Information for Departments
The information below offers guidance to SFI Department Contacts on the processes pertaining to Student Feedback on Instructor survey administration.
Department Contacts for SFI
The Office of Institutional Research maintains an SFI contact list that contains key department contacts for SFI ordering and and access to Results Reports. These contacts are the people at the department level who are involved in the SFI process and may include the Department Chair, Administrative Support person, and an Evaluation Committee member. At the start of each academic year, we reach out to departments with a request for updates to ensure we have the most accurate contact information for each department. If you need to submit changes for your department SFI Contacts, please email us.
Ordering SFI Surveys
SFI ordering is conducted in two stages. The first set of SFI orders is for Accelerated (early-ending) courses and the second set includes all non-Accelerated courses (full 15 week, 12 week, 10 week and late-ending).
SFI Order Forms
Department Contacts are advised when SFI order forms are ready for processing and are provided with a direct SharePoint link to the order forms. The Accelerated SFI order form is shared by all departments. Non-accelerated SFI orders are processed on a separate SFI Order Form for each department.
Please follow the ordering instructions provided in the guide SFI Ordering Instructions .
SFI Order Confirmations
The Office of Institutional Research adds each department's SFI order to the online survey system (Explorance Blue). The department is then asked to sign off on an Order Confirmation form. There is a separate order confirmation form for Accelerated courses. For non-accelerated SFI orders, each department has their own SFI Confirmation Form. SFI Department Contacts are provided with a direct SharePoint link to Order Confirmation forms when they are available.
Accessing Results Reports
Results reports are issued after surveys have closed and final grades have posted. Results Reports ordered by the department for TeP purposes are provided to the Department Chair and their administrative support team member. It is recommended that the department download and archive each term's results reports. Faculty members receive their own results reports. Department Chairs will receive a system-generated email from SFI@wcupa.edu notifying them that reports are ready to view and download. It is recommended to download and save reports for your department records in the same way that you were accustomed to saving your paper results reports.
Information on how to access SFI Results Reports in Blue and how to use report search filters is provided in the guide linked below titled "How to Access SFI Reports". Report search functions include searching by Instructor name, Course name, and year/term. Please note, by default only reports from the most recent term are displayed. To search reports from prior terms (back to Spring 2024), click "Availability" and select "Archived".
Department Chairs and their administrative support team member may access their department's results reports from Spring 2024 onward in Blue. If prompted to select a user role upon login, select the Instructor role. Results reports prior to Spring 2024 may be requested via email.
FAQ
When are SFI surveys administered?
The survey schedule is available at the start of each semester at Online Survey Administration Dates.
Are all courses/instructors required to be surveyed?
For adjunct and tenure-track faculty, all class sections are surveyed. For tenured faculty, whether or not a student feedback survey is administered depends on their 5-year review cycle. Tenure and Promotion information is available here.
Can I order SFI for courses with low enrollment?
Consistent with SFI protocol, to protect students' anonymity, Institutional Research cannot report on courses with enrollment of fewer than five (5) students. Courses taught by the same professor with the same survey format (for example, both are Distance Education), in the same part of term and with the same start and end dates may be combined for survey purposes to meet the enrollment threshold. If you would like to combine multiple small sections with the same instructor for SFI, please note in the Comments column which sections should be combined.
Please note that combining courses must be done during the ordering process. We are unable to combine sections after the surveys have been administered. With that in mind, where class section enrollment is low but greater than 5 students (for example, 10 or fewer), please consider combining sections where appropriate to help achieve sufficient responses to meet results reporting thresholds.
Courses that are Combined in D2L
Courses that are combined in D2L are NOT automatically combined for SFI survey purposes.
Please keep this in mind when completing your SFI Order form.
How are cross-listed courses handled?
Cross-listed courses are always combined for SFI survey purposes. The Cross List ID for cross-listed courses is noted on the SFI Order Form. Courses with the same Cross List ID should be noted to be combined on the SFI Order Form.
How are Team-Taught courses handled?
Course Sections with more than one instructor (team-taught) are surveyed following standard protocol. Only instructors who need a student feedback survey should be ordered. If the other instructor in the team-taught course section does not require a student feedback survey, please place an "X" in the "No" column for that instructor. If more than one instructor in a team-taught class section needs to be surveyed, students in the section will be asked to complete a student feedback survey for each instructor.
How do I Order Surveys for a Faculty Member with a Different Home Department?
Courses on your order form are organized by home department. If you need to order SFI for an instructor with a different home department, go to the SFI order form in SharePoint for that department and add your order to the form. Add a comment stating that you are ordering the survey for your department. Example: "Ordered by [Your Department]" so we have a record of which department placed the order.
How do I order surveys for First Year Experience Courses - FYE?
Surveys for FYE courses are ordered on the FYE order form. Results Reports will be sent to the instructor and to the FYE contact if ordered for TeP.
How do I order for Interdisciplinary Studies courses?
Surveys for Interdisciplinary Studies courses are ordered on the INTD order form.
Results Reports will be sent to the instructor and to INTD if ordered for TeP.