FAQS

Not necessarily. However, this is a college level or department level decision. There are policy implications and provisions that can be made to address this concern at the college or department level. The data collection method does not dictate practice or policy. Colleges or departments may want to implement supplemental evaluation practices during the initial launch of the new evaluation system. Again, it is a decision best made at the local level.

Anthology guarantees the anonymity of student respondents based on criteria supplied by UNC Charlotte. Faculty members are not able to associate specific responses with specific students. Unlike paper surveys, faculty members, teaching assistants, and other students cannot see surveys belonging to other people.

In addition, instructors are not able to view the results for a particular course unless three or more responses have been completed. All responses are included in the results for the associated department, college, or program, but individual course results are not available until three or more responses are completed. This policy helps ensure the anonymity of student respondents in low-enrollment courses, as well as larger courses with low response rates.

No, the results are not biased. The evaluation method does not affect the results and students with a strong opinion of the instructor are not more likely to participate. It is safe to assume that when variation occurs, it is caused by some other factor, not the Web-based method of evaluation. Research studies and pilot programs can be designed to reduce variation and increase the overall reliability of the data, but these strategies are appropriate for any comparison of evaluation methods, not only those involving Web-based evaluations.

No. According to the UNC Charlotte pilot results, there is no practical difference between Web-based and paper-based evaluations. The study demonstrated very small differences among nine of the 12 domains, but the effect size—based on the large number of respondents—yielded no practical differences overall.

If you are an instructor, then no action is required on your part until the evaluation starts. Your college or department will work with the Office of OneIT and Center for Teaching and Learning to create your Web-based evaluation instrument and ensure that your students have access to complete the evaluation.

Once the evaluation starts, you can provide encouragement to your students to help increase response rates. For more information, view the Is it possible to increase response rates? FAQ.

In the reports available from Anthology, cross-listed sections are combined and treated as one section. The results for individual cross-listed sections are not available. This includes standard summary reports, detailed reports, and comments.

The availability of evaluations is based entirely on course enrollments in Banner. If a student is not enrolled in Banner, they are not allowed to evaluate the course. Likewise, if a student stops attending class, but does not drop or withdraw from the course, they are still allowed to complete an evaluation.

The Web-based course evaluation system gives colleges, departments, and programs the flexibility to add survey questions, including open-ended questions, to their evaluation instruments. There are two questions that must appear on each survey as required by the university:

• Overall, I learned a lot in this course.
• Overall, this instructor was effective.

Ultimately, the design of each evaluation instrument is left to the discretion of the college or department. As long as they include the two required questions mentioned above, colleges and departments can freely customize their evaluation instruments and retain their own unique set of questions.

Currently, individual instructors cannot customize their evaluation instruments.

Courses and instruction are assessed through student evaluations using standardized surveys developed at UNC Charlotte. It is a requirement that student evaluations be given at the end of each semester in each class. The results of these evaluations are used to provide feedback to instructors and to assist with assessment of teaching during considerations for merit raises, reappointment, promotion, tenure, and scheduling and revision of courses.

Students complete Web-based course evaluations for one or more course sections. In reports, the results for each section are aggregated or combined with other sections in the same segment, where segments represent:

• Courses
• Programs
• Departments
• Colleges

Some reports also include aggregated results for the entire institution.

For example, SPED 3175-080 is a section associated with the following segments:

• Course: SPED 3175
• Program: Special Education
• Department: Department of Special Education & Child Development
• College: College of Education

All sections are associated with a course and college, while the program and department segments are optional.

In the Web-based system, cross-listed sections are combined and treated as one section, but the individual sections are still associated with courses, programs, departments, and colleges.

To access the system, log in to the Anthology site using your NinerNET credentials.

Students: Return to the home page of this site, click the “Evaluate Your Courses Here!” link, and then log in with your NinerNET username and password.

Faculty: Return to the home page of this site, click the “Access Your Reports Here!” link, and then log in with your NinerNET username and password.

