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The Student Rating of Teaching (SRT) is completed by students, providing input about instructors and the courses they teach. SRT content includes factors related to instructional excellence and course improvements.
University Senate policy requires the evaluation of all courses taught at the University. OMS oversees online and paper-based SRT administration and reporting for the Crookston, Morris, Rochester, and Twin Cities campuses.
For semester-long classes, Student Rating of Teaching (SRT) takes place during the last 3 weeks of classes, before final exams (see below for data collection windows for all course lengths).
Detailed information for faculty on administering SRT’s can be found here.
Detailed information for student volunteers administering SRT’s can be found here.
The online SRT platform (for instructors to view reports and for students to complete online ratings, if available) can be found here.
| Course Length | Data Collection Window |
|---|---|
| 83 days or longer | The last 24 days of instruction |
| 5-82 days | The last 25% of the class instruction time |
| 4 days or fewer | The last day of instruction |
The course length is calculated based on the duration between the earliest instance of the "first class" meeting and the latest "last class" meeting in the PeopleSoft system.
The SRT may be administered either on paper or online, but not both, as designated by the Department Contact. Both formats allow evaluation of multiple instructors. Currently, 70% of courses collect SRT data on paper and 30% collect SRT data online.
Default SRT format:
Online SRT features include:
To assist students in course selection, SRT responses that pertain to a course (not a specific instructor) are made available under the provisions of current University Administration policy for Rochester, Twin Cities and Morris campuses.
Staff and administrators at the University serve as Department Contacts for administering SRTs. Department Contacts are critical to the success of SRT’s.
The SRT responsibilities of Department Contacts include:
Students are crucial in fulfilling the purpose of SRT. We rely on students to complete the SRT and provide honest feedback regarding their course content and instructors. SRT data related to courses are made available to assist students with course selection (Rochester, Twin Cities and Morris campuses).
Student data privacy is protected through compliance with University policy, data processing procedures, and in-house security. To ensure student privacy, only aggregate data is reported and student identities are never revealed to the instructor.
Student Ratings of Teaching (SRTs) are a vital resource for faculty members, helping faculty better understand how to improve their courses and overall instruction. It is important that all faculty members closely follow the steps for administering SRTs to maximize data quality.
All SRTs, whether collected on paper or online, produce an electronic report for each instructor. SRT results are used make informed decisions for purposes such as:
Faculty data privacy is protected through compliance with University policy, data processing procedures, and in-house security. The University considers SRT data that directly identify instructors as personnel data. As such, it is protected by the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, which prohibits the public release of personnel data. In support of this distinction between course data and instructor data, the SRT form separates instructor-specific questions from course-specific questions.
Here are some tools and tips for improving course instruction.
Get answers to your SRT questions by contacting SRT Support. SRT support starts with contacting IT Help.
Email: eval@umn.edu
Phone: 1-HELP (or 612-621-4357)
Additional Contacts
SRT contact information and resources
University Senate policy governing SRT
Samples of the paper and online SRT forms
Platform where instructors view reports & students complete online ratings
View recommendations for improving online SRT response rates