The CIS System sends automated emails, which should include a table listing all of your available surveys with deadlines and separate links to each instructor’s individual survey form, in at least three (3) instances:
• An introduction email, informing you that a new survey has become available to you,
• A warning email, if you have any incomplete surveys on the day before a survey is set to expire, and
• A reminder email, which you will receive every Wednesday and Saturday morning until you have completed all of your surveys, or your survey deadline expires.
Most courses are surveyed over the last two-to-three (2-3) weeks of class, usually during what we refer to as The CIS Administration Period; however, a significant number of courses are surveyed early every semester, and we encourage you to regularly check your CIS Dashboard to see which surveys you have completed, and when future surveys will be made available to you throughout the term.

This error has been a common occurrence on many secure UT sites, not just those hosted by the CIS Office. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause as our IT Team continues to investigate this issue.
The simplest workaround is to access your CIS Dashboard (Link: https://utdirect.utexas.edu/ctl/ecis/) using some type of “Incognito” mode of your current browser;, however, an effective longer-term solution for many users has been to clear their cache as well as any cookies on their browser and then refreshing the page. However, Mmany other users have found that simply switching to another browser altogether when accessing any UT Direct applications has been the most effective solution for them. If none of these measures seem to resolve the issue, please contact us via email at ctl-cis@utlists.utexas.edu.

Protecting the anonymity of our student evaluators is always a top priority with every survey we administer. Identifiable student information is never collected from respondents at any point throughout the surveying process, and we never share timestamps, IP Addresses, etc. with instructors or department staff. However, in the past, particularly in smaller classes with single-digit enrollments, some students have unintentionally revealed their identity through their responses.
To explain, because all written comments, along with the Likert ratings provided by the commenter (Including ratings for Questions 13 and 14: “My overall GPA at UT is…” and “My expected grade in this class is…” respectively), are shared with instructors at the end of each term, if you left a fairly vague comment that began, for example, “As someone who has worked for many years as a professional programmer in the banking industry…” this may reveal your identity as you may be the only such student in your class with a GPA in the range you identified. With this in mind, we generally discourage students from providing any personal details in their comments, and if this is a concern for you, you can always skip those two demographic questions as needed.

Exceptional measures are taken to ensure that an instructor’s grading is never influenced by the course evaluation responses provided by students. Results are never shared with faculty until at least 2 full weeks after the final grading deadline has passed, and all Department Contacts are trained to provide notice to the CIS Office in the case of exceptions.

Unfortunately, the CIS Office cannot redact or edit a survey once submitted under any circumstances. Our system is 100% anonymous, and there is no way for us to identify or differentiate your response from any other respondents once submitted.
In instances where you believe your mistake may have serious implications, for example, if you accidentally marked “Strongly Disagree/Disagree” when you meant to mark “Strongly Agree/Agree” on your ratings, or if you mistakenly submitted an evaluation for one instructor thinking that he or she was someone else, we ask that you email ctl-cis@utlists.utexas.edu explaining the circumstances. Please be sure to include the instructor’s first and last name, and either the Course ID or the Unique ID for the course in-question. We will not be able to change your response in any way, but we can communicate the mistake to the department on your behalf without revealing your identity.

We generally do not reopen surveys under any circumstance unless a major administrative mistake was made by a university staff member which may have prevented students from completing a survey as it was intended, and even under those circumstances, permission from the instructor and the course’s home department chairman is required.
However, if you have a positive note that you would like to have passed onto your instructor anonymously, you may send us an email at cis-ctl@austin.utexas.edu, and we will, as a courtesy, ensure that it is passed onto the appropriate parties. Many instructors have included such notes in their Promotion and Tenure Dossiers as a supplemental document and they are always appreciated as a sincere gesture of good faith.

The University of Texas is required to administer surveys in most cases, but students are generally not required to complete course evaluations. Instructors and department chairmen reserve the right to set their own expectations and requirements regarding classroom citizenship, and it is always best to seek their guidance when in doubt.

Yes, instructors are permitted to offer extra credit for students who provide evidence of a completed course evaluation prior to the deadline. This usually comes in the form of a screenshot taken by a student of their dashboard page (which can be found here: https://utdirect.utexas.edu/ctl/ecis/) simply showing which evaluations that student has completed. This information is usually submitted to the instructor as the CIS Office does not, as a security measure, provide any kind of confirmation emails to students upon the completion of a survey, and does not indicate how you responded to any specific questions.

These surveys are administered, first and foremost, to provide instructors with valuable student feedback about classroom experiences and guidance on the most effective teaching strategies. However, these surveys are also used to provide feedback to administrators about the effectiveness of a faculty member’s teaching and student rapport. This information, along with a teaching portfolio and peer review of course materials, is used during a wide variety of faculty review processes, such as the offering of teaching awards, determination of teaching assignments, promotion, tenure, etc.
Furthermore, the CIS office is also guided by Texas House Bill 2504, specifically Texas Education Code 51.974 "Internet Access to Course Information" which states: (h) Institutions of higher education included in this section shall conduct end-of-course student evaluations of faculty and develop a plan to make evaluations available on the institutions website."
In other words, the timely completion of these surveys, as well as the provision of earnest feedback within them, is not only a demonstration of excellent university citizenship and a unique opportunity to share your perspective with future students, but also in some cases, an exercise of your legal rights as a student attending a public university in the State of Texas.

Please email the CIS Office at cis-ctl@austin.utexas.edu, providing the name(s) of the instructors or TA’s in question, as well your EID (so that we can verify that there are no issues with your enrollment), and either the Course ID or Unique ID for the course(s) impacted.
There are a number of reasons why this might happen. In many cases, for example, instructors are listed in our database under the full legal name they had when they first joined the University, and students are simply not familiar with them (They are more familiar with their maiden name, nickname, stage/pen name, etc.), but without critical information on the course itself, there is no way for us to diagnose the issue.
More questions? Contact the CIS Office for additional support.