Teaching Policies & Resources — Student Evaluation of Teaching

All courses with their administrative home in CLAS use the online forms for evaluating teaching known as "ACE evaluations."

  • ACE online evaluation forms are required for any regularly scheduled course.
  • Individual departments and instructor may not modify the ACE questions. 
  • CLAS students and instructors may access the forms through ICON (login, click on the Student tab at the top of the page, choose "Course Evaluations," and then login to CollegeNet).
  • Instructors do not need to have a course on ICON to use ICON to access the evaluation forms. ICON simply provides a login portal to the evaluation site and is available in this capacity whether or not the instructor uses ICON.
  • After logging in through ICON, students and instructors will see the evaluation dashboard. Students will find their evaluations for all of their UI courses using the online system listed on this one page.
  • Instructors are able to access their course evaluation results around three days after grades are posted. At the same time that instructors can view the results of the evaluations, DEOs (or a delegate) may also review evaluation results, but generally these results are highly confidential.
  • All results from course evaluations are accessible to the instructor as long as the instructor has a valid HawkID and password, with access to these materials available online. Evaluation results should also be downloaded and saved by the instructor or by the department. (See below for more information on the use and keeping of online evaluation forms.)

Best Practices for Student Evaluation of Teaching

Procedures for evaluation must ensure that student evaluations are anonymous and uninfluenced by the instructor.

Institutions using online forms have found that asking students to complete the evaluations during class results in more robust results. 

  • Schedule a time for students to complete the evaluation in class once the online form has opened.
  • Remind students to bring their smart phone, laptop, or tablet to class; if the classroom has a computer, make it available for students to use.
  • Tell or show students how to access ICON and the Student tab which links to the course evaluations.
  • Allow enough time for the evaluation. Some instructors set aside time in the middle of the class for this activity so students do not rush through the evaluations in order to leave early.
  • Inform students that the process is important to the instructor for improving the course and that recommendations are taken seriously.
  • Remind students that the instructor does not have access to the evaluations until after grades have been submitted and that all forms are completely anonymous.
  • Instructors may email students without the students' identity being revealed to remind them to complete the evaluations.
  • Instructors may also view at the site how many forms have been completed and the percentage not yet done.
  • Instructors should continue to encourage students to complete the forms until the forms close.

Optional Mid-term Evaluations

Some instructors find it beneficial to have a mid-term or earlier evaluation for their own use. Instructors may devise their own evaluation instruments using the online ACE form. Instructors who choose to do such evaluations should assure students that these evaluations are optional and are anonymous. 

These evaluations are for the instructor's use only and do not need to be kept or shared with others and are not added to the "official" ACE answers or scores. 

Viewing and Keeping Student Evaluations on File

Course evaluations may be accessed by the instructor after grades are posted; at the same time, the evaluations are made available electronically to the departmental DEO and to the DEO delegate.

Evaluations may be downloaded and saved as PDF or MS Excel files, which also can be emailed or printed.

Instructors should save all evaluations in a personal file. As long as instructors have a valid HawkID and password, they will have access to their individual reports. These evaluations are stored indefinitely online and must be included by instructors in all reviews of teaching assistants and of tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty, according to CLAS policy.

More information about teaching evaluations, best practices, and dates of availability are all available at the ACE web pages.