STUDENT EVALUATION OF INSTRUCTION (SEI)
At-A-Glance: Quick and practical information for instructors.
PURPOSE & USE: Student evaluations of instruction (SEIs) generally serve two purposes: 1) to help improve instruction and 2) for personnel decisions (i.e., merit, renewal, retention, tenure, post-tenure review, and promotion). For personnel review materials, SEIs are reported on Teaching Assignment Information (TAI) sheets for each course and overall for each instructor and the summary data for a department is reported separately for faculty and IAS.
ADMINISTRATION: The only method to obtain "official" student ratings of courses/instructors used for personnel decisions is through the electronic administration of SEIs through ITS in conjunction with each academic department.
- Students: Two weeks prior to the end date of a course, students receive an email for each class in which they are enrolled with a link to the SEI measure. Students receive reminders if they have not completed the SEI until the survey closes.
- Instructors: Provide time in class for students to complete the assessment and remind them to bring their smartphones, tablets and/or laptops to class on that date. Providing time at the beginning of class is best. Instructors/faculty should step outside of the classroom for ~10 minutes. Students who do not have the electronic means to complete the SEI can complete it at a later date.
- Department Chair or ADA: On the 11th day of each semester, all courses listed in WINGS will be uploaded to SmartEvals! Departments will be responsible for “turning” off all courses that should not receive the SEI measure (this should include all 2 week courses and independent studies). Furthermore, a department could choose NOT to send an SEI to courses with fewer than 5 students and should never send an SEI to any class with only 1 student regardless of the situation.
MEASURE: UWL uses a campus-wide SEI instrument composed of six common items that the students rate with a Likert-type scale of 1 = Strongly Disagree to 5 = Strongly Agree.
| ITEM(s) | COMMENT |
| 1. I was looking forward to taking this course. | This item measures a student’s interest in taking the course and is reported separately from an aggregate of the other items. |
| 2. The instructor was helpful to students. 3. The instructor was well prepared. 4. The instructor communicated the subject matter clearly. 5. I learned a great deal from this instructor. 6. Overall, this instructor was excellent. |
These 5 items are aggregated to produce a single item “composite” or “core” score that is reported. |
SEI POLICY: The Faculty Senate SEI policy serves as a statement of university policy regarding the instrument, administration, reporting and record keeping associated with student evaluations of instruction (SEIs).
QUESTIONS: Questions should be directed to CATL, catl@uwlax.edu