Office of Educational Assessment

FAQ – UW Seattle

This page describes operational procedures specific to UW Seattle.  For information about services at other campuses (including UW Bothell and Tacoma) contact oeaias@uw.edu.

Go To: Faculty FAQ | Student FAQ | Evaluation Coordinator FAQ |

Faculty FAQ

View Faculty FAQ (48K PDF)

When are results available and how do I access them?

Results are available in IASystem™ after the course evaluations have closed and grades have been submitted. Faculty access to results is at: uw.iasystem.org/faculty. When you login, the default view is the current term. If you want to see an evaluation for a previous term, change the “FROM” dropdown on the top right of the page to a previous term date.

Who can see results?

In addition to instructors, IASystem™ authorized department coordinators and administrators can access the course evaluation responses.

How do I maintain a good response rate with online evaluations?

Can I track response rates to provide incentives or award points for participation in completing a course evaluation for my class?

Yes, response rates for online evaluations can be tracked in the IASystem™ faculty portal. After the evaluation is closed, your department evaluation coordinator can provide you with a Participant Report that only lists First/Last Name and Student ID, not individual responses, in order to award points or other incentives for completing the course evaluation. Note: To maintain confidentiality, a Participant Report cannot be generated if there are fewer than 5 respondents.

I am co-teaching a course; how will that effect my evaluation?

In the case of multiple instructors, the instructors can be evaluated as a group, which will generate a single evaluation for that course and list all the instructors evaluated. Alternatively, the instructors can be evaluated separately, generating more than one evaluation for that course. Let your departmental evaluation coordinator know how you would like the evaluation set up.

Student FAQ

View Student FAQ (33K PDF)

Are results confidential?

Yes, IASystem™ does not release individual student responses to instructors, administrators, or other students. Researchers within the Office of Educational Assessment are able to connect demographic data from the UW student database to individual student responses to be sure the system is working equally well for all students, but analyses are only ever reported as group data.

After the evaluation is closed, your department evaluation coordinator can provide faculty with a Participant Report that only lists First/Last Name and Student ID, not individual responses, in order to award points or other incentives for completing the course evaluation. Note: To maintain confidentiality, a Participant Report cannot be generated if there are fewer than 5 respondents.

Can I have my online evaluation deleted?

No, once the evaluation is submitted it cannot be deleted. Administrative users have no ability to access or manage individual student course evaluation responses.

When can my instructor see the course evaluation results?

Instructors do not have access to their course evaluation reports until after grades have been submitted.

I keep getting reminders to complete my course evaluations. How can I get them to stop?

An email reminder signifies you still have one or more course evaluations to complete. Separate emails are sent for each evaluation. Once you submit your evaluation, you will no longer receive reminders.

What if I do not receive an email for my course evaluation?

There are a few reasons that a student may not receive an email:

  • there was no email address associated with your student record. If this is the case, contact iasuw@uw.edu with your student name, ID and email address and update your email address in your MyUW account.
  • the email went to your spam folder; add iasuw@uw.edu as a contact.
  • you are not officially registered in the class; check with your instructor or the registration office.

Why did I get separate evaluations for each of my instructors in the same class?

In the case of multiple instructors, faculty can decide if they wish to be evaluated as a group or individually. If faculty are being evaluated individually, you will receive more than one online evaluation to complete for each instructor. The email notifications sent will indicate which instructor is being evaluated.

Evaluation Coordinator FAQ

View Evaluation Coordinator FAQ (35K PDF)

How can I become a departmental evaluation coordinator?

IASystem™ coordinator access is controlled by the Office of Educational Assessment. Contact iasuw@uw.edu to complete the IASystem™ training and be added as a user.

What if I want to request an evaluation for a course that isn’t listed in IASystem™?

After the 10th day of the term, all courses included in the current UW Time Schedule are imported into IASystem™. If a course doesn’t appear, ask the person responsible in your department for adding courses to the registration system to update the UW Time Schedule. By the following Tuesday it should be reflected within IASystem™. If you still do not see the course, contact iasuw@uw.edu.

How should I choose the “start” and “end” dates for an online evaluation?

The evaluation should be conducted sometime in the last one to two weeks of the quarter – ask the instructor which time period will fit best in the flow of the class. The optimum “open period” is about three days. This duration will provide one reminder email for non-responding students one day prior to closing.

What is the “reports available date” and can I change it?

The reports available date controls when faculty can directly access their course summary reports in the IASystem™ faculty portal. A default date is set based on the day after UWS grade submission. This date may be changed if the grades for a particular course will be submitted on a different date. Note: Faculty must NOT be given access to course evaluation reports until AFTER COURSE GRADES HAVE BEEN SUBMITTED.

Who should receive Hi/Lo, Ratings Summary or Evaluation List reports?

These reports are designed for deans and chairs. They can be distributed by coordinators or directly accessed by deans and chairs in the IASystem™ application. If your dean or chair does not yet have access, please contact iasuw@uw.edu. (Please note: Dean/Chair access is limited to results only; they cannot setup or manage evaluations.)

What is the Participant Report?

After the evaluation is closed, you can generate a Participant Report in the View Evaluation section of IASystem™. This report lists the names of students who have completed the evaluation. This report may be used to award points or other incentives for completing the course evaluation. Note: To maintain confidentiality, a Participant Report cannot be generated if there are fewer than 5 respondents.