Student Performance Evaluations- Frequently Asked Questions
Timing Questions
When are Evaluations due?
Evaluations are due 3 weeks (15 working days) following the end of each quarter.
How soon will the evaluations be available for my students to read?
Generally evaluations submitted via email are available to students within a week after they are received, but may take longer during peak periods. Students may view and print their up-to-date evaluations at any time from the Student Portal: http://students.ucsc.edu.
How do I…
obtain a class list?
You may download a class roster from the "My Class Rosters" section of the Faculty Portal.
For further information about using the roster and formatting it in Excel please refer to the following tutorial How to Move Class Roster Data from AIS to Excel
write the evaluations?
A very helpful guide for writing the evaluations was created by the UCSC Faculty Senate Committee on Educational Policy. It describes the purpose of the evaluations and gives tips and examples.
simplify the work of writing the evals?
The campus supported software approach for writing evaluations makes use of Excel and Word's MailMerge feature to automatically insert phrases from student records (in an Excel spreadsheet) into the appropriate place in a Word template. The result is a personalized evaluation for each of your students in a Word document that you can edit freely. To learn more, please see EvalsWare for Writing Evaluations or contact the Evaluations Consultant at 459-1573 or evals@ucsc.edu.
use the software approach with large courses?
The software has proven to be useful in many large courses. Using Excel, TAs are able to sort their students from the master class list and keep evaluation records throughout the quarter. At the end of the term, the TA spreadsheets are combined, then merged with the template for the entire course. At this point, the resulting text is easily edited and reviewed before submission. It's become common even in the largest courses, that faculty and TAs using the software are able to submit their evaluations on the same day grades are due.
insert a course description?
You may type (or paste) an optional course description up to 60 words under the course header, which is the line from the Registrar's email list that contains your name and the course (for example "@@@@,CRWN 184B 01 ,33738,031,GREENWOOD,M."). The course description will then be applied automatically to each student's evaluation. There's no need for you to insert it with each student's evaluation.
submit my finished evaluations?
Evaluations can be submitted as a file attachment in email to the Registrar's NES office: script@ucsc.edu.
For courses with low enrollments you may prefer to enter your evaluations through the "evalweb" section of the Faculty Portal.
use the course and student headers correctly?
Course and student headers, which begin with "@@@@" and "&&&&" respectively, are used by the Registrar's NES office to facilitate the automatic processing of evaluations. They contain a student ID number, which is essential to ensuring processing accuracy.
use the software approach to assist with letter grading?
Excel is capable of many mathematical and statistical functions to automate the calculations for doing grades. Consult Excel's help for a description of available functions and how to use them.
