Text of Interim President Edwards'
August 15, 2012 Response to Senate reports and recommendations on
Charge S-1104, on Online Teaching Evaluations and Best Practices in the
Evaluation of Teaching Performance:
Dear Mr. Swalagin:
I am writing in response to
the Reports and Recommendations on Charge S-1104 on
Online Teaching Evaluations and Best Practices in the Evaluation of
Teaching Performance as adopted by the University Senate
in March
2012 upon the recommendations of the Instruction,
Curricula, and Advising Committee and the Faculty and Personnel Affairs
Committee.
These Committees have my thanks for
their work in considering the important issues related to the
evaluation of
teaching at Rutgers.
I am pleased to support the
Senate's reports and recommendations related to best practices in
teaching evaluation
and the administration of the Student Instructional Rating Survey
(SIRS),
including maintaining the option for departments to request that some
or all of
their instructors use a paper survey in place of the online system in
coordination with the Center for Teaching Advancement and Assessment Research (CTAAR). It
is appropriate that the
decision to use the paper SIRS or the online SIRS remain a departmental
decision and not one decided by individual instructors.
This recommendation is
endorsed with the caveat that should departments begin exercising this
option
for large numbers of instructors, a funding source for the more costly
paper
system would need to be identified in order to accommodate all such
requests.
With respect to the recommendation to provide a mechanism for
individual
instructors to add questions to the survey to meet their specific
needs, CTAAR
staff members have indicated that while this option is not currently
available,
they are exploring how to accommodate instructor questions within the
SIRS
system.
Sincerely,
Richard L. Edwards, Ph.D.
Interim President
c: Gary
Gigliotti, Associate Vice President for
Academic Affairs
Monica Devanas, Director, Faculty
Development and Assessment Program