The Office of Measurement and Evaluation of Teaching provides instructors with feedback about their teaching through the administration of student opinion of teaching surveys. Instruments and standardized administration procedures have been developed in conjunction with faculty in the various Schools to provide both formative and summative information.
- Surveys are administered only when requested by the instructor using a standardized form provided by OMET. (In a few schools, the course coordinator is the person authorized to request teaching and course evaluations for multiple-instructor courses). Lab and recitations instructors and all instructors of team-taught classes must individually request an evaluation.
- Surveys are administered sometime during the survey period specified by OMET (which is usually the last six weeks of the term). Instructors indicate preferences for a date and time and OMET makes every effort to honor their request.
- Proctors who are hired and trained by OMET administer the surveys. The instructor is not in the room when the survey is being completed by the students.
- For classes with 7 or more students present for the survey, quantitative data is collected by means of a scannable form. Qualitative data is also collected through the use of four open-ended items. For classes with 4 - 6 students present, only qualitative data is collected through a specially designed survey.
- Results are reported to instructors by OMET when all data for that term have been processed. This usually occurs about three weeks after the end of the term. Additional release of the quantitative results by OMET must be authorized in writing by the instructor. The exception to this is when a policy of releasing the quantitative summary to another person (chair, dean) has been established by the faculty and administration of a particular school of the University and has been reported in writing to OMET.
Requesting a Survey
Request forms are mailed the first week of the term to regular full-time and part-time faculty. Labels are generated from the University payroll records. Extra request forms are sent to each department for distribution to their Teaching Fellows and short-term part-time instructors. If you have not received a form during the first week of the term, check with your department office or call us at (412) 624-6147.
Selecting a date and time for your Survey
You are asked to select three dates/times for your survey. Surveys are scheduled in the order in which they are received by OMET. Over 2,800 surveys are scheduled each term, so those returning requests promptly are most likely to receive their first choice. Request forms for classes with 100 or more students need to be returned as soon as the form is received because these classes require a number of proctors. Please remember that our undergraduate proctors are all taking classes as well as proctoring and during popular class times it is difficult to satisfy everyone's request. We appreciate your understanding of the complexity of scheduling.
Additional Items Bank
The quantitative form developed for each School has a common set of items. It is possible for you to personalize your survey by adding up to 10 additional items. You can select items from our additional items bank and place the numbers of your selections in the space provided on the request form. You will notice that some additional items require an insert (like a book title).
Certain departments or programs have developed a common set of additional items that are automatically added to those courses.
Confirmation Letter
A confirmation letter is sent from OMET within three weeks of the receipt of your request form in our office. If you do not receive a letter after three weeks, please call the office to check that your request has been received, especially if you are using campus mail to return your form to us.
When you receive your confirmation letter, please check the information carefully. It is very important that we have the correct information about your class location, day and time of the survey, and number of students you have indicated are registered for your class. If the location or number of students changes during the term, you need to notify the office before your survey so we can make the necessary adjustments. (412) 624-6147
Request for Past Results
We urge you to retain the summary results and student comments of your OMET teaching surveys for use in annual reviews and promotion and tenure submissions. We do keep results for the quantitative form for five years, however, and can reproduce any summaries that you cannot locate. You will need to print the request for past results form, complete it and submit it to G39 CL. Please remember to either provide a copy of your photo ID with the request form if you would like us to mail your results, or plan to bring your ID with you when picking up results from our office.
