From now until Dec. 9, students are given the chance to voice their feedback about their courses and instructors through the Student Opinions of Instruction course evaluation surveys that are available each semester. These ratings help professors improve their teaching.

John Acker is the coordinator for student assessment in the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, which serves as the institutional administrator for the online Student Opinions of Instruction system.

Acker said all of the surveys are confidential and that students’ names are not revealed to the professors.

“Student confidentiality is our main concern,” Acker said.

Acker also said only professors, departmental chairs and deans are able to have access to the surveys.

“Most of the deans don’t sit through every single comment made by the students on the surveys,” Acker said. “However, if there was an extreme matter regarding the professor, it would be up to the faculty to discuss the situation, but thankfully, we never have had to deal with it and hopefully never will.”

The new online system allows students to complete the surveys at their own leisure. As a result, the submissions are filed and delivered to the faculty in a more organized manner.

“Since we’ve gone from old paper forms to online, we’ve accumulated surveys from as far back as 2009,” Acker said. “The old paper forms have been discarded, but we’re not sure how long we’ll keep the surveys online on the record.”

Katrina Sharpe, a junior majoring in marketing, said a lot of her classmates commented on the surveys asking the professor to do away with online homework for her economics class.

“The next semester, I noticed the same professor did away with the quizzes,” Sharpe said. “I was so excited that the teacher took the comments into consideration.”

Sharpe said she doesn’t mind filling out the surveys, even with her busy schedule.

“I think the surveys are useful for the teachers and that it’s important because some professors may not realize what influence they have on their students,” Sharpe said.

Stacy Alley, assistant professor of musical theatre and dance, has been teaching at the University for three years and has been required to have her students take the Student Opinions of Instruction Surveys every year.

“For my classes, I don’t think a lot of the questions in these particular surveys are relevant to dance classes, but some of the comments are beneficial, so it is useful for feedback,” Alley said.

Alley said she agrees that the rating system is fair for her dance classes.

“I do not see the students’ names on the surveys,” Alley said. “It is completely anonymous, as it should be.”

If an extremely negative trend is noticed, Alley said, to her knowledge, administrators are notified.

Alley said the dance faculty wasn’t required to use class time to have students fill out the surveys, but were encouraged to since students are less likely to complete them on their own time.

“It didn’t disturb my classes very much, as we are now reviewing for the final, and class time is a bit more flexible,” Alley said. “Whether students fill out these surveys during class or on their own, I wish they would realize that their feedback is important.”

For more information, visit http://oira.ua.edu/soi/soi_info.html or [email protected]

You can also access your surveys by logging into myBama. From the “Student” tab, select the OIRA Resources block with the computer mouse artwork, and the words “Your Opinion Matters.” The surveys should be completed no later than Dec. 9, except for social work class surveys, which must be completed no later than Dec. 14. After these dates, data collection is closed.