Student Opinion Surveys

Unofficial Surveys

Since the online survey system receives extremely low participation rates, and since you will need higher response rates for potential job applications, you may wish to give your students your own surveys. Here are some examples:

To ensure that your students feel comfortable filling out the surveys, tell them that you will not see their responses until after grades have been submitted, pick a trustworthy student to collect the surveys and slide them under Alex Blazer's office door (A&S 330), then leave the room for 15 minutes. I'll give the surveys to you after grades are submitted.

Official Surveys

  1. Each student in each class to be surveyed must complete either the SOS survey or an “Opt-Out” survey if the student chooses not to complete the SOS survey.
  2. If the student does not complete either the SOS survey or “Opt-Out” survey for each class to be surveyed, the student will have restricted access to grades until after final grades have been posted by the registrar.
  3. All classes with 10 or more students will be surveyed.
  4. [Coordinator recommendation: Because the administration has tied survey completion to the ability to view grades, ask your students not to take out their frustration on their instructors by randomly or maliciously filling out the surveys(make sure they do not think faculty are withholding their grades!); further ask your students to bring their laptops one day during the last week of class and then leave the room for fifteen minutes while they complete the surveys.]

1. Students: How to Complete the Student Opinion Surveys

  1. To access the on-line Student Opinion Survey of Instruction process and fill out the surveys for your classes, do the following:

  2. Go to the MyCats login page (http://mycats.gcsu.edu), you do not have to login to MyCats, and select the link to the “PAWS Login Page”;

  3. On the PAWS login page, enter your GCID (your “911” ID) and your PIN (If you do not know your GCID or your PIN, you can look up your GCID or get your PIN from choices on the login page);

  4. On the PAWS Main Menu Page click the “Personal Information” tab (upper left, over the “Search” box);

  5. Click on “Student Opinion of Teaching Survey”;

  6. A page will open that describes the process, gives instructions and allows you to select course surveys from a drop down menu;

  7. The survey form for the course you selected will be opened, you simply use the mouse to move the cursor to select the desired response to each question from a drop down menu;

  8. On the survey form you are given three options –

    • complete the survey and press the "Submit" button;
    • if you wish to take the survey at a later time, but before midnight on May 1st, press "Take Survey Later";
    • if you choose not to participate, press "Decline to participate" and you will be taken to the “Opt-Out Survey”.

  9. You must complete either the SOS survey or the “Opt-Out” survey for each class in the drop down menu. The entire process will take less than 5 minutes per class and you can complete the process at a time and place convenient to you.

2. Instructors: How to Retrieve the Survey Data

Student Opinion Survey Form and the Student Opinion Survey Results are now located under the PERSONAL INFORMATION TAB in PAWS.  To access:

  1. Go to the PAWS login page -
  2. Once you are logged in, click on the "Personal Information" tab
  3. Click on the last menu item "Student Opinion of Teaching Survey Results." Survey results are available approximately one month after the surveys have been completed.

3. Instructors: How to Retrieve Discursive Comments

Instructors can ask Melinda Martin to see the discursive comments from their surveys, available approximately one month after the surveys have been completed.

 

© Alex E. Blazer 2024