Important message about NEW Student Evaluation of Teaching

September 03, 2025

Dear Faculty Colleagues:

Last November, the Senate Executive Council voted to adopt a new Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) following a long and careful review process. The campuswide rollout of this instrument will occur this upcoming quarter–Fall 2025. The new SET replaces the iEval questions and system that we have used for many years.

We encourage you to familiarize yourself with the new SET questions before you finalize your syllabi.

Note that the new SET includes two components:

An OPTIONAL early-term survey helps instructors gauge student awareness of foundational course information (e.g., learning outcomes, grading criteria, course materials, contact information). Results from this survey are available only to the instructor and are not automatically uploaded to eFilePlus.
A required end-of-term survey includes the same course foundations questions from the early-term survey plus the new questions linked above. Note that the new questions are designed to provide instructors with actionable feedback to improve their teaching, so the questions ask students about observable teaching practices and the impact these practices have on their learning. Instructors can also include optional and customized questions that are relevant to their course. Results from this survey (except for customized questions) are automatically uploaded to eFilePlus.

Results from both surveys will be posted to dashboards on a new Qualtrics site (UCR Course Evaluations Dashboard) where instructors can sort and filter their responses. Each instructor can see results for their courses; department chairs can see the required (not the optional early-term) results for all department courses; deans can see the required (not the optional early-term) results for all college courses.

The new SET may be used in tandem with other optional methods of measuring teaching effectiveness. A recorded video information session about these methods is also available. Beginning this year, eFilePlus has been modified to facilitate submission of this additional optional evidence.

The decision to adopt the new SET followed a long, deliberate process that began in 2018 to review and revise UCR’s SET, commonly known as iEval. There have been three ad hoc committees, multiple rounds of review (by faculty, students, and Senate committees), and two campus-wide pilots of the new SET. See the trailing message for more information about this process.

You can explore additional resources about the surveys and dashboards here. Also watch for emails that will be sent to active instructors before and during the quarter for more specific information about how to sign up for the optional early-term survey and how to add optional and customized survey questions.

On behalf of the Transition of Student Evaluations of Teaching Committee,

Jonathan Eacott – Committee Chair and Vice Chair of the Academic Senate

Annie S. Ditta – Chair of the Academic Senate Committee on Educational Policy

Shana Welles – Member of the Academic Senate Committee on Educational Policy

Jack Eichler – Past Member, Teaching Evaluation Implementation Committee

Jennifer Hughes – Past Member, Ad Hoc Committee on Evaluation of Teaching

Dan Jeske – Vice Provost for Academic Personnel

Richard Edwards – Executive Director, XCITE Center for Teaching and Learning

Ken Baerenklau – Associate Provost

Omar Safie – Director of Evaluation and Assessment

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: Barry Mishra via Faculty <faculty@scotmail.ucr.edu>

Date: Tue, Mar 11, 2025 at 1:49 PM

Subject: [Faculty] New student evaluations of teaching: register to participate in a second pilot by March 19

To: <faculty@scotmail.ucr.edu>

Cc: Barry Mishra <barrymi@ucr.edu>

Dear Colleagues,

In February 2018, UCR’s Academic Senate convened an ad hoc committee to review our current Student Evaluations of Teaching (SETs). These evaluations are also commonly referred to as iEval, which is the name of the IT system which supports the evaluation process each quarter. The ad hoc committee’s main priorities were to review policies, procedures, and mechanisms for how teaching is evaluated; establish new policies and procedures for accurate and reliable evaluation; and review iEval for its efficacy and recommend changes to maximize student participation and provide faculty with constructive feedback on their teaching.

The ad hoc committee issued its report in 2021, at which time the Provost charged a joint Senate-administrative committee to implement the ad hoc committee’s recommendations. The joint committee’s work focused primarily on: 1) producing a more equitable and useful tool for evaluation of teaching effectiveness and pedagogical improvement, and 2) facilitating the submission of multiple forms of teaching effectiveness via eFile. The joint committee completed the bulk of its work in October 2023, including a round of Senate consultation that informed modifications to the new student evaluations of teaching.

Subsequently, all instructors were invited to participate in a pilot of the new SET in Spring 2024. Feedback from faculty and students who participated in the pilot (as well as from faculty who did not participate in the pilot) was collected and used to inform further adjustments to the SET and technology. An analysis of the feedback along with the joint committee’s recommendations were included in a final report to the Senate.

At its November 18, 2024 meeting, the Senate Executive Council voted to “endorse mandatory adoption of the new SET as a campus-wide replacement for the old iEval questions [and] usage of the new software.”

The next step towards campus-wide replacement will be a second pilot of the new SET instrument in Spring 2025 along with the new Qualtrics-based software that will replace the old iEval technology. Unlike the first pilot, this second pilot will not include a round of feedback and modifications prior to campus-wide adoption in Fall 2025. Rather, its purpose is to allow faculty time to test out and become familiar with the new SET before its mandatory adoption. However, the Senate is currently determining a new oversight structure for SETs so that future suggestions may be considered in a timely manner.

If you are teaching in Spring 2025 and would like to learn more about the pilot and/or register to participate, please visit this website. The deadline to register is March 19. If you have questions that are not addressed on the website, please email Director of Evaluation and Assessment Omar Safie at omar.safie@ucr.edu.

On behalf of the Transition of Student Evaluations of Teaching Committee,

Barry Mishra – Committee Chair and Vice Chair of the Academic Senate

Annie S. Ditta – Chair of the Academic Senate Committee on Educational Policy

Stephen Kane – Vice Chair of the Academic Senate Committee on Educational Policy