This is the final week for students to complete online instructor evaluations for the fall semester. The SAIS system closes at midnight on Friday, December 2.
Students received their first invitation to complete the surveys on November 14. The response rate for the online evaluations is at 48 percent. Last year’s online pilot project generated 38 percent response overall. This year, the online evaluations are expected to save 1.25 tons of paper, reduce overall costs, and save countless hours of staff time.
“While we’ve made good progress, it is important to note that the previous, all-paper system response was 80 to 90 percent overall,” Provost Susan Martin said. “We’ve been communicating with students in a variety of ways to emphasize the importance of their participation. The single greatest factor in getting students to finish their surveys is getting a reminder from their instructor.”
A “Chill Out” study break will be held from noon until 3:00 p.m. Wednesday, November 30, in the Commons in Hodges Library. UT Dining Services and Mayfield Dairy are providing ice cream, and computers will be available for students to complete their online instructor evaluations.
Faculty can check their own overall response rate by visiting https://web.dii.utk.edu/saismgr/. The system will ask for a NetID and password. The system will show faculty members which courses they have in the SAIS system, the number of students enrolled in each course, and the number of evaluations that have been submitted.
“Along with making sure our students know that we take the feedback seriously, I suggest letting them know that the evaluations are anonymous and the feedback is never linked to the submitter,” Martin added.
If you have questions about SAIS, send a note to sais@utk.edu or give them a call at 865-974-4373.