Information Technology Services

Processing Student Rating of Instruction Forms

Introduction

There are currently two versions of the Student Rating of Instruction (SROI) form available for use. The primary version has been used since Fall 1995 and consists of 6 general questions followed by 36 generic 5-choice fields. The alternate version of the form consists of the same 6 general questions as on the primary form, two additional items on the course and instructor, plus boxes for written comments from the students. The primary version of the form is currently used by all colleges at NDSU *except* the College of Science and Mathematics, whereas the alternate version is *only* used by Science and Math. Both versions of the SROI form are printed on ivory-colored paper and are processed in an identical fashion with one exception.

Gold header sheets are used to provide information about a stack of student sheets. The gold sheets have three fields in the upper left hand corner of the page, one field each for the call number, the number of the last question (labelled LQ on the gold sheet) used for the class, and an optional code. Each bundle of student sheets associated with a call number *must* have a gold header sheet accompanying it or the student forms cannot be properly processed.

Processing Outline | Example Report


SROI Processing Questions and Answers

SROI bundles are processed using the same basic principles as the Optical Mark Reader (OMR) test scoring system used on campus. Forms for each course are submitted as a stack, with a header sheet (gold) as the top sheet, followed by the student sheets (ivory). The questions and answers below provide the information required to process a bundle of SROI sheets.
  • Where do I get a supply of the SROI forms and headers?
  • How should students fill out the SROI forms?
  • What elements comprise an SROI bundle?
  • What information is required on the header sheet?
  • How do I process SROIs when more than one instructor is evaluated for a single call number?
  • Are there any differences in processing the two versions of the SROI form?
  • Where do I send my SROI bundles?
  • Are there deadlines for processing?
  • Can I write course names and/or instructor names anywhere on the gold header sheets?
  • Can instructor names be added to the summary reports?

  • Where do I get a supply of the SROI forms and headers?

    Blank SROI student sheets can be obtained from the Office of the Dean for your College. Please use only the forms provided by your College. Do *NOT* photocopy these forms if you run short --- photocopiers alter the size of the image slightly, but just enough so that the scanner cannot recognize the form. Also, the paper used in photocopiers is typically not appropriate for running through the scanner.

    How should students fill out the SROI forms?

    Students should blacken in the bubbles for their responses using a #2 lead pencil (ink pen and felt tip pen marks will not be detected by the scanner). Changes must be erased cleanly or the scanner will 'see' two bubbles filled in for an item. In this case, the data is invalid and the response is coded as an asterisk (*) in the raw data file.

    Instructors are encouraged to have students write in the call number and fill in the appropriate bubbles on these sheets even though this field on the student sheets is ignored during processing. Handling the student forms in this way provides a safeguard against mixing up SROI forms from different classes.

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    What elements comprise an SROI bundle?

    An SROI bundle consists of a header sheet and the completed student sheets. All forms in the stack must be positioned the same way; i.e., make sure that all sheets in the stack have the title at the top. If the sheets are not all oriented in the same way, the scanner cannot read them and it stops (which makes our Operations people unhappy :-)). If we encounter a stack with many sheets improperly oriented, we will return the stack to you unscanned.

    Torn or otherwise damaged sheets may not be scannable. Please remove any such sheets from your stack in advance (sheets that have simply been folded in half will usually be OK if carefully unfolded). If students have written across the timing marks (the small rectangular blocks along the right edge of the form) or in line with the skunk marks (the square blocks at the bottom of the form), the form will not scan. Again, please either remove these sheets from the stack or erase all writing from these locations.

    What information is required on the header sheet?

    You must fill out a header sheet for each unique course call number. (If you have a course which has multiple instructors for a single call number and you want evaluations tallied separately for each instructor, you can use the Code field on the header sheet to supplement the call number. See the instructions below for this scenario.) Using a #2 lead pencil, fill in the bubbles for the call # and LQ (Last Question) fields. The course call number you provide on the header sheet is associated with every sheet in the stack. Even if a student sheet already has the call number filled in, it is ignored and replaced by the call number on the header sheet. If you are only collecting data from questions 1 through 6, you may leave the LQ field blank. Otherwise the number in this field determines the number of questions that are tallied. If you use any of the additional generic fields and you leave the LQ field blank, then you will only get results for the first six items. The Code field is not required for processing most SROI bundles, so you may leave it blank unless you have multiple instructors for a single call number (e.g., a team taught course).
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    How do I process SROIs when more than one instructor is evaluated for a single call number?

    Several departments have course call numbers with more than one instructor, yet would like to get separate evaluation runs on each instructor rather than just the course call number. You may use the Code field on the header sheet to create a unique code for each instructor. The codes may be as simple as using single letters; e.g., Jones=A, Smith=B, etc., or you can use all 5 characters in the Code field if you like (Jones=AAAAA, Smith=BBBBB). You must then create a separate SROI bundle for each instructor rather than just for the course call number. If done properly, you will get separate summaries for each call number-instructor combination.

    Are there any differences in processing the two versions of the SROI form?

