AA/20/AS/18/FAC - Campus Policy for Surveys of Student Opinions of Learning Experiences

Effective Fall 2019

Resolved: That the university adopts the attached policy governing surveys of student opinions of learning experiences effective Fall 2019.

Rationale: The Ad Hoc Committee on Student Opinions of Instruction Surveys submitted its recommendations on June 6, 2018. This committee was formed “to consider the ramifications, and make recommendations, concerning the announced move by IDEA to eliminate paper survey instruments in favor of online-only instruments for student opinion of instruction.”

The Ad Hoc Committee’s recommendations, in summary, include: Dispensing with IDEA as our survey instrument; replacing this with a campus-based instrument that is designed, reviewed and modified as necessary through the faculty governance process (with Faculty Affairs Committee taking primary responsibility for these tasks, in consultation with other appropriate parties); that this campus-based instrument be implemented and analyzed at the campus level as well; and that such a survey instrument, once implemented, be clearly understood as only one component of the process of reviewing faculty members’ teaching performance (as specified under Article 15 of the CBA). The proposed resolution includes an attached policy that adheres to these recommendations. The proposed resolution, to avoid delays, also allows the university to affirm this attached policy and begin taking the necessary procedural and financial steps to implement the attached policy even as Faculty Affairs Committee, simultaneously, develops the language of the survey instrument specified in the policy and consults with the groups named in the attached policy.

The Ad Hoc Committee also discussed the question of how surveys of student opinions of learning experiences affect faculty members and instructional practices; their report includes the following note: “The committee considered the issue of student opinion of instruction broadly, both in terms of its role in evaluation, re-appointment, retention, tenure, and promotion decisions, and in terms of its potential for providing formative feedback to individual instructors or to departments and programs. We discussed at length the tension between these presumed purposes of student feedback. It is clear that student feedback puts individual faculty employment at stake. On the other hand, faculty, departments, and programs may also regard student feedback as a source of information on improvements to instruction. There appears to be no simple resolution of this tension.” Given these findings, the attached policy identifies the purpose of a single, campus-wide instrument as the means of gathering the data necessary under Article 15 of the CBA, which involves the process of reviewing faculty members’ teaching performance; the attached policy furthermore acknowledges that additional methods of surveying students may be useful to particular departments or programs but that any such additional methods ought not be used within the performance review of faculty members undertaken under Article 15.

When developing this survey, FAC shall use as a primary foundation questions culled from the two instruments proffered by the Ad Hoc Committee on Student Opinions of Instruction Surveys (submitted June 2018).

FAC shall approve this survey, according to the principles hereby established, by December 20, 2018.

Policy:
The university shall use one single, campus-wide survey of student perceptions of teaching and learning to gather the data necessary under Article 15 of the CFA-CSU Collective Bargaining Agreement, and the results of analysis of data gathered through distribution of this survey shall be only one element of the process of reviewing faculty teaching. This policy does not preclude the use of additional supplemental means by departments and programs to gather input from students.

This single, campus-wide survey shall be developed by the Faculty Affairs Committee.

FAC shall, when developing the survey, consult with the Office of Faculty Affairs, the Office of Academic Affairs, the California Faculty Association and the University Retention, Promotion and Tenure Committee.

The survey, once approved by FAC, will be presented to Academic Senate for approval.

Once surveys are implemented, FAC shall be tasked with reviewing the effectiveness of the survey and refining it as appropriate.

Related Policies and Procedures: 9/AS/93/FAC

Review History: Approved by the Academic Senate on November 13, 2018. Approved by President Ellen Junn on January 10, 2019.

Academic Affairs Division has the primary responsibility for this policy.

Attachment(s): AA/20/AS/18/FAC - Campus Policy for Surveys of Student Opinions of Learning Experiences  

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