-SES does get advertised with a banner when students log into Canvas, but the M-SES does not give students automatic reminders. 

  • The M-SES is open to students during week 4, Monday at 8am until Friday at 6pm.
  • The E-SES is open to students from Wednesday of Week 9 until 6pm on Friday of finals week. 

Consider these topics to aide students in completing their surveys.

Allot Time During Class For Students to Complete the Survey

To truly emphasize their importance, you can allot time during class for students to complete the survey.

To help them get in a reflective mindset before doing the survey, you can have them do other in-class group reflections on learning. We have collected a few faculty ideas for group reflections for you to explore.

While giving them time to complete the SES, this slide with a QR code link to help them quickly reach the SES page.

The Office of the Provost suggests using the in-class protocol below to draw student’s attention to the SES. As noted in the protocol, if you are concerned that your presence in the room may influence their responses, you can have a TA, a student, or ask another instructor to proctor the SES for you. This PDF version of the protocol has specific instructions for a visitor to proctor the SES for you. You can even reach out to TEP to ask that one of our faculty consultants proctor it. 

In-Class Protocol for End-of-course Student Experience Survey (E-SES)

Students let us know a barrier to giving feedback is having the time to complete the end-of course Student Experience Survey (E-SES) outside of class. Therefore, if you would like a higher response rate and more detailed student comments, consider giving students the opportunity to complete their E-SES during face-to-face class time if you teach a non-fully online class. Consider this a metacognitive activity in which students reflect upon their learning.

Please following these instructions for in-class administration of the E-SES (the protocol is not required for the midway SES):

  1. SES’s can be conducted during class on a mobile device at any point that the survey is open.
  2. Instructors should allow approximately 10 minutes at the beginning of class for E-SES completion.
  3. Instructors should select a student proctor, then step out of class, allowing the student
    proctor to:
    1. Read aloud the statement in the student proctor instructions about UO’s E-SES.
    2. Observe the survey process, ensuring no undue influence or irregularities occur (while completing their own E-SES).
    3. Poll students using a raise of hands until 80% completion rate is achieved.
    4. Notify the instructor that they may return to the room.
  4. Instructors may wish to list the E-SES as a class assignment in their syllabus on the day of administration.
  5. Instructors may wish to include a statement in the syllabus to help students understand the value of the Student Experience Surveys, such as:

“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.”

 

Give Guidance on What Good Feedback Is

Just like when you evaluate student work, good feedback from student experience surveys is actionable, fair-minded, and concrete. When discussing the student experience surveys with your students, you should remind them of this. 

We have created a one-page handout on good feedback you can share with students and PowerPoint slides on good feedback that you can project while talking about what good feedback is.

 

Remind Students to Complete the Survey outside of Class

Rather than relying on Canvas or email communication, you can remind students to complete later while you are with them in class. You can show this slide with a QR code link to help them quickly reach the SES page.

There is a link to Course Surveys in the navigation-menu of all Canvas courses. During class you can show where it is in your course’s page and encourage students to follow the link after class.

You can view real-time responses rates through CollegeNET. To find them, log into DuckWeb, then click on the “Course Surveys” link in the main menu to get there. You can check in on this just for your own knowledge or even share updates on response rates with your students during class. This might be particularly useful if you’ve decided to offer credit to students if the class reaches a high response rate. You can also use CollegeNET to send an email reminder link to students who have not yet submitted an SES response.

 

Have the SES closed for replies?
Consider these Actions to Take After Surveys Close

 

Steps to Send an Email Reminder Through CollegeNet

  1. Log into CollegeNET by following the “Course Surveys” link in DuckWeb.
  2. Navigate to your course’s survey.
  3. Click the envelope icon in the course's “Reminder” column.
  4. Enter text into "From," "Subject," and "Body." You can insert data field variables into the body of your message if you wish (simply position your cursor where you want the data field in the message and click the data field label on the right).

Note that the end of your email will read

"Please know that the 'What Do You Think?' online course and faculty evaluation system keeps your information and identity 100% confidential. All course evaluations are anonymous. This email was sent to all students who have not completed an evaluation for this course. Neither your instructor or any administrators have access to see who receives this email."