Each term, students’ inboxes are flooded with announcements, notifications and surveys from the University of Oregon. But perhaps the most important, said Lee Rumbarger, associate vice provost for teaching engagement, is the course Student Experience Survey, which gives students the opportunity to reflect on the past term. 

Through the survey, students can provide anonymous feedback to instructors on their learning experiences. The feedback is used to improve courses and teaching methods, provide department heads with clear data and aid the university in reviewing for promotion, tenure and teaching awards, according to UO’s website.

“This feedback matters to the faculty. It matters to the university. It’s a thing that students do at a busy time, but it is an important way to reflect on their learning, and it’s a gift to other students and to faculty and to the university to have those actionable and fair minded and concrete comments from them,” Rumbarger said.

According to Rumbarger, UO has faced challenges with getting students to fill out surveys, especially during and immediately after the 2020 pandemic. 

However, Rumbarger said, spring term saw the highest response rate for surveys since the pandemic at 26.1% and winter term saw the second highest, with 25.8%. 

A new incentive was introduced during the spring term to encourage students to participate by releasing grades one day early if a student completed all surveys or “took the proactive step of declining their surveys,” according to Rumbarger.  

Rumbarger also said some schools and colleges within the university have higher response rates, such as the Clark Honors College and the Lundquist College of Business. 

In 2007, UO implemented a numerical-based survey, which allowed students to rate the “quality” of the course and instructor on a scale of one to five, Rumbarger said. The system was redesigned in 2019 following national and internal research. 

“This national research showed that there is a lot of bias against women and faculty of color, kind of hiding in those numbers. And so our University Senate wanted to do something different in how we evaluate teaching, and that’s when the student experience survey was born,” Rumbarger said.

The new surveys encourage more “qualitative responses” on “specific elements of teaching,” according to Rumbarger, by asking whether 10 elements of an instructor’s teaching were beneficial to students’ learning, neutral or in need of improvement. 

The survey then goes on to ask students to reflect on which element was most beneficial and most in need of improvement and why.

Faculty members are able to review their responses and ratings over the years and create trends that they can use to reinforce and change their teaching styles.

“It’s really important to them to see this kind of specific positive things they can build on and specific things that are areas in need of change,” Rumbarger said. “So I guess the most important thing that happens is faculty read them and they change their classes based on what they see.”

The student experience survey is one of three sources used when faculty are eligible for review, promotion and awards. The other two include faculty-review surveys, where faculty can reflect on their own teaching, and peer-reviews, where fellow faculty review Canvas sites and sit in on courses.

“When people are evaluated for promotion or for tenure, there’s a determination made about whether somebody is a professional, inclusive and engaged, is a research-informed teacher, using those different data sources,” Rumbarger said.

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