Teaching Assistants play a critical role in teaching and learning at UT Austin. Course Evaluation Liaisons (CELs) are encouraged to offer eligible TAs an opportunity to be evaluated using our system, as these not only provide our Teaching Assistants with valuable feedback, but also serve as a useful resource as they apply for post-graduate positions.
Requesting TA Evaluations
The system will automatically generate a TA evaluation for any person identified as a TA for your course on Canvas, CLIPS, or FaSET, as long as they also have an official TA appointment in Workday by the twelfth (12th) class day.
Note: Some departments choose to only keep these TA evaluations in place by faculty request (opt-in). Others choose to automatically evaluate all TAs unless an instructor explicitly requests otherwise (opt-out). Contact your CEL to learn more about your specific department's policies.
TA Reports
You will automatically receive a copy of your TA's feedback report at the end of the semester along with your own. On the report, you will be able to see all student responses, including any written comments, provided by your students about your TA's performance (TAs, on the other hand, will never have access to your report under any circumstances).
Questionnaire
If your CEL assigns any TAs to your evaluation, at the end of your survey, the system will prompt your students with a list of their names with checkboxes next to each. Your students will then be asked if they would also like to provide feedback for any of them as well. If they select any TAs on this page, an evaluation will be generated for them on the next page using these seven (7) Likert questions:
The TA was available to help me as needed.
I felt the TA was approachable.
The TA explained course concepts, subject matter, or other course-related topics in a way that helped me learn.
The TA was able to address most of my questions related to the course concepts, subject -matter, or topics.
The TA communicated course content and subject matter with accuracy.
The TA communicated course expectations and instructions clearly.
The TA appeared engaged throughout the course experience.
Followed by two (2) open-ended questions where students are able to leave comments. These are preceded by the same disclaimer shown before the open-ended questions on faculty evaluations, and read as follows:
Identify aspects of your interactions with your teaching assistant that were most effective in helping your learning.
What is one thing the teaching assistant could do differently to help improve future students’ learning in this course?
