Faculty & Course Feedback

In December 2015, the provost formed a committee to review the teaching evaluation, which had been in place since fall 2011. The committee’s recommendations and revised questionnaire were piloted in more than 80 classes in fall 2017 and were implemented in most classes in spring 2018 (faculty were given the option to opt out). The full implementation of the new questionnaire began in fall 2018. The new questionnaire has been designed to mitigate against bias and to elicit specific and useful information from students.

Instructors now have the option of creating two custom questions, answers to which will be shared only with instructors. Institutional Research and the Sherrerd Center for Teaching and Learning have prepared examples of custom questions from Smith College faculty members and can provide guidance on best practices. Stanford University also has an online resource on how to write questions.

The responses to question 7 are made available to the instructor only, who may choose to share the comments with future students.

The following categories of courses are not included: special studies, honors courses, courses with five or fewer Smith students, and five-college courses.

Please review the Instructions for Accessing Course Feedback Reports.

Department chairs and program directors, the Committee on Tenure and Promotion, and the Office of the Provost have access to faculty members’ course feedback reports, but the information is not otherwise disseminated. These individuals will not have access to student-directed comments (question 7) or custom question responses.

For access to course evaluation reports prior to fall 2018, please contact Hayley Spizz in the Office of the Provost (hspizz@smith.edu).