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System Maintenance, August 24
In order to install needed updates, we will temporarily be offline on Monday, August 24. The following sites will be affected: We should be back online by the end of the day.
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June 24 – Restored – SIRS Reminders in Canvas
The vendor for the Blue survey system where we run the Student Instructional Rating Survey has corrected the problem with the Canvas integration. Students will be reminded of surveys when they log in to canvas, and the integration appears to be fully functional. OTEAR will continue to monitor the surveys, but we expect there will…
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Exploring Generative AI to Enhance Data Artifact Use in Accreditation
Congratulations to Chris Drue and Michele Moser Deegan on publishing their new article “Exploring Generative AI to Enhance Data Artifact Use in Accreditation” in AALHE’s Intersection: A Journal at the Intersection of Assessment and Learning. The piece examines how widely available AI chatbots can support evidence selection, strengthen assessment workflows, and improve the overall accreditation…
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June 8 — SIRS Reminders in Canvas outage [update – fixed]
The pop-reminder for Student Instructional Rating Surveys (SIRS) in Canvas is currently not working, and has been temporarily disabled. Instructors should use email and in-class survey administration to encourage their students to respond to SIRS that are running now or in the near future. The “Student Instructional Rating Surveys” link in the Canvas course navigation…
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OTEAR Assistant Director Position
We’re hiring! The Office of Teaching Evaluation and Assessment Research is seeking an Assistant Director to support teaching evaluation and assessment across the institution. The role provides training and consultation on SIRS processes, builds and verifies SIRS/BLUE reports, leads assessment workshops, supports development of assessment plans, reviews learning outcomes for new programs and grants, and…
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Spring 2026 SIRS Results Available to Faculty
The results of the Spring 2026 Student Instructional Rating Surveys are now available to faculty and administrators in the Blue survey system. When signing in to the system, if prompted to select a group, choose “instructor” for your own results, or “administrator” for your unit-wide results. More information about searching for SIRS results is available. Some…
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SIRS Dates – Summer 2026
For summer courses, SIRS follows the various summer terms with 4-week, 6-week and 12-week courses. SIRS dates depend on when the courses begin and end. Refer to the summer session calendars for Newark, Camden and New Brunswick for more exact details. Summer Survey Setup / DIG Summer SIRS Schedule
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May 7 – Canvas Outage
Shortly after 4:00 pm on May 7, hackers attacked Instructure, the company that hosts Canvas for Rutgers and many other colleges and universities. Canvas is currently inaccessible. More updates should be posted soon by Rutgers Office of Information Technology on their Alerts Page.
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April 26 [resolved] – Universitywide login issues, affects SIRS and Heliocampus
Due to a power outage, services that use the central university login may be inaccessible. The outage affects both the Blue system for Student Instructional Rating Surveys, and the HelioCampus assessment platform. More information and updates are available on the Rutgers IT status page.
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Fall 2025 SIRS results available now
The results of the Fall 2025 Student Instructional Rating Survey (SIRS) are now available for the university community to view on the SIRS Results web site. The SIRS Results web site includes all student responses for the numeric portion of the Student Instructional Rating Survey, but does not include the results for Teaching Assistants or…
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Fall 2025 SIRS Results Available to Faculty
The results of the Fall 2025 Student Instructional Rating Surveys are now available to faculty and administrators in the Blue survey system. When signing in to the system, if prompted to select a group, choose “instructor” for your own results, or “administrator” for your unit-wide results. Some units have requested delays for the results of their…
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Dec 1, 2025 – SIRS system slowdown [Fixed]
We are experiencing sluggish behavior with the “Blue” system that houses the Student Instructional Rating Surveys (SIRS). The vendor is aware of the issue and working on a fix. The system remains accessible, but is taking longer than usual to respond and may periodically give an error. If you run into an error, please try…
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Instructor Names in SIRS
How instructors can update their names in the Rutgers system, to appear correctly on SIRS
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Fall 2025 Workshops
Developing a Teaching Portfolio (Virtual Interactive Workshop) Monday, August 18, 202510:00 am – 11:30 am Craft a standout teaching portfolio to effectively communicate your teaching responsibilities, philosophy, goals, and achievements. This interactive workshop will teach you how to present an engaging teaching philosophy and compile compelling evidence of your teaching success. You will also learn…
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SIRS Dates – Summer 2025
For summer courses, SIRS follows the various summer terms with 4-week, 6-week and 12-week courses. SIRS dates depend on when the courses begin and end. Refer to the summer session calendars for Newark, Camden and New Brunswick for more exact details. Summer Survey Setup / DIG Summer SIRS Schedule
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Spring 2025 SIRS results available now
The results of the Spring 2025 Student Instructional Rating Survey (SIRS) are now available for the university community to view on the SIRS Results web site. The SIRS Results web site includes all student responses for the numeric portion of the Student Instructional Rating Survey, but does not include the results for Teaching Assistants or…
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[Updated] – Blue (SIRS) Site Downtime July 9, 2025
[Update] As of 3:00 pm, the site is available again, but some features may not be available until the upgrade is fully completed. You may proceed to the site through this link. The Blue system that we use to conduct the Student Instructional Rating Survey will be temporarily unavailable after 2:00 p.m., Wednesday, July 9…
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Blue 9 Updated Features
Important changes and new features in the upgraded SIRS system.
