Student Instructional Rating Surveys (SIRS)
SIRS — The Student Instructional Ratings Survey
The Student Instructional Rating Survey (SIRS) is a University-wide survey of students for their comments about their experiences in the classroom. The results are used by the individual instructors, departments, schools, and the University for the assessment and improvement of teaching. Faculty members are asked to provide summaries of the student survey statistics for personnel decisions such as tenure, promotion, or merit-based pay.
The evaluation of an instructor’s performance is an ongoing process that includes peer review, construction of a teaching portfolio, and an assessment of student learning outcomes in addition to student ratings. OTEAR tries to avoid calling SIRS “teaching evaluations” — “Rating survey” is a more accurate term for this one facet of the teaching evaluation process.
Accessing SIRS
Administrators
Learn how to verify course information in DIG, customize SIRS forms, access survey reports, and find upcoming training sessions.
Instructors
Learn how to customize your SIRS, track response rates, encourage student participation, access reports, and generate teaching grids.
Students
Access SIRS reports, complete surveys, review the student privacy statement, and see frequently asked questions.
SIRS Results
View Summary Results
Open to the entire university community. Recent Spring and Fall courses only. Open-ended comments and surveys for TAs are not posted.
- Department Administrators should use the SIRS Results Department Archive. The archive contains the full set of SIRS summary statistics from 1995 to the present, for all instructors.
- Faculty, instructors, and administrators should go directly to the Blue survey system for the survey results including open-ended comments, from 2019 to the present.
General guidelines for interpreting SIRS data
How to read the summary statistics
Privacy Statement
Full SIRS Question List
Sample SIRS Form (PDF)