An Overview of the Teacher/Course Evaluation Process

The Office of Institutional Research (OIR) is responsible for coordinating the Teacher/Course Evaluation (TCE) process at the University of Kentucky. OIR does not work directly with instructors during the TCE process. Instead, OIR staff members work with ‘TCE contacts’ in participating colleges or departments who manage the unit’s involvement in the evaluation process. The TCE contact person is responsible for distributing forms, collecting updated information on courses and instructors, and working with OIR staff to complete other important activities. The success of the TCE process depends upon the quality and timeliness of work performed by the TCE contacts and OIR staff.

The Teacher/Course Evaluation (TCE) process, in its simplest terms, can be reduced to five basic steps.

1. Identify the colleges and departments participating each semester in the teacher/course evaluation process
2. Identify the courses that need to be evaluated and verify course-related information
3. Distribute the pre-slugged teacher/course evaluation forms to the TCE contacts
4. Send the completed teacher/course evaluation forms to be scanned to the Computing Center
5. Analyze the data and distribute hard copies of results to the TCE contacts

Each of the above steps requires the involvement of TCE contacts. Outlined below are the specific activities performed by TCE contacts and OIR staff during each of the five major steps.

Identify the colleges and departments participating each semester in the teacher/course evaluation process.

• OIR creates a contact list and a checklist that will be used to track all incoming items from the TCE contacts.
• OIR emails out the request for participation packet to all TCE contacts.
• TCE contacts notify OIR of any changes in their unit’s plans to participate in the TCE process.
• OIR develops a final list of units that will participate in this semesters TCE process.

Identify the courses that need to be evaluated and verify course-related information.

• OIR creates the TCE course database and initial course lists from SAP Campus Management (CM).
• OIR distributes to TCE contacts the initial course lists and request forms that will enable the unit to obtain special TCE reports.
• TCE contacts distribute the lists to appropriate persons within the college. The lists should be updated and incorrect information should be revised in SAP system.
• TCE contacts return the initial course lists and any requests for special TCE reports to OIR by the stated deadline.
• OIR updates the checklist and verifies that all course lists were returned.
• OIR revises the TCE database using the updated information in SAP system.
• OIR produces and distributes final course listings to the TCE contacts. This serves as a record of what each college/department requested for the current semester. TCE contacts need to verify the information on the listings.

OIR distributes the pre-slugged teacher/course evaluation forms and collects the data

• OIR determines the number of forms that need to be pre-slugged. The forms for each requested course/instructor are pre-slugged by the stated deadline. Forms are boxed and labeled for each college/department.
• Instructions on how to do the evaluation for each college/department will be emailed to college contacts.
• OIR notifies TCE contacts that forms are ready to be picked up.
• TCE contacts distribute the forms to appropriate persons within the college. They maintain a checklist of dates when the forms were distributed. TCE contacts also maintain the schedule of evaluation dates and the individuals assigned to proctor the evaluation for each requested course.

Send the completed teacher/course evaluation forms to be scanned

• TCE contacts determine whether all forms have been returned.
• The completed TCE forms, along with the Data Scan Entry Request forms, are turned into room 59 in McVey Hall for scanning by the stated deadline.
• The Computing Center scans the forms and the data are sent electronically to OIR via email.
• The checklist is updated to verify that OIR has received all of the data electronically.
• OIR “cleans” the data and verifies that evaluations have been received for each course.
• OIR identifies any courses scheduled for evaluation that did not submit forms for analysis.

Analyze the data and distribute results to the contacts

• OIR analyzes TCE forms and produces a set of standard results for the entire university, each participating college, each participating department and individual instructors.
• OIR produces special reports outlined on the special TCE reports request forms.
• The completed teacher/course evaluation forms for each college/department are boxed and labeled.
• OIR produces three copies of each report for the TCE contact. The TCE contacts are notified that the results and the completed forms are ready to be picked up in room 59, McVey Hall.
• TCE contacts distribute the results to the appropriate persons within the college and type any written comments that appear on the evaluation.
• OIR posts the results on its website: http://www.uky.edu/IR/tce.html. (Results for lecture and seminar courses are posted, but courses taught by teaching assistants and courses with fewer than five responses do not appear on the OIR website.)