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PBA Home > Institutional Research & Analysis > FCQ > FCQ Info for Staff and Instructor FCQ Info for Staff and Instructors FCQ office, 015 UCB, Boulder campusLocated in Regent basement, room 1B29 Email fcq@colorado.edu Voice 303-492-7069 Fax 303-492-0996
Administration dates --- Return to top – FCQs should be administered during the week before the last week of classes – please do not use the final exam period to administer FCQs. Check the FCQ Calendar for current term’s administration dates.
Administration procedure --- Return to top – FCQs should be administered by someone other than the instructor or TA. The instructor should announce the date of administration in advance, make #2 pencils available on that day, and select a responsible individual to administer the FCQs. Neither instructors nor TAs for the course should be present at any time during administration, nor should they have any contact with the FCQs after administration. The administrator should collect the FCQs and put them back in their envelope, then take them to the department office. See FCQ Instructions for Administrators and Instructions for Instructors for more detailed information.
Midterm Evaluations --- Return to top –Midterm evaluations are strongly encouraged. The purpose of a midterm evaluation is to provide feedback to the instructor, and it should be given early in the semester, preferably around the third week. If you would like to use the FCQ questions for a midterm evaluation, click here to download a PDF that you can photocopy. We do not provide scannable FCQ forms for the purpose of midterm evaluations, due to security issues. If you have a large class and would like the ratings scanned from your midterm evals (using FCQ items or not), have students mark their ratings on a scannable answer sheet (the "#10 option" sheet), available from the Testing and Assessment Center (TAC) in the Norlin Library (room E275, in the Norlin Copy Center). Take the sheets to TAC for scanning. Call the TAC office at 2-6700 if you have questions regarding scanning.
Early outs --- Return to top –To print FCQs for early out courses (courses ending before usual term end date) , we need 2 weeks of notice from Boulder departments, 3 weeks of notice from UCCS, UCD departments. You can send your request by fax (303-492-0996) or email fcq@colorado.edu – tell us what date you need it by, and give us all course info that would normally be printed on the FCQ envelope label (instructor's first and last name, instructor group, course ID -- i.e., ANTH 2360-001 -- and number of forms needed). If it is too late for 2- or 3-week notice, we can still provide special attention blank packets, at a charge of $10 per packet. Please note that the request for an early out packet should typically come from the department FCQ coordinator, not from the instructor.
Group optional questions --- Return to top – Group Optional Questions are requested by departments, colleges, or campuses (not by instructors) to run each term on side B of FCQs for specific groups of courses (e.g., all 5000-level PSYC courses; or all FINE sections taught by TA’s). These optionals are typically requested by a dean or department chair. Group optionals are run each term until cancelled by the requesting authority. Group Optional Request Forms are sent out each fall to departments and colleges, along with a Group Optionals Status Report which shows what questions are currently requested.
Instructor group --- Return to top
Instructor name changes --- Return to top – If the name of the instructor on the envelope label and on the forms is not correct, just cross out the incorrect name on the envelope and neatly write the correct name near the envelope label (please give us last name and full first name). Please also write "instructor name change" on the envelope. We will correct our database when we receive the envelope. You do not need to correct the name on the forms themselves.
Multiple instructors --- Return to top – For courses with multiple instructors, each instructor can request an individual FCQ packet (one for "Maria Jones" and one for "William Smith"), or you can request a single "team" FCQ packet (for "Jones/Smith"). The department FCQ coordinator and the instructors should consult to ensure that FCQs are ordered the way they are desired. Contact us if you have further questions.
Optional questions --- Return to top – If an instructor wants to specify optional questions for side B of their FCQs, he or she should use the online form on the FCQ web page (http://www.Colorado.EDU/pba/fcq/optq/optsform.html). Over 800 questions are already catalogued http://www.Colorado.EDU/pba/fcq/optq/optcat.html, or you can create your own custom optionals on the request form. You may request a total of 24 questions. Alternatively, you may contact the FCQ office for hardcopies of the Individual OPTIONAL QUESTION REQUEST FORM and the OPTIONAL QUESTION CATALOGUE and submit your request to us in hardcopy form (campus box 15 UCB). Deadline for either method is October 10 for fall term, March 10 for spring.