Students have approximately two weeks to complete their Web-based course evaluations. This should provide students sufficient time to complete their evaluations, even if they are evaluating multiple courses.

All colleges and departments follow the same schedule. The schedule can be customized within the Web-based course evaluation system, but it must be designed to meet the needs of the entire university.

Time limits are not imposed on individual evaluations. If a session expires or times-out, the student can log back in and continue the evaluation. Their responses are automatically saved so they can continue where they left off.

Specific techniques can be used to boost response rates, including instructor encouragement and standardized communication. UNC Charlotte’s Web-based evaluation process already includes standard communications. Faculty can also contribute to increased response rates using some of the following techniques:

• Ask your students to check their e-mail daily to complete their online survey for each course and periodically remind students to complete their Web-based course evaluations before the deadline for the current term.
• Feel free to e-mail your students to encourage them to fill out their course evaluations. You may want to communicate the value of course evaluations, providing examples of how you have used them to improve your courses in the past. Emphasize that results are completely anonymous and confidential. Students are not identified individually and results are not available to instructors until after final exams.
• Remember to check your response rates regularly and tailor your communications with your students accordingly. To monitor response rates in real time, return to the home page of this site, click the “Access Your Reports Here!” link, and then log in with your NinerNET username and password.

Withholding access to student grades until they have completed their evaluations is technically possible, but university policy does not make course evaluations compulsory. In any case, studies indicate punitive measures such as grade withholding are counterproductive. Students respond more favorably to positive reinforcement, open communication, and persistent messages. Response rates tend to increase if students are informed that their survey responses will improve the course for other students who take the course in the future. Therefore, faculty participation in improving response rates is essential.

Sometimes, but only during the pilot phase or immediately after Web-based evaluations are implemented. Once the system is fully operational and standard procedures have been established, Web-based response rates are equivalent to paper response rates.

Anthology uses SSL technology to secure the survey system. Individual respondents are identified using unique identifiers and Anthology guarantees the anonymity of student respondents based on criteria supplied by UNC Charlotte.

Data is stored by the vendor in accordance with UNC Charlotte and UNC System data security and data retention requirements. Historical data remains available for future access by personnel as designated by college, department, and program, but data retention must at least meet minimum university and state requirements. Each college, department, and program can determine who has access to specific data. Building appropriate levels of data access is a significant component of the Web-based evaluation planning and implementation process for each college and the implementation team works closely with each college to ensure proper levels of access.

Web-based course evaluations are electronic questionnaires requiring a written answer or selected response to a series of questions in order to evaluate the instruction of a given course. These evaluations are a means to produce useful as well as timely feedback, which instructors and their departments can use to improve quality of instruction. UNC Charlotte has engaged a third party—Anthology, formerly Campus Labs—to administer Web-based course evaluations to students. Anthology, in partnership with the Center for Teaching and Learning, provides assistance to participating faculty and staff and uses email communications and a persistent series of follow-up reminders to prompt students to respond to their course evaluations.

Standard reports are released the day after grades are due each term. For specific dates, view the current schedule.

Department chairs, deans, and other report administrators (such as administrative assistants and office managers) must contact the course evaluation administrator to request access to standard reports. Only instructors receive access to these reports automatically.

If the standard reports have been released, but you’re not able to access them, make sure you’re logging in with your NinerNET user name and password. This is the same username and password you use to log in to 49er Express, Moodle, and other campus systems.

In addition, make sure you’re going to the correct web site:

• Instructors: https://uncc.campuslabs.com/faculty
• Department chairs, deans, and other report administrators: https://uncc.campuslabs.com/ce

If you taught a class and also requested access as a department chair, dean, or other report administrator, you can use the instructor link to access your own reports, but you must use the report administrator link to access the reports for other instructors.

​Note: You must go directly to the appropriate site by clicking a link or typing the full URL. These sites don’t link to each other and they’re not accessible from the uncc.campuslabs.com home page.