Student Surveys of Teaching

Links to the student portal to complete the surveys are included in the email invitations to students (see Student Communications section below), and in students’ Canvas accounts. Student portal links are unique to each student.

Below is the student portal and survey instrument students receive. For any given course, students are given the opportunity to provide feedback on the course and on the instructor. In the case of a course with multiple instructors, students provide feedback on the course once, and are given the opportunity to provide feedback on each instructor.

Student Portal

Survey Instrument

The open and close dates for Student Surveys of Teaching are available for the given semester at https://kansas.sharepoint.com/teams/StudentSurveysofTeaching.

Student surveys of teaching of all KU-Lawrence campus courses are distributed through KU’s Qualtrics software platform. Each semester, students receive email invitations to complete their surveys, based on the schedule below. The timing of the distributions is based on the Course Length (from Start Date to End Date), the Course End Date, and the Term:

With the exception of "Full" courses, all student surveys of teaching are open for 14 days, with reminder emails sent on days 8 and 14 of the distribution to those students who have surveys remaining to complete. Full courses are open for 19 days, with reminder emails send on days 8, 15, and 19.

For example, a course with a Course Length of 50 days (“Middle”) that ends on November 30 will have its survey invitations emailed on November 20 (Course End Date – 10). The first survey reminder will be emailed November 27, and the final reminder on December 3.

Survey invitation emails are sent to students' KU email address. Below are the email messages students receive. Links to the student portal to complete the surveys are included in the email, and in students’ Canvas accounts. The link is available under "Account" in the Global Navigation. Portal links are unique to each student.

Canvas Student Link:

Invitation Message:

DATE: {See above distribution schedule}

FROM ADDRESS: do-not-reply@ku.edu

FROM NAME: KU Student Surveys of Teaching

REPLY-TO ADDRESS: aire-help@ku.edu

Subject: Student Surveys of Teaching

Dear {Student First Name},

Your instructors invite you to complete student surveys of teaching for this term's courses.

Student surveys of teaching help instructors enhance the quality of their courses and instruction. Your honest and sincere feedback is appreciated. Your responses are anonymous, and results will not be reported to your instructor until after final grades have been submitted.

{Please click here to complete your surveys.}

Remember: you must click SUBMIT to send your survey responses. Be sure to review your responses carefully, since you will not be able to change them after they are submitted.

You can also access your surveys in your Canvas account. The link is available under "Account" in the Global Navigation. Note: the last day to submit surveys is {Invitation Date + 13}.

If you have questions about the survey or are unable to access a link, contact the survey administrators at aire-help@ku.edu.

Thank you in advance for your participation!

KU Student Surveys of Teaching Team


{Unique Student Portal Link}

Anonymity: Anonymous surveys do not collect personally identifiable information. Your responses are combined with those of many others and summarized in a report to further protect your anonymity. No personally identifiable information will be in summary reports unless you voluntarily offer personal or contact information in any of the comment fields.

First Reminder Message:

DATE: Day 8 of survey open timeframe

FROM ADDRESS: do-not-reply@ku.edu

FROM NAME: KU Student Surveys of Teaching

REPLY-TO ADDRESS: aire-help@ku.edu

Subject: Reminder - Student Surveys of Teaching

Hi {Student First Name},

As a reminder, please complete any uncompleted student surveys of teaching for this term.

Student surveys of teaching help instructors enhance the quality of their courses and instruction. Your honest and sincere feedback is appreciated. Your responses are anonymous, and results will not be reported to your instructor until after final grades have been submitted.

{Please click here to complete your surveys.}

Remember: you must click SUBMIT to send your survey responses. Be sure to review your responses carefully, since you will not be able to change them after they are submitted.

You can also access your surveys in your Canvas account. The link is available under "Account" in the Global Navigation.

Note: the last day to submit surveys is {Invitation Date + 13}.

If you have questions about the survey or are unable to access a link, contact the survey administrators at aire-help@ku.edu.

Thank you in advance for your participation!

KU Student Surveys of Teaching Team

{Unique Student Portal Link}

Anonymity: Anonymous surveys do not collect personally identifiable information. Your responses are combined with those of many others and summarized in a report to further protect your anonymity. No personally identifiable information will be in summary reports unless you voluntarily offer personal or contact information in any of the comment fields.

Final Reminder Message:

DATE: Day 14 of survey open timeframe

FROM ADDRESS: do-not-reply@ku.edu

FROM NAME: KU Student Surveys of Teaching

REPLY-TO ADDRESS: aire-help@ku.edu

Subject: Reminder - Student Surveys of Teaching DUE TODAY!

Hi {Student First Name},

Important!  Please complete your remaining student surveys of teaching for this term.

Student surveys of teaching help instructors enhance the quality of their courses and instruction. Your honest and sincere feedback is appreciated. Your responses are anonymous, and results will not be reported to your instructor until after final grades have been submitted.

{Please click here to complete your surveys.}

Remember: you must click SUBMIT to send your survey responses. Be sure to review your responses carefully, since you will not be able to change them after they are submitted.

