Teaching evaluations for regular, semester-length courses taught in spring 2023 will open on Sunday, April 23, 2023 at 12:00 a.m. There will be an announcement forthcoming.

• Evaluations will close on Saturday, May 6, 2023 at 11:59 p.m., and students and instructors will be sent an email reminder about this closure.
• Information about other email reminders sent to students and related open/closure dates for off-cycle courses may be found at this link. 

We encourage all instructors to promote the value of using the ACE teaching evaluation and feedback process to their students. Please stress that completing the ACE student evaluations helps students taking the course in the future while giving students an important voice in their own education. Instructors (and, in turn, departments and programs) use this feedback to help improve the course the next time it is taught. 

Below are some suggestions for increasing student participation in the ACE evaluation process:

• Allow time for students to fill out the evaluation during class.
  • Designate a particular day and ask students to bring any mobile device they are comfortable using (Iowa's system allows use of mobile phones, tablets, laptops, etc.).
  • No more than 10 minutes is usually needed for students to answer the end of course ACE questions.
• Remind students that online evaluations are completely anonymous. Iowa's software allows students to login with their Hawkid, but once logged in, students immediately become anonymous in the system.
• Remind students that you will not see any results until after final grades have been submitted.
• Both the Response Rate and number of students who have completed the evaluation are updated during the open evaluation period. This is a way for you to track the response rate in your courses and send your students a reminder if your response rates are low.
• The following video made by students for students also gives compelling reasons for completing the ACE evaluations, so please share with your students.

Other videos for DEOs, faculty, and administrators on topics, such as the role of teaching evaluations and implicit bias, can be found here.

As you might be aware, the University ACE Task Force revised the end of semester student questions and has made a series of recommendations about the process of teaching evaluation on our campus. CLAS will be working on implementation of these recommendations over the next few years.

• The new ACE questions are below and were created by the ACE Task Force to limit bias; questions are few in number to encourage completion.
• Questions may not be added or revised by departments or colleges.
•  The general education CLAS Core assessment questions are added to courses that carry CLAS Core status in one of the areas. Instructors of these courses are encouraged to take time to discuss with students both the role of the course within the overall GE CLAS Core program and also the specific learning outcomes for the CLAS Core area of the course.

ACE Evaluation Questions

Note: The Likert scale of 1-6 as used in the past will also be used with these new questions; however, the choice of N/A has been added, with N/A as the default option and with 1-6 following in order. 

Instructor  

Organization—The instructor used class time well 
Clarity – The instructor communicated course material clearly 
Learning Focused – The instructor’s teaching methods helped students learn 

Course  
Learning Materials—The assignments, readings, and activities facilitated student learning 
Assessment— Assessments (such as quizzes, papers, and exams) aligned with course objectives 
Support—Help was available for students 

Overall (Open Ended) 

• What aspects of the course were most useful for your learning? 
• When this class is taught again, what changes would you suggest?
• What else would you like the instructor to know about your experience in this course?