SmartEvals

SmartEvals is an online-only system which, as of Fall 2013, is the official student rating of teaching effectiveness of record for annual performance reviews and tenure and promotion processes.

Yes. All historical teaching evaluation data obtained with current and older systems will still be available as input to the faculty evaluation processes, as required by data timelines and process needs.

No. SmartEvals will be RIT's official student rating of teaching effectiveness system in place starting Fall 2013.

There is an extensive library of self-training SmartEvals videos available to faculty. Please take a look at the "Self-training faculty videos" tab in this page.

A valid RIT login ID and your RIT password.  Go to http://www.smartevals.com/ritevals to take your to RIT's customized SmartEvals webpage.

There may be several reasons (keep in mind that for fall 2013, SmartEvals will become available for faculty access starting September 9):

1. It may not be September 9, 2013 yet.  Please wait.
2. You may not have a valid RIT login ID.  Please note that SmartEvals uses your RIT login ID to authenticate you.  Please go to http://www.rit.edu/its/help and proceed from there.
3. You may have a valid RIT login ID which you may not have used in a long time.  Please go to http://www.rit.edu/its/help and proceed from there.

Note that the SmartEvals database runs independent of RIT's systems.  Changes made to our systems may take time to propagate to SmartEvals.  While the SRATE office and ITS personnel are working diligently to keep SmartEvals up-to-date, changes done on RIT systems each week (like enabling your RIT login ID) will be reflected on SmartEvals by the end of weeks 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of each term.  A final update will be made at the end of week 12 in preparation for opening SmartEvals to our students by the start of week 13 each semester.

There may be several reasons:

1. Certain labs that run concurrently with a course are not assigned a separate final grade.  Instead, the course and its lab are issued a combined final grade.  SRATE surveys will not be produced for the lab component of these courses.  You may be scheduled to teach this kind of labs this term.  Check with your department chair or program coordinator.
2. You may not be scheduled to teach any courses this term.  Check with your department chair or program coordinator.
3. You may be teaching courses but your department may not have updated the SIS system yet.  Contact your department chair or program coordinator.

Note that the SmartEvals database runs independent of RIT's systems.  Changes made to our systems may take time to propagate to SmartEvals.  While the SRATE office and ITS personnel are working diligently to keep SmartEvals up-to-date, changes done on RIT systems (like updating RIT's SIS course schedule) will be reflected on SmartEvals by the end of weeks 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of each term. A final update will be made at the end of week 12 in preparation for opening SmartEvals to our students by the start of week 13 each semester.

Yes. RIT is providing full authentication services to our SmartEvals services; your RIT password is not being shared with or stored in SmartEvals authentication services. If you update your RIT password on RIT authentication services, the new password will provide you access to our customized RIT SmartEvals webpage.

Use the following link: http://www.smartevals.com/ritevals

At the prompt, enter your RIT login ID and password.

By recommendation of the AAC, surveys will be open weeks 13-15 of the fall and spring semesters, respectively; weeks 9-10 of the summer term and days 13-15 of the January intersession.

Surveys will open Monday November 18, 2013 through Friday December 6, 2013.

Yes. SmartEvals has a robust online help feature designed to provide faculty quick and to-the-point answers. When you login to RIT's customized SmartEvals page, click on "Help" and type your question, keyword or terms that the online search system can use to identify items of relevance.

Yes. In coordination with the colleges and SmartEvals, the SRATE office is setting up faculty and department chair training sessions for September 2013.

Yes. When colleges are ready, they will provide the SmartEvals campus coordinator with the necessary data to setup tenure and / or promotion committee access rights. Tenure and promotion committee members will only be able to view evaluations from those individuals whose documents the committee is reviewing

Only if you grant them access through RIT's customized SmartEvals page.

By recommendation of the AAC faculty, colleges department and faculty will be able to add their own questions during weeks 3 through 7 of each semester.

Please note that faculty-specific questions can only be added and/or edited by each individual faculty member during weeks 3 through 7 of each semester. When the add/edit period is up, neither SmartEvals personnel nor the SRATE office will be able to add, delete or edit faculty-specific questions.

You can add up to five questions to each of your surveys.

The SmartEvals environment allows faculty to add a wide variety of question types such as Likert scale items, multiple choice, yes / no, and open ended free text questions. Likert scale items, multiple-choice and yes/no questions are highly recommended because they are easier to analyze and provide summative data over time.
Before adding your own questions, please take the following into account:

1. Each survey will include ten core university-wide questions; seven of these questions focus on your effectiveness as a teacher.
2. Each of your surveys may also include a number of college-specific questions provided by your college's leadership.  These questions may focus on other aspects of instructional effectiveness or the teaching/learning context.
3. You may have been using questions of your own with previous surveys of teaching effectiveness. You should consider whether or not some of those questions may be duplicative of either the university-wide or college-specific questions.
4. Asking the same or similar question more than once within the same survey may cause students to lose interest in that survey.

Yes.  SmartEvals provides a data bank of 40 Ascend™ questions.  While RIT does not necessarily endorse the use of these questions, using them will provide youwith nation-wide comparative data, which allows you to compare yourself with results from other schools. Follow this video link to learn more about SmartEvals Ascend™ Normative questions.  The questions can be found here.

SmartEvals is an online-only system which, as of Fall 2013, is the official student rating of teaching effectiveness of record for annual performance reviews and tenure and promotion processes.

Absolutely. RIT’s SmartEvals webpage can be accessed from a variety of web-ready smart phones and tablets.

Each survey consists of at most 20 questions, most of which ask you to select an answer from up to five available options, and at least two open-ended, free text questions.  SmartEvals has advised us that surveys of this length and characteristics should require no more than 10 minutes to complete each.

Sometime before at the beginning of week 13 of each semester, you will get a customized email from SmartEvals alerting you that student rating for courses you are registered for in that term are open for your input. The email will include a link to a customized RIT SmartEvals page which, when you click on it, will prompt you for your RIT email and your RIT password.

No. RIT is providing SmartEvals with authentication services in a way that, when you login to RIT’s SmartEvals page, it is RIT – not the vendor— that authenticates you as an RIT student.

Absolutely. SmartEvals is a system contracted by RIT to manage RIT’s evaluation of teaching effectiveness. At no time will survey results be shared with RIT faculty or administrators in ways that specific survey responders can be uniquely identified.

However, course surveys are likely to include open-ended free-text questions whose responses instructors will be able to see in their entirety. Therefore, students are advised not to enter information that could be used to identify them.

By recommendation of RIT’s Academic Senate, course surveys will open weeks 13 through 15 of each semester.

For the Fall 2013 semester surveys will open from Monday November 18, 2013 through Friday December 6, 2013.

Typically, faculty will be able to see the results of their SmartEvals for each term the day after final grades are posted.

For Fall 2013, SmartEvals results will be open for faculty viewing December 25, 2013.

Instructors will be able to see summative information about each of their courses in a form that will allow them to understand how effective their teaching was in each of their courses. SmartEvals does not provide instructors with an option to identify individual responders.

However, course surveys are likely to include free-text, open-ended questions whose responses instructors will be able to see in their entirety. Therefore, students are advised not to enter information that could be used to identify them.