Faculty Formative Feedback
To help you get timely formative feedback on your teaching, CETaL offers an online FFF (Faculty Formative Feedback) tool using Qualtrics. The FFF asks students to:
* Give three ratings (each on a 5-point scale): the course, the instructor, and their own effort so far.
* Indicate how much time they spend on the course each week outside of class.
* Answer these open-ended essay questions:
What things about this class most help you learn? Please explain.
What could this class do differently that would help you learn more? Please explain.
What are you doing that most helps you learn in this course? Please explain.
What could you do differently to learn more? Please explain.
1. START THE PROCESS: Email CFLD (CFLD@utep.edu) to set up this tool for each class for which you want feedback. Provide your name and the CRN(s). Wait for the CETaL email notifying you that you may proceed to the next steps.
2. LOAD YOUR STUDENTS’ EMAIL ADDRESSES: Log into UTEP Qualtrics at https://utep.qualtrics.com/. Scroll down on the My Surveys tab to see your FFF survey(s). Click on Email Survey and an email interface will open. For a small class, it may be easier to enter by hand your students’ email addresses using the New Panel dropdown menu by the TO field. For a large class, it may be easier to follow the directions in the Appendix.
3. LAUNCH THE SURVEY: Go to MySurveys and click “Email Survey.” For the “To” field, go to MyLibrary and the panel you just created should show up for selection. For the “When” field, choose “Send Now.” Don’t remove the message in the text to be emailed, but feel free to add language such as the following:
I invite you to complete this quick (5-10 minutes) survey about how this class is going sometime during the next three days. Your answers will be anonymous. Having feedback will help me reflect on class progress and consider possible changes. Thank you for your time.
Hit the “Schedule Mailing” button to send the email. Make sure you’ve given students a precise brief window (e.g., 3-4 days) to respond. When the survey period ends, log back into Qualtrics and view your confidential results.
4. USE THE RESULTS: Ideally, the next time you meet with your class you should share the FFF results, explain what you plan to change and why, and what you cannot or will not change and why. You should follow through by implementing any changes consistently and promptly.
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APPENDIX (How to prepare a “comma separated file” of the student email addresses in a large class)
Log into GOLDMINE. At bottom of the roster of the class from which you want mid-semester feedback, click the rectangular button “Display Email List.” Copy what appears in the “Class List Email Listing” window and paste into a blank MSWord document. It probably looks something like this:
studentnumberone@miners.utep.edu;studentnumbertwo@miners.utep.edu;studentnumberthree@miners.utep.edu;studentnumberfour@miners.utep.edu
In the upper-right corner of the Word file, click “Replace.” Enter a semicolon into the “Find what” field. In the “Replace with” field, type exactly what appears after this colon: ,^p
After hitting “Replace All,” the output should be in one column. In the first row of that column, type exactly what appears after this colon: Email,
Save the Word file to some convenient place on your computer, choosing “Plain Text” as the file type from the Save As menu. We now have a “comma separated file” of the email addresses that looks something like this:
Email,
studentnumberone@miners.utep.edu,
studentnumbertwo@miners.utep.edu,
studentnumberthree@miners.utep.edu,
studentnumberfour@miners.utep.edu
In the Qualtrics survey, click “Panels” from the top row of tabs. You’ll see a green rectangular “Create New Panel” button. Click it and give it an appropriate name. You’ll then choose the middle of three options that appear: “Import From a File”. Click the rectangular “Browse” button next to “Select a CSV File.” Select the PlainText file called “Email” that you created from the steps above. An “Import/Update from a File” window will open: click the “√ Import” button. (There may be a red bar alerting you that first and last names are missing, but those are not needed to proceed.)