How to Read the Student Instructional Rating Survey Summary

Note that the rating form currently being used as an example and any other form is instructor specific and reflects student response in regards to that instructor only.

The first ten question of the Student Instructional Rating Form are standardized for all departments. Additional questions may be added by a department. For example, the physics department has five different versions of the form with different questions numbered 11 through 19, depending on the type of course (lab, lecture, workshop, etc.).

Place your mouse over the colored portions of the sample summary sheet below for an explanation or click to view all:

Sample Summary

Rutgers University Student Instructional Rating Survey
Fall 2008 Standard SIRS (Online Survey)

 01:730:101:02   05483    DESCARTES RENE    LOGIC REASON PERSUAS    
         ENROLL=  430      RESP= 243 (57%)      STRONGLY                    STRONGLY  # OF     MEAN    MEAN  MEAN   MEAN       
                                                DISAGREE        NEUTRAL       AGREE     NO      OF      OF    OF     OF      
PART A: UNIVERSITY-WIDE QUESTIONS:                   1      2      3      4     5   RESPONSES SECTION COURSE DEPT   LEVEL   


  1. The instructor was prepared for class and     
     presented the material in an organized manner   0      1      6     45   187       4      4.75    4.61  4.44   4.40

  2. The instructor responded effectively to       
     student comments and questions                  2      0     13     56   170       2      4.63    4.53  4.43   4.33

  3. The instructor generated interest in the      
     course material                                 1      5     22     42   170       3      4.56    4.41  4.27   4.14

  4. The instructor had a positive attitude toward 
     assisting all students in understanding       
     course material                                 1      2      9     56   172       3      4.65    4.58  4.48   4.42

  5. The instructor assigned grades fairly           0      3     23     53   134      30      4.49    4.39  4.25   4.14

  6. The instructional methods encouraged student  
     learning                                        1      5     35     59   136       7      4.37    4.24  4.06   3.95

  7. I learned a great deal in this course           3      8     27     59   140       6      4.37    4.23  4.10   3.94

  8. I had a strong prior interest in the subject  
     matter and wanted to take this course          12     11     62     61    89       8      3.87    3.74  3.89   3.78

                                                   POOR                     EXCELLENT
  9. I rate the teaching effectiveness of the      
     instructor as                                   2      1     17     63   151       9      4.54    4.41  4.21   4.09

 10. I rate the overall quality of the course as     3      2     19     77   129      13      4.42    4.29  4.09   3.95

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Survey Title, indicating the standard 10 questions were used. If a department has a set of common questions following the 10 university-wide questions, the title will indicate which survey questions were used. Weighted averages are calculated separately for each set of survey questions. For instance, the Physics department has five distinct sets of questions, and gets five distinct department means as a result (one for lectures, one for labs, etc.)

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Survey Format indicates whether this survey was conducted on scannable paper ("bubble") forms or using the online survey tool. Weighted avearges are calculated separately for the paper and online surveys.

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Course number. In this example:
01 is the school code (School of Arts and Sciences - SAS)
730 is the subject code (Philosophy)
101 is the course number
02 is the section number. Note: In the case of a lecture the section number may appear as 00 to indicate that the survey is comprised of students in all the sections of the course. Surveys that were conducted in the online survey system may explicitly list multiple section numbers.
05483 is the course index number. Note: In the case of a lecture the index number may appear as 99999, again indicating that the survey is comprised of more than one section.

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Instructor name
(Lastname followed by firstname)

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Course Title

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Enrollment for the course at the end of the term, as provided to the Center for Teaching Advancement and Assessment Research by OIT-ESS (Office of Information Technology - Enterprise Services and Systems).

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Total Responses, the total number of forms properly completed by the students when the survey was conducted. The response rate (percentage) is the total responses divided by the enrollment.

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Frequency of Student Response for each of the questions on a scale from 1 to 5. (1=strongly disagree; 5=strongly agree, unless otherwise indicated). The five columns immediately to the right of each question show the number of students responding for each. In this example:
0 students responded strongly disagree (1)
1 student responded disagree (2)
6 students responded neutral (3)
45 students responded agree (4)
187 students responded strongly agree (5)

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Number of no responses records the number of surveys on which there was no response for the corresponding question (i.e., the student skipped that question, leaving the answer blank). Note: For paper surveys, the number of no responses also takes into account the number of responses which were made in a way the scanner could not read. For example, students who responded using a red pen or too light a mark will be factored into this value.

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Mean of Section shows the weighted average score for the instructor of the section, on a scale from 1 to 5, for each question. Just as a student's grade point average represents the student's average grade points per credit hour, the mean of section represents the instructor's average response per student in the section. In this example Professor Descartes received a 4.75 for question one. The next three columns are provided as a reference to give context to this number.

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Mean of Course shows the weighted average score on the corresponding question for all sections of the same course combined, including TAs, PTLs and faculty teaching other sections of the course during the same semester (all sections having the same course number except for the section and index numbers) If there is only one section of the course, the mean of section and mean of course will always be equal. In this example, the weighted mean of the course is 4.61 (meaning Professor Descartes was rated higher than the course as a whole).

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Mean of Department shows the weighted average score on the question for all courses within the same subject and school code. In this example the weighted mean of SAS Philosophy is 4.44, showing that the students gave Professor Descartes a higher rating than they gave the department as a whole.

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Mean of Level shows the weighted mean score for all courses at the same level within the same school and department. In this example, the course is a 100-level introductory course, and the weighted mean for all 100-level courses (having course numbers ranging from 100 through 199) in the Philosophy Department was 4.40.

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