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SIRS (Blue) System Maintenance, May 26th – 30th, 2025 [Complete]
The “Blue” system that we use to run the Student Instructional Rating Survey will be unavailable from May 26, 2025 – May 30th for a system upgrade. During this period, Blue will be inaccessible. The Blue upgrade will bring several improvements and changes. The new version improves Canvas integration, has a new home page design…
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Spring 2025 SIRS Results Available to Faculty
The results of the Spring 2025 Student Instructional Rating Surveys are now available to faculty and administrators in the Blue survey system. Note that the system will be unavailable May 26th to 30th for a system update. When signing in to the system, choose “instructor” for your own results, or “administrator” for your unit-wide results. Scroll…
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April 21 – SIRS begins
The Student Instructional Rating Surveys begin today and run through May 7th for most courses (some faculty will change the dates for their individual course surveys, so specific dates may vary). Students can complete their surveys by going directly the https://sirs.rutgers.edu/blue web site, or by using the links in the Canvas course site. Results of…
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Upcoming Event: Rutgers Global International Scholar Speaker Series on April 30th
Register for a virtual, interactive session on Wednesday, April 30th, with Dr. Christopher Hass as part of the International Scholar Speaker Series. Dr. Hass will discuss their research on the teaching experiences of university faculty and instructors and how we understand ongoing pedagogical growth and change efforts. The International Scholar Speaker Series, hosted by Rutgers Global…
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Beyond the Numbers: How Directors and Chairs Interpret Student Feedback to Equitably Evaluate Teaching
Chris Drue and Christina Bifulco of the Rutgers Office of Teaching Evaluation and Assessment Research have published an article in the Journal of Academic Ethics. A link to the article is below. Beyond the Numbers: How Directors and Chairs Interpret Student Feedback to Equitably Evaluate TeachingDrue, C.R., Bifulco, C.A. Beyond the Numbers: How Directors and…
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DIG Dates – Spring 2025
to review and set options for the Spring 2025 Student Instructional Rating Survey (SIRS)
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Midcourse Surveys – Spring 2025
Important dates for midcourse surveys.
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SIRS – Spring 2025
Deadlines and schedule of dates for the Spring 2025 Student Instructional Rating Surveys.
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March 20, 2025 – Blue Temporarily Unavailable [Updated]
The Blue web site where we run the Student Instructional Rating Survey is unavailable during a system update. We expect the system to be available later this afternoon. 2:00 p.m. – The site is now available.
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Fall 2024 SIRS results available now
The results of the Fall 2024 Student Instructional Rating Survey (SIRS) are now available for the university community to view on the SIRS Results web site. The SIRS Results web site includes all student responses for the numeric portion of the Student Instructional Rating Survey, but does not include the results for Teaching Assistants or…
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OTEAR Workshops for Spring 2025
Greetings from OTEAR! Please see our lineup of Teaching Evaluation and Assessment workshops for Spring 2025: Peer Review of Teaching using the Critical Teaching Behaviors Framework (Virtual Interactive Workshop) Friday, January 24, 2025, 12:00pm-1:30pm Peer review of teaching is an important part of the advancement, reappointment, and promotion process for instructors of all ranks. This…
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SIRS – system outage resolved
As of 6:30 pm, Monday, December 2nd, the system (Blue) that runs the Student Instructional Rating Survey is working and accessible via the main link at https://sirs.rutgers.edu/blue Canvas integration with Blue has been temporarily turned off and will be restored on Tuesday, December 3rd.
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SIRS – system outage, Dec 2, 2024 [updated]
The “Blue” site that hosts the Student Instructional Rating Survey is experiencing a major outage this morning, December 2nd as of approximately 9:00 am. We are in contact with the vendor and hope to have the system back up as quickly as possible. Students who are attempting to complete their surveys should try again later…
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P3 Collaboratory – Summer of AI (2024)
The Rutgers–Newark P3 Collaboratory has created a collection of resources and workshops for addressing artificial intelligence in Higher Education. Sign up for an upcoming workshop below or visit their Summer of AI page for more details. Exploring the Generative AI Revolution: Shaping the Future of Higher Education June 20, 2024, 1pm to 2pm, EST, Webinar…
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SIRS Dates – Summer 2024
For summer courses, SIRS follows the various summer terms with 4-week, 6-week and 12-week courses. SIRS dates depend on when the courses begin and end. Refer to the summer session calendars for Newark, Camden and New Brunswick for more exact details. Summer Survey Setup / DIG Summer SIRS Schedule
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Spring 2024 SIRS Results Available to Faculty
The results of the Spring 2024 Student Instructional Rating Surveys are now available to faculty and administrators in the Blue survey system. When signing in to the system, choose “instructor” for your own results, or “administrator” for your unit-wide results. Scroll down to see the “Reports” section. Some units have requested delays for the results…
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Spring 2024 SIRS running now
The Student Instructional Rating Surveys for most courses are available starting today, April 16 through May 1. Exact dates may vary for individual courses. To complete their surveys, students should go to https://sirs.rutgers.edu/blue. Faculty can use the same link to monitor survey progress, and view the survey results after the conclusion of the grading period….
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SoTL Round Table meeting on April 17th
Wednesday, April 17, 2024, 10- 11:30 am In this meeting of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Round Table, special guest Leslin Charles, Instructional Design Librarian from Rutgers Libraries, will be joining us to workshop starting the research process, databases, and reference organization tools. We will also have the opportunity to hear about SoTL…
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Fall 2023 SIRS Available
The results of the Fall 2023 Student Instructional Rating Surveys are now available for the Rutgers University community to view (NetID login required). SIRS Results – https://sirs.rutgers.edu/ Survey results for TAs and other student-teachers are not posted at the SIRS Results site. Rutgers only posts the summary numeric responses. Instructors looking for their own survey…
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New Classroom Inclusivity Series article released!
We are excited to announce the release of a new article about OTEAR’s Classroom Inclusivity Series! Let us know what you think! Bifulco, C. & Drue, C., (2023) “A collaborative model for faculty development: Helping faculty develop inclusive teaching practices”, To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development 42(2): 5.doi: https://doi.org/10.3998/tia.3168
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