Departmental Points of Contact Resources

Welcome and thank you for taking time to learn more about your role as the departmental point of contact (POC)!

The success of the Student Evaluation of Teaching Program relies heavily on the successful collaboration and work between Departmental Points of Contact (POC) and the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs.

A Departmental Point of Contact is a departmental staff member who is responsible for all communications between your department and the Office for Faculty Affairs regarding student evaluations of teaching.

Student evaluations of teaching play a fundamental role in improving course content, format, and delivery (teaching) at UIC. The Office for Faculty Affairs offers all Colleges and Departments the opportunity to participate in an online course evaluation system provided via the Office for Faculty Affairs. Participation in the Student Evaluation of Teaching Program is not automatic. Departments that would like to participate should contact the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs.

1-page document outlining roles and responsibilities Heading link

Please download this one-page document for a quick overview of the Point of Contact roles and responsibilities.

POC Roles and Responsibilities

POC Training Videos

Points of Contact FAQs Heading link

What are the responsibilities of a Course Evaluations Departmental Point of Contact?

The main responsibilities of the Departmental Point of Contact are as follows:

Communicate with the Office for Faculty Affairs regarding courses and instructors that are scheduled to receive an evaluation via the Departmental Query Spreadsheet
Ensuring that all data listed on the Departmental Query Spreadsheet has been properly entered into the Class Scheduling system/Banner. (Because the Course Evaluation system is automated, it is necessary that all instructor/course data in the Departmental Query Spreadsheet is entered into the Class Scheduling system/Banner.) For more information, please contact the Course Management and Academic Space Scheduling Office.
Disseminating Departmental Response Rate Report data to faculty.
Disseminating “Combined” course evaluation reports to individual faculty members (Class Climate automatically sends individual and module reports to faculty).
Archiving and disseminating previous semester course evaluation reports to faculty.
Troubleshooting and communicating with the Office of Faculty Affairs on behalf of faculty.

What is a Departmental Query spreadsheet and when do I receive it?

To prepare for the evaluation process, the Office for Faculty Affairs will send the Departmental Query Spreadsheet (DQS) filled in with a list of Banner-generated course information. Please expect to receive the queries for 8-week courses by week 3, and for 16-week courses by week 6. Faculty Affairs requests that all course information for that semester is entered into Banner one week before these deadlines so as to ensure the queries are accurate.

It is the responsibility of the POC to make any changes necessary to the spreadsheet, including adding and/or removing courses/instructors who should/should not receive a course evaluation. Instructions will be provided by Faculty Affairs about how to complete the spreadsheet.

The communications on the Departmental Query Spreadsheet(s) may include, but are not limited to:

Providing a list of courses and instructors/TAs that will participate in the online evaluation.
Informing the Office for Faculty Affairs regarding cross-listed courses. If a course is cross-listed with a department/college that is not currently participating in the campus teaching evaluation system, the Office for Faculty Affairs must manually import the survey into Class Climate. Students registered within the non-participating department/college will still receive an evaluation for the cross-listed courses.
Updating the Office for Faculty Affairs regarding co-taught courses for which evaluations are requested for every instructor.
Indicating whether a course with less than 5 students enrolled can be combined with another section of the same course taught by the same instructor.

What is the difference between Course and Module Surveys?

There are two types of survey structures that can be designed: Course and Module.

Course surveys are effective when there is one instructor or TA per CRN (See Appendix B of the Handbook for UIC Student Evaluation of Teaching Program).

Module surveys are an effective means of evaluation for sections that have more than one instructor and/or TA/ facilitator assigned to the same CRN. Implementing modular evaluations ensures that student participants will receive one survey via one email per course. The survey will contain multiple instructor sections. These sections and findings can then be separated into individual reports for each instructor/TA. Please note that the Department must decide whether to use a course or module query for each course. A department may opt to use both course and module survey structures (See Appendix B of the Handbook for UIC Student Evaluation of Teaching Program).

As a point of contact, why do I need to archive the course evaluation reports each semester?

Starting in week 18 (following the submission of grades), the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs sends individual reports to instructors. Also, at that time, a zipped file with the departmental course evaluation results is sent to the POCs for archival purposes.

It is important to archive the departmental course evaluation results each semester because your department will utilize the results in the future for various essential uses: promotion and tenure, annual evaluation of faculty, program and curricular evaluation, program accreditation, faculty awards, etc. Also, instructors who misplaced their past course evaluation reports will be directed to you for assistance with providing a copy of the course evaluation report(s).

Are combined reports sent to instructors by the POC or the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs?

Are combined course evaluation reports sent to instructors by the POC or the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs?

Combined course evaluation reports are sent to faculty by the Departmental Point of Contact.

Combined course evaluation reports are utilized for some cross-listed courses or sections with lower than 5 students. Not every department utilizes combined course evaluation reports.

Because combined reports are created manually and cannot be sent directly via the online evaluation system, we ask departmental POCs to share the combined course evaluation report with each faculty.

With exception of the combined course evaluation reports, the Office for Faculty Affairs sends all reports to each individual instructor’s UIC email address via the online automated system, Class Climate.