Teaching@Ryerson

Faculty Course Survey

• FCS Schedule
• Course Validation: Responsibilities of Chairs, Directors and Assistants
• How to Access and Verify the Online List of Courses
• What To Include In and Exclude From the List of Courses
• Who to Contact for Help

• FCS SCHEDULE

Winter 2013

• COURSE VALIDATION: RESPONSIBILITIES OF CHAIRS, DIRECTROS AND ASSISTANTS

• HOW TO ACCESS AND VERIFY THE ONLINE LIST OF COURSES

1. To view the list of courses to be evaluated, login to my.ryerson.ca (Blackboard) using your Ryerson ID and password.

2. On my.ryerson.ca, in the section "Hot Links" on the left side of the screen, click the "Faculty Course Survey" link.
3. The following screen, containing your name, your role and the main menu will appear:

Note that if you are teaching any course(s), your role will be displayed as "Instructor, Chair/Director" in parentheses after your name.  If you are not teaching any course(s), your role will be "Chair" or "Director".  Your role will be displayed as "DA", if you are a Departmental Assistant.

4. Click "Courses" to review the course list.
5. The page "Available and Excluded Courses" will appear.
6. On this page, please check the following information:
   • Semester;
   • Faculty and Department (the name of the faculty and department you are assigned to will be selected by default)

7. On this page, there will be two tables:  "Available Courses" and "Excluded Courses".

8. The list of courses will automatically be pre-filtered according to the guidelines mentioned below.  Verify if the list is correct and if any course must be excluded from, or included in, the list of available courses.  Please refer to the guidelines while verifying the list of courses to be evaluated.
9. To exclude a course from the list, click on the check box on the left and then "Exclude" button.

The course will automatically be removed from the "Available Courses" table to the "Excluded Courses" table.  To include a course, in the table "Excluded Courses" click on the check box of the course that you want to include and then the button "Include".  The course will automatically appear in the "Available Courses" table.

10. Once you have finished verifying the list of courses, you must notify instructors that the list of courses to be evaluated is ready for their review.
11. Select the fields with the instructors you want to send notifications to using the check box on the left and click "Notify Instructors" button.  The following email will be sent to the selected instructor(s):

12. By pressing "Notify Instructors" button, you will generate the list of courses for instructors' view.  Note that instructors will not be able to view the list of courses that they teach BEFORE you send them an automatic notification (i.e. press the "Notify Instructors" button).

In the example above, courses for Doreen Fumia and Mustafa Koc have been selected.  If you click "Notify Instructors" button, Doreen and Mustafa will receive automatic messages notifying that the courses are ready for their review.

13. You may select all instructors clicking "Check all" button at the bottom of the "Available Courses" table.  Click "Notify Instructors" button.  The system will automatically send emails to ALL selected instructors.

14. Note that once notifications have been sent, the status of the courses in the table "Available Courses" will change from "Offered" to "Notified", and the check boxes for the courses with the "Notified" status will become grayed out.  This means that no changes are allowed to such courses until instructors reply back to the notification email.

15. You may use the Search function to sort the list of courses by instructor's name or by Keyword (e.g., "psychology"):

16. To go back to the list of ALL instructors, select "ANY" from "By Instructor" drop down menu:

17. You may print the list of courses sent to the instructors using the "PRINT" button at the bottom of the page.
18. Log out at the end of each session using the "logout" button.

19. The next step is for instructors to confirm that the list of courses they teach is correct.
20. Once an instructor has verified the list of courses to be evaluated, he/she will send you an email confirming that the list is correct or contains errors.

21. All automatic responses from instructors will contain the following message:

22. If an instructor sends back an email (via the application) with no errors found or no comments made, the status of the course(s) for this instructor in the "Available Courses" table will change from "Notified" to "Validated".
23. Please note that, if an instructor finds an error on the list of courses to be evaluated, you must approve or disapprove the changes, and forward the email with your approval to Robert Rocca (rrocca@ryerson.ca).

24. You will be able to see the corrected list of courses within 48 hours of sending the email with the authorized changes to Robert Rocca.  The status of the course in the table "Available Courses" will then change from "Notified" to "Corrected".  Verify the information, select the field with the corrected courses using the checkbox on the left and click the "Notify Instructors" button.  The instructor(s) will receive an email with the corrected list of courses.
25. Please note that no changes in the system will be allowed after the deadline for verifying and correcting the list of courses!

• WHAT TO INCLUDE IN AND EXCLUDE FROM THE LIST OF COURSES

1. Non-Enrolled Sections/Components – These must be reviewed to determine if the instructor (RFA, CUPE 1 or CUPE 2) is to be evaluated.
2. Internet (Distance) courses/sections will be evaluated.
3. Independent study will not be evaluated.
4. Courses which are Pass/Fail (e.g., work-term courses, thesis courses, practicum courses, field work and placement courses) are not normally evaluated.  If you wish to have such a course evaluated, you must get approval from your Dean.
5. Courses which are team taught such that an instructor has less that 50% of the contact with the class, or which are taught in some other non-standard mode whereby there is minimal instructor contact, may not need to be evaluated.  If you wish to have such a course evaluated, you must get approval from your Dean.
6. Any course which is a combination of CE and day classes, or which are part of collaborative programs, and taught by RFA, CUPE 1 or CUPE 2 – Chang School instructors, regardless of who is teaching a course, will be evaluated online. If such a course has a day code and is taught by an RFA instructor who must or chooses to participate in paper-based evaluation, paper forms will be printed for the whole class.
7. Courses taught in an unusual time frame or fast-track courses should be identified at the beginning of the semester so that surveys can be prepared earlier, if necessary.  Please contact fcshelp@ryerson.ca indicating course name, code, section number, name of instructor and the date by which surveys are required.
8. Surveys will not be prepared for courses which have fewer than 5 students.

Courses should be excluded from the FCS list when, in the judgment of the Chair/Director, the listed faculty member/instructor should not be included as outlined above, or if they are not teaching the course.

Only RFA, CUPE 1 and CUPE 2 instructors should be evaluated.  Teaching Assistants should not be evaluated.

Since the FCS results may be of value to any faculty member or instructor for career purposes, decisions to exclude courses should be verified with those whose courses are being eliminated before the completed FCS list is ready.

• WHO TO CONTACT FOR HELP

Send an email to fcshelp@ryerson.ca or call 416-979-5000, ext. 4556 during regular office hours if you have questions or need help with the online FCS application.