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The University of Tennessee

Office of Institutional Research & Assessment

Frequently Used Tools:



 


Guidelines for On-Line SAIS Administration


On-line Interest Form

An On-line SAIS interest form is required from every department wishing to participate in the On-line evaluation process. The form is sent via e-mail to each departmental SAIS contact of record around the same time that the traditional paper order form is distributed. It is the responsibility of the departmental contact to return the form to the SAIS office, either by e-mail or fax (4-1428). We would prefer that contacts use only the form we provide and not one of their own design. Only departmental contacts can register instructors for the On-line SAIS system; instructors cannot do so individually.

This Interest form is designed to elicit the information needed to access the University’s SIS system. It is imperative that all information be correct, or else an instructor will not be included in the system and therefore not be evaluated.

Click here for a copy of the SAIS Online Interest Form.
Information required for registration with On-line SAIS

The form (an Excel spreadsheet) requires specific information that is necessary for the set-up of the on-line database: Course Number, Section Number, Instructor Name, Instructor Net ID, Form Type, and the section line number of a course. Other information that is helpful but not required include whether or not the course is Distance Education or whether or not an instructor wishes to have Student Comments, whether or not the instructor is a TA.

All SAIS forms are available for the on-line system, so an instructor may choose whichever they prefer. The default form choice is form A.

Instructors also have the option of choosing to have open-ended comments included in their evaluation. This form is identical to the yellow Student Comment sheet of the paper SAIS administration. Choosing to include the Open Ended comments is optional. The default, however, is set to No.

The section line number of a course refers to courses which have a professor and a Teaching Assistant. If a course includes both a lecture and a lab/discussion, then each is assigned a section line number. For example: Chemistry 110, section 007 has a lead professor who lectures and a TA who leads labs/discussions. If both the professor and the TA wish to be evaluated on-line, then the professor would be Chemistry 110, section 007, section line 1, while the TA would be Chemistry 110, section 007, section line 2.



Who is eligible for on-line evaluation

Any instructor or teaching assistant in any department is eligible for on-line evaluation as long as the form has been submitted prior the deadline by the departmental contact.

However, if a course is taught by both an instructor and a TA, both must be evaluated in the same manner. For example, if the Chemistry 110 professor registered for an on-line evaluation, then the TA assigned to that section will also be evaluated on-line.
Team Taught Courses

Instructors of Team-Taught courses are allowed to participate in the on-line SAIS. However, each instructor must be listed separately on the Interest form in order to be included in the database. Each instructor is treated as a separate instructor to be evaluated. Students will have to submit evaluations for each instructor.

Cross-Listed Courses

If a course is cross-listed with another course in another department, it must be noted on the interest sheet. A cross-listed course appears on multiple department course listings, thereby allowing students to enroll from more than one departmental offering. In order for the all of the students enrolled in the course (regardless of department), every department connected to the course must be noted.

For example: Mechanical Engineering 483 is also offered as Industrial Engineering 483 as well as Nuclear Engineering 483. In order for students registered in IE 483 or NE 483 to be able to evaluate the instructor, these two other departments must be noted on the registration form so that the data can be accessed and tied to ME 483. Otherwise the instructor will only be evaluated by those students enrolled in ME 483.





Net IDs


Net IDs are University assigned identifiers for all UT faculty, staff, and students. A Net ID is not always the same as one’s University e-mail address. The correct Net ID can be found by looking an instructor up in the University’s Directory Services (http://directory.utk.edu/index.jsp). In order for an instructor to be included in the On-line SAIS system, he/she must have a Net ID. A personnel number or social security number cannot be used as a substitute.
Deadlines

The deadline for submitting On-line Interest Forms can be found on the calendar included on our website. This deadline is crucial because we must submit the information to OIT in order for the system to be created and verified within a particular timeframe. We cannot add instructors after the deadline or else the system cannot go online with enough time for students to participate effectively.



System Opening/Student Notification

On the date the system is set to open, an e-mail message will be sent to all students registered for a specific course (according to University records). The message will contain a link and instructions for students. A sample message follows:

Subject: Teaching Evaluations
From and Reply-to: sais@utk.edu
From name: Student Assessment of Instruction System

Dear Student,

At least one of your instructors has chosen to participate in the on-line teaching evaluation system. The evaluations for these participating Spring semester courses are now available on-line. You can access the evaluations by going to http://oira.utk.edu/sais/ and clicking on the link “Fall 2008 Semester Online Evaluations.” All student answers are confidential.

Please make sure that you complete your evaluations by Friday, December 12, 2008. The evaluations are very important to the faculty. Your opinion does make a difference!

If you have any questions, e-mail (sais@utk.edu) or call our office, 974-4373.

Thank you,

Elizabeth Pemberton, Coordinator

A similar message will be sent to the University e-mails of all registered instructors.

The evaluation system site CANNOT be bookmarked; all security protocol requires students to enter the system via http://oira.utk.edu/sais/.
Access to the System

The on-line SAIS system is not designed for monitoring or outside access, so no instructor or departmental contact will be able to track progress or see any results prior to the distribution of compiled results.

Any instructor concerned about the number of students who have participated should actively (and routinely) encourage/remind students to fill out the evaluation and/or direct them to the Evaluation website (a link could be added to a course website or to the Links folder on a course’s Blackboard page).
Web Reports

SAIS reports from the On-line administration are compiled soon after the system closes. After the results have been verified, the reports are sent to the SAIS office where they are mailed to departmental contacts.

Two copies of the report, and one copy of any open-ended comments are included in the mailing. Departmental contacts should keep one copy of the report for departmental records and distribute to instructors one copy of the report and the copy of the comments in a sealed envelope.

Departmental contacts are responsible for the distribution of reports to instructors. Reports cannot be accessed on-line.

As with the traditional paper format of SAIS, each department receives a summary of the SAIS process. Courses Not Evaluated refers to the courses in which no one submitted an evaluation. Reports Not Printed lists the courses where fewer than five students submitted evaluations, and therefore did not generate a report. Reports Printed summarizes the courses which had over five participants.

For assistance or questions about any of these guidelines, please call 974-4373 or e-mail sais@utk.edu.