National Technical Institute for the Deaf

VIII.5. Sample email message to students

SRS Tips and Best Practices to Improve Student Participation  

Research shows that the greatest incentive to students is instructors’ encouragement to them and instructors’ explanation of why course evaluations are important to them. Using “best practices” to administer the SRS yields higher rates of return and greater validity of results. Please remember these tips and best practices:

Emphasize why the SRS is important to you and to NTID/RIT .

• Student opinions will help guide ongoing improvement of the course.
• Student opinions can positively affect your professional development.
• Student ratings are a required part of the evaluation system at RIT.
• Share examples of how past evaluations have helped improve your teaching effectiveness.

Emphasize that the SRS is confidential.

• The login requirement ensures that only enrolled students can participate. Login ensures that student ratings can be given only once per survey.
• Student ratings results are kept anonymous. No student identifying information wil l be associated with the ratings or comments.
• You will see only a summary of collected results, not any individual rating.
• Student ratings will not affect their grades.

Explain how the student ratings will be used.

• You will receive a summary report of the summative and formative items on the survey, including comments. Your department chairperson will receive a summary report of only the summative items on the survey, without comments.

Prepare them to take the survey.

• Surveys are available during Weeks 9 and 10.
• Students receive automatic email notifications that surveys are available to them. The emails include the URL and instructions.
• Send out your own reminders to increase student participation (see sample, Appendix VI.5).
• Departments can post a reminder message on their Website and/or bulletin board.

Schedule class time for students to take the survey.

• Schedule computer lab time so all students can access the survey at the same time.
• Ask students to bring their laptops to class, or borrow laptops from the Help Desk.
• Include an assignment for the survey in myCourses.
• Do not administer the survey during exam week.
• Do not celebrate the end of the quarter during the same class time that celebrates the end of the term (ratings should not be associated with food, balloons, awards, etc).

Monitor your students’ participation rate.

• On Tuesday of Week 10, you will receive an email notification if less than 50% of your students have participated in your survey.
• You can request an update of your rate at any time during the survey open dates by contacting Sue Roethel in Academic Affairs at smrnvd@rit.edu .