You can also access your surveys in your Canvas account. The link is available under "Account" in the Global Navigation.

Note: today, {Invitation Date + 13}, is the LAST DAY to submit surveys.

If you have questions about the survey or are unable to access a link, contact the survey administrators at aire-help@ku.edu.

Thank you in advance for your participation!

KU Student Surveys of Teaching Team

{Unique Student Portal Link}

Anonymity: Anonymous surveys do not collect personally identifiable information. Your responses are combined with those of many others and summarized in a report to further protect your anonymity. No personally identifiable information will be in summary reports unless you voluntarily offer personal or contact information in any of the comment fields.

The Student Surveys of Teaching dashboard for instructors is administered in Qualtrics. To access this dashboard, you must have a Qualtrics account in the University of Kansas Qualtrics license, accessible at http://survey.ku.edu by using your Single Sign On credentials.

If you already have an account, logging into the site above will bring you to your Qualtrics home screen. If this is your first time logging in, when prompted, select “No, I don’t have a preexisting account here” and an account will be automatically created for you.

Available instructor dashboard data is limited to courses that list you as the instructor. Course surveys are distributed to all courses except thesis and dissertation hours, and courses with only 1 student enrolled, to help maintain student anonymity.

Once logged in, you’ll see the dashboard project “KU Student Surveys of Teaching” listed in your account. Click the project name, and the dashboard will open.

The dashboard includes two pages: student feedback and response rates (available beginning fall 2021). By default, feedback pages show all available feedback, but you can use the dashboard filters at the top of the page to narrow feedback to particular terms or courses.

 Instructor survey page

This page focuses on survey questions regarding the instructor. Hovering over any bar chart visualization will provide more information via the tooltip. It includes a course filter, searchable by course code, course name, and class number, so you can narrow results to any particular class you taught. Other filters include term, course format, start and end dates, and text search of comments.

Course survey page

Similar in design to the instructor survey page, this page focuses on survey questions regarding the course in general.

Note: the dashboard defaults to showing all available terms. Use the dashboard filter "Term" to select a particular term.

Response rates

Response rates are available beginning with Fall 2021. Surveys for courses and instructors are submitted separately. As such, there are two response rates, one for each survey.

PDF and JPG exports work essentially like a screenshot, showing only the topmost comments in the text boxes, which is why all student comments do not necessarily export in that format.

If it is your unit's practice to include student comments in your annual reporting for evaluation, PTTR, P&T, or PTR processes, then export the dashboard in CSV format, which is viewable and printable in Excel. Exporting the entirety of either dashboard page will include the results from both the course and instructor surveys in one CSV file, using the filters currently applied on the given page.

Visit the Qualtrics website to view the full documentation for exporting dashboard data.

Download Dashboard

You can download entire dashboard pages in a variety of formats using the Export button in the top right of the dashboard.

Alternatively, you can export individual dashboard widgets with the export button in the top right of each widget.

Email Dashboard

Email Dashboard allows you to email static versions of your dashboards to individuals with or without a Qualtrics account. These emails contain the version of your dashboard at the time the email sends. Click the Export button in the top right, and select Email Dashboard.

Choose who to send this email to. If you click the To field, you can choose from a list of users or Roles who have access to the dashboard, or select New Email(s) to add other email addresses to send to.

Attention: When a dashboard is emailed to an existing user or role, the dashboard data will reflect the permissions of the recipient. When a dashboard is emailed to a new email without access to the dashboard, the dashboard data will reflect the permissions of the sender.

Enter a desired Subject and optional message.

Determine if you want to Attach report and include a PDF of the page (or other file format), or if you want to just Include widgets in email body, which will include the widgets as JPG images in the body.

If Include currently applied filters is selected, the filters you are adjusting in the dashboards will be applied to the emailed data. If deselected, the data will export with whatever default filters are applied. Default filters are filters that are applied by dashboard Admins when editing the dashboard, and they are automatically applied for all dashboard users.

If you want to test the email, click Send me a test email. This will only send the email to the address associated with your account. Then, click Send Email or Schedule Email.

The unit leader dashboard will be replaced with a delivered report beginning in Spring 2024.

Unit leaders have access to a dashboard to view survey results for those who report to them. For general information on access, see the Survey Dashboard Access section above.

Once logged in, unit leaders will see the dashboard project “KU Student Surveys of Teaching – Dashboard for Unit Leaders” listed in their account. Click the project name, and the dashboard will open.

The unit leader dashboard is similar in design in to the instructor dashboard, with an added filter to select instructors by name.

For unit leaders who have access to both the Instructor and Unit Leader dashboards, you can navigate between dashboards using the dropdown at the top left of the screen.

Any given term's survey results will be released to instructors in the Qualtrics dashboard once grades have been submitted.

The Center for Teaching Excellence has created resources for interpreting and using survey results for reflection and evaluation. The CTE site also has materials for incorporating the results into a broader framework for evaluating teaching.

Evaluating Teaching | Center for Teaching Excellence (ku.edu)

Support

For any questions about your Qualtrics account or dashboard access, or any other administrative support needs, email aire-help@ku.edu.