Reports --- Return to top Distribution copies -- Copies of section reports that are sent to various deans, vice chancellors and archive offices for their permanent files. Distribution copies are sent out approximately 3 months after the initial section reports are distributed. Instructor summary -- Boulder campus only. Sent out each August to academic departments, colleges, and archive offices; gives one line of data for each course taught by an instructor from 1988 through the most recent spring term. Printed only for instructors in groups TTTor OTH (not for TAs) who have taught within the past 3 years. Department summary -- Boulder campus only. Sent out with instructor summaries each August to academic departments, colleges, and archive offices. Gives departmental averages and comparative data from 1988 through the most recent spring term in each of four areas (student grades, instructor ratings, course ratings, and workload). Section report – If you cannot locate either the instructor copy or the departmental copy, permanent files are at:
1) Why do you report the mean of the FCQ scores, rather than the median? We have added medians to our section reports (as of fall 2001). However, means will continue to be our primary method of reporting averages for the following reasons: With a 5-point scale (A B C D F) the median does a poor job of discriminating among courses. If you consider the A-F scale as 4-0, then the median can take on *ONLY* the following values: with odd number of raters: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, with even number: 0, .5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, whereas the mean takes on any value between 0 and 4. Using a measure which takes on so few values, and is affected by whether there are even or odd numbers of raters, could be quite misleading. Medians are much more typically used with measures such as income, which can take on an infinite number of values spread over a very large range. In addition, student GPAs are universally calculated as means, and users expect means on FCQs as well. 2) Have you considered reporting a trimmed mean? A trimmed mean is calculated by dropping cases off both ends using some criteria before calculating the mean. The criteria can be something like 5% off each end, OR can depend on the data, like "more than 2 standard deviations from the mean" -- this would be similar to dropping the lowest test score for a student’s grade in a class, not an unusual approach. However, FCQ ratings are not normally distributed, but bunched at the high (A, B) end. Therefore the primary effect of any trimming would be to drop low ratings. We have no immediate plans to report trimmed means, and would continue to report unadjusted means in any case. 3) Do the FCQ packets become the property of the department, or of the instructor? The FCQ office returns packets with their section reports to the departments. The department chair determines who sees the FCQs first, how they are distributed to instructors, and whether they become the permanent property of the instructors or not. 4) Is it valid for a department to use FCQ scores exclusively when evaluating an instructor’s teaching? No. The FCQ program should be only one component of a well-rounded instructor rating system. 5) Under what conditions would the FCQ office remove sheets from an FCQ packet that has already been processed? We usually pull sheets only for the following reasons: 2) There is evidence of multiple sheets being submitted by one student, usually determined by evaluating handwriting and/or how bubbles were filled in. When an instructor requests that we pull some questionable sheets from a packet which has already been processed, we require that 2) The department chair be contacted and give approval, if the decision to pull sheets is not entirely straightforward. 6) Are FCQ results different for men and women instructors? No. We analyzed ratings in 19,256 course sections between 1995-96 and
1999-00. Labs and recitations were excluded. 35% of the sections were
taught by women. The correlation between instructor rating (a 5-point
scale) and instructor gender is between +.05 and -.05 overall and within
each college, with one exception in a small college. In other words, there
is no systematic relationship between instructor gender and instructor
ratings. In no case does gender account for more than 2% of the variance
in ratings. Within the largest college, Arts and Sciences, we also checked
the relationship between instructor gender and ratings after controlling
for course size and course level. Again, we found no relationship. For further detail, see Effects of Instructor Gender and Ethnicity on FCQ Ratings Given by Students. |
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Last revision 10/03/06  PBA Home | Strategic Planning | Institutional Research & Analysis | Budget & Finances | Questions? Comments? 15 UCB, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309-0015, (303)492-8631 © 2001, The Regents of the University of Colorado |