CIS Dates and Deadlines

The calendar below outlines the dates for the Request Period, or the days in which our CIS Contacts determine which courses are evaluated and which forms are used, the Audit Day, or the day on which faculty are sent an email confirming that their survey has been set-up correctly, and the Administration Period, or the dates in which surveys are made available for students to complete.

The other two dates listed, the Provisional Review Period and Results Day, represent the dates in which results are made initially available to faculty members for review, and the date on which the final results are published online respectively.

Add and Change Requests

Once a survey has been opened, and students have begun completing their surveys, it is impossible to change a form type without some level of data loss.  Because of this, if you are a faculty member, we encourage you to proactively communicate with your respective CIS Contacts, and to make sure your Audit Day email includes:

1. All of the courses that you are currently teaching.  With the exception of Individual Instruction Courses, if you don’t see one of your courses on your Audit Day email, please reach out to your CIS Contact right away or your students will not receive your survey.
   
    
2. Correct up-to-date information for all of your courses. The information on your Audit Day emails should perfectly reflect the reality of your course as you know it, with the exception of your course enrollment numbers (which may fluctuate depending on a number of factors).  Even minor incongruencies in other areas may be indicative of a serious issue with your course.
   
    
3. Your true preferences.  While your department has discretion over which questionnaire options/form types are available to their faculty, as the primary instructor for your course, you generally have the freedom to choose among any of the available options within your department, as well as the dates on which the survey will be made available to your students, as long as they remain in compliance with CIS Policies.  Furthermore, if you are not happy with any of the questionnaire options available to you, we encourage you to review our complete list of survey options to see if your CIS Contact can help you request authorization for an alternative form type within your department.

Reviewing Results Before Publication

The Provisional Review Period is specifically set aside to ensure that you have an opportunity to contest, question, or request a formal review of any of the responses that you received on your evaluations.

Below is a short list of the most-common issues brought to us by faculty:

1. Mistaken Ratings:  These most often occur when a student is confused by the Likert scale, and accidentally selects the opposite of his or her intentions while completing an evaluation.  This can be easily identified by comparing the tone of the comment against the ratings provided by the commenter.  For example, if you read an emphatic and unmistakably positive comment left by a student but notice that they left all “1’s” on the Likert scale questions, it is likely that this occurred.
   
    
2. Mistaken Submission:  These most often occur when a student intends to begin a survey for one instructor, but accidentally selects another, and provides you with ratings and a comment intended for someone else.  If you see a comment left by a student who refers to another instructor by name, or frequently references assignments that weren’t a part of your course, it is likely that this occurred.
   
    
3. Involuntary Disclosure:  These most often occur when a student’s comment reveals a piece of information that legally should not be considered as part of a faculty review.  For example, if a student mentions your country-of-origin, disability, or other protected information in his or her comment, you should contact the CIS Office immediately.

If you ever have a question or concern about any other type of response left by one of your students, you should contact us immediately.