SIRS — The Student Instructional Ratings Survey

The Student Instructional Rating Survey (SIRS) is a University-wide survey of students for their comments about their experiences in the classroom. The results are used by the individual instructors, departments, schools and the University for the assessment and improvement of teaching. Faculty members are asked to provide summaries of the student survey statistics for personnel decisions, such as tenure, promotion or merit-based pay. All members of the University have access to the summary statistics from these surveys on-line at http://sirs.rutgers.edu. Results prior to 2001 that are not available on line are archived at the Rutgers University Libraries.

Summer 2008 - Online SIRS

Over the next two years, it is our intention to shift the Student Instructional Ratings Survey (SIRS) to an online format using Sakai as the infrastructure. This will provide a more efficient and effective process eventually leading to quicker return times for comments and results.

For the Third Summer Session, we will pilot the Sakai-based online version of SIRS for all courses offered in New Brunswick. Each student registered in these courses will receive an email giving them directions as to how to complete the survey for their respective class. The survey will be available online from 12:01 am August 4, until 11:59 pm August 11. It will only be open to students enrolled in the class as per the official roster. The summary data from the student responses will be reported anonymously as they are now in the paper system (please refer to our privacy policy regarding student authentication, confidentiality, and anonymity).

The processed data from the survey and the comments made by the students on the online form will be compiled quickly and returned online through Sakai.

We would appreciate any comments from the faculty on the online Sakai SIRS system as we continue to develop and improve it. You may read more about the process and the information that students receive.

Instructions for Conducting and Interpreting the SIRS

Sample SIRS Documents

You are using a web browser that does not support "CSS". Please ignore the part of this page below this text. You may be using an older version of web browsing software that is likely to have severe security and identity-theft issues, as well as problems displaying certain web pages. You should download a newer web browser from Microsoft or Mozilla.