CTAAR Newsletter

Please see our new newsletter

We have upgraded our newsletter software and the new newsletter can be found at http://ctaar.rutgers.edu/newsletter2/

These older items will remain here for archival purposes, but all new entries will be published on the new system at the link above. Copies of these older entries also appear in the new system, if you wish to link to any of these please use the new /newsletter2/ links.

You can also now follow us on Twitter and Facebook - anything posted to the newsletter will generate an announcement on Twitter (@ctaar) and Facebook. We are more active on Twitter than on Facebook; we will tweet links to other interesting items on other web sites too, but these extra tweets will not appear on Facebook or in our newsletter on our web site.

Posted by jpd on June 22, 2010 10:07 AM

Last weekend for Student Ratings online

The online Student Instructional Rating Survey ends on Monday, May 3rd for most courses. Students who do not respond by the end of the day will not be able to participate in the student ratings.

We encourage all students to participate in the survey. Your comments help faculty to improve the courses and their teaching methods, and the ratings assist the Rutgers administration in decisions about tenure and promotion. To participate, sign in at http://sakai.rutgers.edu then click "All Surveys". If you don't have a Rutgers login, go here to create a NetID.

Faculty who want to increase their response rate should send an email to their students before Monday. Expressing your personal interest in the survey results can help persuade your students to reply.

Posted by jpd on April 30, 2010 10:14 AM

Faculty Notification of Online Surveys

All faculty and instructors who are using the online version of the Student Instructional Rating Survey should have received an email on Tuesday, March 30 or Wednesday, March 31 informing them of the survey details.

If you did not receive an email, and you are not using the paper surveys, please contact the Center for Teaching Advancement and Assessment Research by phone (732-932-7466) or email info@please remove this before mailing ctaar.rutgers.edu to verify that we have created your survey and have your correct email address.

Posted by jpd on April 2, 2010 01:59 PM

Fall 2009 ratings available

The Fall 2009 Student Instructional Rating Survey results have been posted for the university community at http://sirs.rutgers.edu/ (NetID login required).

Results include all surveys conducted for faculty and teaching staff. Surveys for teaching assistants are no longer published because of requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

Posted by jpd on March 15, 2010 01:11 PM

Survey Information Due March 16

Departments that wish to use the online version of the Student Instructional Rating Survey must send a list of courses to info@brokenmail.rutgers.edu please replace "brokenmail" with ctaar.rutgers.edu by March 16, 2010.

Departments will receive paper survey packets if we are not notified of the intent to use online surveys.

Refer to the Online SIRS Procedures and Deadlines for more information.

Posted by jpd on March 2, 2010 02:53 PM

Winter 2010 ratings available

All Winter 2010 Student Instructional Rating Surveys results have been sent by email to the instructors of each course. A copy will be placed in the Sakai "SIRS Distribution" site for department administrators by Friday, January 29.

Posted by jpd on January 25, 2010 04:08 PM

Fall 2009 online ratings available

For courses that used the online version of the Student Instructional Rating Survey, results are available to faculty and departments now.

We distributed survey results to faculty and instructors via email on January 5. If you have not received the results, please write to us at info@brokenemail.rutgers.edu please replace brokenemail.rutgers.edu with ctaar.rutgers.edu.

Department administrators can retrieve a copy of all SIRS reports for their departments through the Sakai "SIRS Distribution" site. See the instructions page for more information, or contact us if you need assistance.

We are scanning and processing surveys that were conducted on paper forms now, and will distribute the results by February 12. After all results (paper and online) are complete, the full set of results will be posted for the university community at the Student Instructional Rating Survey Results Site, http://sirs.rutgers.edu/.

Posted by jpd on January 13, 2010 09:53 AM

Online SIRS Begins Nov. 18

The online version of the Student Instructional Rating Survey (SIRS) is set to start on November 18 at 12:01 A.M., for most courses. Students will have until December 10th to complete the survey and will receive up to 4 email reminders.

Faculty and instructors who have not received an email notification from us concerning an online survey will still conduct their surveys using the paper forms. Currently all of FAS Newark, the Rutgers Business School, College of Nursing, Mario College of Pharmacy, and School of Engineering are using the online system, as well as courses in departments in New Brunswick and Camden that have made earlier arrangements with us.

For more information, refer to our frequently asked questions about the online SIRS and the procedures for the online survey.

Posted by jpd on November 16, 2009 10:46 AM

SIRS Summer Session Results

The Student Instructional Rating Survey results for Summer 2009 are complete and have been distributed to all instructors, faculty and departments.

All summer session surveys were conducted using the new online survey system. Results were emailed to faculty and instructors on August 20th. Departments can find a copy of all the results for their department in a Sakai dropbox. Please refer to the instructions on how to retrieve the survey files.

If you have not received your survey results or there are any issues you would like to address, please contact us at info@brokenemail.rutgers.edu please replace "brokenemail" with ctaar.rutgers.edu.

Posted by jpd on September 17, 2009 01:19 PM

Spring 2009 SIRS results available now

The full set of results for the Spring 2009 Student Instructional Rating Survey (SIRS) are available now at http://sirs.rutgers.edu/.

Published results include all courses that had surveys in both the paper and online survey systems, for all courses taught by faculty and part-time lecturers. Please be advised that the University Counsel has determined that posting Student Instructional Rating Survey information for Teaching Assistants must cease as of Fall 2004 because of the requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99).

For surveys conducted on paper, the results and original forms were returned to the department contact person after the forms were scanned in June or July. Instructors who have not received their results or comments should contact their department administrator.

Results for surveys conducted online were returned to instructors by email on May 19. If you did not receive your results, please contact us at info@broken-email.rutgers.edu please replace "broken-email" with ctaar.rutgers.edu.

Posted by jpd on July 27, 2009 10:11 AM

Summer Courses using online Surveys

For Summer 2009, we are using the online system for Student Instructional Rating Surveys in all courses on all campuses.

The surveys for a summer course should run in the final week of the course. Instructors will receive a notification of the survey date prior to the start of the survey, with an opportunity to make any necessary corrections. We ask that you read the information carefully; running the survey on the wrong dates or with the wrong instructor's name can impact the results.

Please refer to the Online Student Instructional Rating Survey for more information.

Posted by jpd on July 2, 2009 09:15 AM