student feedback forms

Student Feedback Forms (SFFs)

The joint faculty and staff Committee on Course and Teaching Evaluation worked extensively over the 2007-08 academic year to consider revisions to the course and teaching evaluation forms (CATES) and to instructor reports.

The committee reviewed evaluation data, considered a broad range of analyses and met with faculty in an open forum in spring 2008 to receive comments on the evaluation forms and processes.The Faculty Senate Steering Committee and the Educational Programs and Policies Committee (EPPC) of the faculty senate reviewed the committee’s recommendations. As a result of this review process, the university in the 2008-09 academic year began using a new set of forms--and modified the way results are reported to instructors. If you have comments or questions for the CATE/SFF committee, please write to sff@temple.edu.

Recommendations of the Course and Teaching Evaluation Committee (Fall 2011 Whitepaper on Student Feedback Forms)

Link to Whitepaper (PDF)

The New SFF Forms

The documents below are the new course and teaching evaluation forms, called Student Feedback Forms (SFFs). The "SFFs" replace the old, single CATE form with four different forms, tailored for different course and section types.  The multiple instructor and course identification forms have also been redesigned. [Please note that the forms below are samples only and are not for classroom use.]

Basic, Single Instructor Student Feedback Form (SFF-S1)	PDF
Laboratory Section Form (SFF-L1)	PDF
Recitation or Workshop Section Form (SFF-R1)	PDF
Performance or Studio-based Courses (SFF-P1)	PDF
Multiple Instructors Form (SFF-M1)	PDF
Course Identification Form (SFF-CI)	PDF
(View all forms in one file)	PDF

 

Instructors' Reports

After grades have been submitted and student evaluation forms processed, instructors receive a report for each section they taught in the prior term. The current "SFF" reports are made available electronically on TUPortal. The committee created a modified instructor report that differs from the old CATE report in the following ways:

• The percentile ranking is no longer reported, but mean scores will be retained.
• Mean scores are reported only to one (1) decimal point. 
• Overall teaching performance on each item is characterized by three broad levels – upper, middle and lower.  The levels are defined as follows, in priority order:

1. Instructors are classified into the ‘upper’ category if more than 50% of respondents rated the instructor ‘Strongly Agree.' [U]
2. Instructors are classified into the ‘lower’ category if more than 20% of respondents rated the instructor ‘Disagree’ or ‘Strongly Disagree,’ and 50% or less of respondents rated the instructor 'Strongly Agree.'   [L]
3. Instructors not classified according to the prior rules are classified into the ‘middle’ category. [M]

Sample SFF Instructor Report--Basic Form (S1)

PDF

Understanding and Using the Results from SFFs

WORD

 

Special Note for School and College "CATE" Liaisons

Please discard and recyle all old CATE forms. If you need new SFF forms for early-ending courses, please call Sally Frazee in the Measurement and Research Center (1-8685).

Old CATE forms

Compare the new SFFs to the old Course and Teaching Evaluation Forms (CATEs):

Old CATE basic form	PDF
Old CATE Multiple Instructor form	PDF

Send comments to the committee at sff@temple.edu.