    There is only one difference in the way in which the two versions of the SROI form are processed. You must code a last question of 88 (not 08) on the header sheet for the alternate (Science & Math) form. If you use 88 for the last question, a special program that properly processes the alternate form is called. If you neglect to use 88 and you are using the Science & Math form, your printouts will only include the results for the first 6 items, even if you entered 08 in an attempt to get results for 8 items. The reason for this is that the last 2 items on the alternate form are not located in the same place as items 7 and 8 on the primary form.

    Where do I send my SROI bundles?

    Starting with Fall semester 1998, all SROI bundles are routed through the College offices before being sent over to ITS. The general procedure which we prefer is listed below:
    1. Each academic department should collect all evaluations for its courses at the department office.
    2. Each department then forwards all of its evaluations to its respective college office. We request that you create SROI "megabundles" -- simply combine successive SROI bundles into a larger stack as each course's evaluations are returned to the department office. The gold header sheets are adequate separators between SROI bundles. We prefer that you do not place each individual bundle in a separate envelope as has frequently been done in the past --- this simply adds lots of extra handling time prior to scanning. Departments should deliver their SROI megabundles to their respective college office.
    3. At the college office, the departmental megabundles can be combined into a "superbundle" for the college --- don't you just love the new jargon :-). We suggest placing a separate brightly colored page (hot pink works well) between megabundles from different departments. This will allow ITS to keep all sheets for a department together which will facilitate returning them to the respective departments after they have been scanned.
    4. Once a college has collected all of its evaluations for a semester, the entire "superbundle" should be delivered to IACC 142 for scanning. Alternatively, ITS can send couriers to collect the forms at the college office and deliver them to IACC 142.
    5. After scanning, ITS will return the superbundles to the appropriate college offices. The college offices will also receive the summary reports and will be responsible for routing the SROI bundles and summary reports to their respective departments.
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    Are there deadlines for processing?

    The change in the format of the summary reports that was adopted Fall semester 1998 requires that all forms for the university be scanned and available prior to generating the reports. We suggest that as a general rule, all SROI bundles should be delivered to the college offices within one week after the end of finals. College offices should then route their superbundles to IACC 142 as soon as possible after all departments sheets have been collected.

    Can I write course names and/or instructor names anywhere on the gold header sheets?

    Yes, you can write some comments on the headers but only in specific locations. We suggest that you write such comments either directly above or directly below the heavy black bar in the middle of the header sheet. Please carefully avoid the following locations: the timing track (black rectangles) on the right edge of the page, the skunk marks (black squares) at the bottom of the page, and the area around and between the three fields in the upper left hand portion of the page.

    Can instructor names be added to the summary reports?

    We hope to add instructor names to the summary reports with the Spring semester 1999 run.

    Additional Questions?

    Questions or comments regarding the content or design of the SROI form should be forwarded to the Teaching and Professional Services Committee. Questions/comments/problems with the processing of these forms should be directed to Curt Doetkott (1-7031) in Information Technology Services.


    SROI Processing Outline

    A brief outline of the steps involved in processing the SROI forms follows.
  • Students must use #2 lead pencils when answering the survey.
  • Instructors must carefully fill in the call # and LQ fields on the gold header sheet.
  • Departments must collect SROI bundles from each of their courses and build a department "megabundle" to be routed through their respective college office.
  • Colleges must collect "megabundles" from each of their departments and build a college "superbundle" to be processed by ITS.
  • ITS scans the "superbundles" and returns them and the summary reports to the college offices for distribution to their respective departments.
  • SROI Processing Don'ts

  • Don't write across the timing track, skunk marks, or between the fields on either the header or student sheets.
  • Don't place individual course SROIs in separate envelopes for processing.
  • Don't leave any paper clips or post-it notes on sheets in your SROI bundles.
  • Don't make up course call numbers --- bogus numbers do not match information in the administrative database so we cannot determine department and college information if the call number is an imaginary one. If you need to generate separate reports for different individuals for the same call number, use the Code field as described elsewhere in this document.
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    Example Report

    
                                        Student Rating of Instruction --- Summary Report
                                                 North Dakota State University
                                                  Report Generated on 14JAN99
    
        Instructor Information                  Number of Students:                            Response Key:
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Call #: 77777                        # Enrolled: This Class ....   87               VG= Very Good....(5)
             Dept: OCEANOGRAPHY                                                                 G=      Good....(4)
           Course: 202                    # Sheets Scanned: This Class ....  128               IB=In Between....(3)
                                                            Your Dept .....  596                P=      Poor....(2)
                                                            Your College .. 3285               VP= Very Poor....(1)
    
        Frequencies (top row) and percents (bottom row) are provided to the right of each question.
        S.D. is the Standard Deviation and #R is the Number of Valid Responses.
    
