The open period for responding to Faculty Course Questionnaire is Nov. 29 to Dec. 6. So what exactly are FCQs, and why are they important? Here's a closer look at what you need to know about these vital evaluation tools.
What is the purpose of Faculty Course Questionnaires (FCQs)?
As students, you are experts on what you experienced in a course, and your voice is important for providing feedback. The feedback from FCQs serves three primary purposes:
- Provides valuable information for instructors on how they can improve their courses and teaching.
- Plays an important role in the review of faculty. Your opinions influence the review of instructors that takes place every year. Summary reports are sent to department chairs and deans for use in assigning courses to instructors and in salary, promotion and tenure decisions.
- Provides information that you and other students can use to help in selecting courses (see more info below about viewing FCQ results).
Can my responses be harmful?
Yes, your responses could be potentially harmful. Responses could reflect unconscious or unintentional bias related to race and gender for instance, with data showing that women and instructors of color are rated lower even though there may be no differences in teaching. You can help to mitigate this bias by focusing your opinions about the content of the course (the assignments, the textbook, the in-class material) and not unrelated matters (such as the instructor’s appearance).
How should I approach filling out the FCQs?
Please complete all of the multiple choice FCQ items as honestly as possible. Try to avoid giving uniformly high marks for professors you like and low marks to those you don’t. Instead, consider the content of the question. The open-ended response items are a place for you to provide detailed responses related to your classroom and learning experiences.
Open-ended responses that are not related to your learning can diminish the value of your feedback. For example, it is not helpful to comment upon an instructor’s appearance or to include personal insults in your feedback. Specific constructive responses that focus on your experiences are far more useful than general critiques. For example, instead of saying, “They just lecture,” a more constructive response could be, “They just lecture, and a short break would help me pay attention to the full lecture.”
Are my responses anonymous?
From the FCQ information for students: Student responses on FCQs are anonymous to instructors and department leads, and the identities of respondents are confidential (e.g., only accessible to the Office of Data Analytics). No student names appear in the FCQ data processed by the ODA and will never appear in public reports.
However, when legally required, ODA will identify a student to the proper person or agency. This is a very rare occurrence and is only done when legally required, such as when a member of the CU community (students, faculty, staff, etc.) threatens to inflict serious harm on themselves or others. For more information about confidentiality, please visit the Office of Victim's Assistance website.
Can I see average FCQ scores for my instructors/classes?
Yes, within 16 weeks of the end of a semester, and for past years, you can find FCQ results for the CU Boulder Campus using the Tableau Reporting Tool. You can use the tool to see results at different levels including for a single course and/or instructor for all semesters they’ve taught in.
Note that FCQ questions changed in 2020, and data from spring and summer 2020 are not publicly available. If you’re interested in historical data, you can view fall 2017-fall 2019 data and fall 2006-fall 2019 data. Student comments are not publicly available -- only the average numeric scores.
If I have other questions about FCQs, where do I go?
Visit the campus FCQ website for additional FCQ information for students.
-- Contributed by the TQF | Teaching Quality Framework Team