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. All members of the University have access to the summary statistics from the student surveys at https://sirs.ctaar.rutgers.edu. Results prior to 2001 that are not available online are archived at the Rutgers University Libraries.
General Information
- Procedures and Deadlines
- University Senate Resolution on Best Practices in Assessment of Teaching (archived)
Online SIRS
SIRS Results
- SIRS Summary Results for students and the university community
- Guidelines for interpreting the SIRS data
- How to read the summary statistics sheet
- Faculty and Instructors: Recent SIRS reports
For Department Administrators:
- Archive of all SIRS Statistics (authorized access only)
- Blue/DIG system for survey setup and results
- SIRS Distribution Drobox (no longer used after May 2019)
Transition to Online SIRS in Blue
Beginning in Fall 2018, OTEAR transitioned from Sakai to a new survey tool, “eXplorance Blue”. This change should be mostly transparent to students and faculty, who will see many improvements but will continue to use the surveys in the same way.
Note: OTEAR generally tries to avoid calling the this process "teaching evaluations". The evaluation of an instructor's performance is an ongoing process that should include peer review, construction of a teaching portfolio, and an assessment of student learning outcomes in addition to student ratings. "Rating survey" is a more accurate term for this one facet of the teaching evaluation process.