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Please rate:                       VG      G     IB     P      VP     OMIT       AREA        MEAN     S.D.    #R
    ========================================================================================================================
                                                                                      | Class       3.484    0.851     128
       1. your satisfaction with the        11     58     42     16      1      0     | Department  3.725    0.869     592
          instruction in this course.      8.6   45.3   32.8   12.5    0.8    0.0     | College     4.115    0.862    3268
                                                                                      | University  4.015    0.913   32739
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                      | Class       3.555    0.895     128
       2. the instructor as a teacher.      15     58     41     11      3      0     | Department  3.743    0.899     591
                                          11.7   45.3   32.0    8.6    2.3    0.0     | College     4.192    0.879    3260
                                                                                      | University  4.091    0.930   32650
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                      | Class       3.328    0.973     128
       3. the ability of the instructor     12     48     42     22      4      0     | Department  3.665    0.929     591
          to communicate effectively.      9.4   37.5   32.8   17.2    3.1    0.0     | College     4.128    0.897    3262
                                                                                      | University  4.027    0.965   32642
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                      | Class       3.469    0.773     128
       4. the quality of this course.        7     61     45     15      0      0     | Department  3.750    0.868     591
                                           5.5   47.7   35.2   11.7    0.0    0.0     | College     4.029    0.872    3257
                                                                                      | University  3.917    0.888   32610
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                      | Class       3.977    0.827     128
       5. the fairness of procedures        33     67     21      6      1      0     | Department  3.818    0.851     589
          for grading this course.        25.8   52.3   16.4    4.7    0.8    0.0     | College     4.128    0.874    3254
                                                                                      | University  4.066    0.906   32499
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                      | Class       3.197    0.935     127
       6. your understanding of the          7     42     54     17      7      1     | Department  3.609    0.843     586
          course content.                  5.5   32.8   42.2   13.3    5.5    0.8     | College     4.029    0.796    3251
                                                                                      | University  3.964    0.840   32548
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
        Questions beyond #6 are optional, vary by department, and use the following key:
                                           A=5    B=4    C=3    D=2    E=1
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Please rate:                        A      B      C      D      E     OMIT       AREA        MEAN     S.D.    #R
    ========================================================================================================================
               Item  7.                     10     62     36     17      3      0     | Class       3.461    0.904     128
                                           7.8   48.4   28.1   13.3    2.3    0.0     | Department  3.660    0.889     591
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Item  8.                      4     23     49     36     16      0     | Class       2.711    1.005     128
                                           3.1   18.0   38.3   28.1   12.5    0.0     | Department  3.320    1.082     591
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Item  9.                     57     55     14      2      0      0     | Class       4.305    0.727     128
                                          44.5   43.0   10.9    1.6    0.0    0.0     | Department  4.217    0.758     589
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Item 10.                     26     54     37      6      4      1     | Class       3.724    0.948     127
                                          20.3   42.2   28.9    4.7    3.1    0.8     | Department  3.775    0.853     587
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Item 11.                     24     62     29     10      3      0     | Class       3.734    0.935     128
                                          18.8   48.4   22.7    7.8    2.3    0.0     | Department  3.836    0.904     590
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Item 12.                     14     46     45     14      9      0     | Class       3.328    1.043     128
                                          10.9   35.9   35.2   10.9    7.0    0.0     | Department  3.572    1.087     589
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Item 13.                     10     53     37     19      9      0     | Class       3.281    1.042     128
                                           7.8   41.4   28.9   14.8    7.0    0.0     | Department  3.587    1.044     589
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Item 14.                     58     55     13      1      1      0     | Class       4.313    0.750     128
                                          45.3   43.0   10.2    0.8    0.8    0.0     | Department  4.119    0.789     589
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Item 15.                     19     46     33     19     11      0     | Class       3.336    1.159     128
                                          14.8   35.9   25.8   14.8    8.6    0.0     | Department  3.548    1.052     586
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Item 16.                     18     55     41     13      1      0     | Class       3.594    0.882     128
                                          14.1   43.0   32.0   10.2    0.8    0.0     | Department  4.041    0.919     590
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Item 17.                     36     59     28      3      0      2     | Class       4.016    0.780     126
                                          28.1   46.1   21.9    2.3    0.0    1.6     | Department  3.778    0.971     585
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Item 18.                     17     72     33      2      3      1     | Class       3.772    0.789     127
                                          13.3   56.3   25.8    1.6    2.3    0.8     | Department  3.818    0.904     588
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Item 19.                      4     31     54     26     13      0     | Class       2.898    0.987     128
                                           3.1   24.2   42.2   20.3   10.2    0.0     | Department  3.447    1.040     591
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Item 20.                     35     60     30      3      0      0     | Class       3.992    0.779     128
                                          27.3   46.9   23.4    2.3    0.0    0.0     | Department  3.835    0.869     588
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Item 21.                     13     41     51     17      5      1     | Class       3.315    0.965     127
                                          10.2   32.0   39.8   13.3    3.9    0.8     | Department  3.676    0.896     587
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    
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    Last Modified: Monday, 19-Apr-99 3:51:26 PM
    URL: http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/~doetkott/sroi.html
    Published by North Dakota State University Information Technology Services