Course Evaluations

Every semester, students have the opportunity to evaluate their courses against a vetted series of evaluation questions. Faculty can customize their course evaluations to ask additional questions that are relevant to their own course development plans.

For the Spring 2025 semester, we will launch an updated list of course evaluation questions. Starting in 2023, we convened deans and hosted a series of meetings with a faculty committee. We also collected resources and looked at our peer institutions to establish benchmarks. In consultation with the faculty committee, we began drafting new questions and soliciting feedback through meetings and surveys to faculty, administrators, and students. After discussing the results of those surveys, faculty voted on the penultimate list of questions, and the committee approved the final questions. These questions were approved by the University Sentate during the 2024-25 academic year. For more information, please review the Course Evaluations Slides from the February 2025 University Senate Meeting.

Stony Brook University uses Anthology Course Evaluation. Login below to see the current evaluation data (Fall 2022-Present):

Course Evaluation LOGIN

Use the logins below to see previous evaluation data (summer 2022 or earlier):

FACULTY LOGIN DEPT. ADMIN LOGIN

STUDENTS:

Find more information about course evaluations by clicking the button below!

Student Course Evaluation Resources

Evaluation Timeline

The timeline below provides approximate dates/timing for our course evaluation process. Exact dates will vary with the academic calendar from year to year.

Semester/Term*	Notification to faculty and administrators	Evaluation Surveys Open	Evaluation Surveys Close	Results Made Available to Faculty	Results Posted to Classie
Semester/Term*Fall Semester (Main Interval)	Notification to faculty and administratorsFirst week of November	Evaluation Surveys OpenThird week of November	Evaluation Surveys CloseThird week of December; Last day of term per the academic calendar	Results Made Available to FacultyAfter academic standing has been processed; typically first week of January	Results Posted to ClassieBy the end of January
Semester/Term*Spring Semester (Main Interval)	Notification to faculty and administratorsFirst week of April	Evaluation Surveys OpenThird week of April	Evaluation Surveys CloseThird week of May; Last day of term per the academic calendar	Results Made Available to FacultyAfter academic standing has been processed; typically first week of June	Results Posted to ClassieBy the end of June
Semester/Term*Winter Session	Notification to faculty and administratorsSecond week of January	Evaluation Surveys OpenLast Monday of winter session	Evaluation Surveys CloseSunday after classes end	Results Made Available to Faculty10 days after survey close	Results Posted to ClassieBy the end of February
Semester/Term*Summer Session I	Notification to faculty and administratorsThird week of June	Evaluation Surveys OpenFourth week of June	Evaluation Surveys CloseLast day of session I classes	Results Made Available to Faculty10 Days after survey close	Results Posted to ClassieSecond week of September
Semester/Term*Summer Session I Extended	Notification to faculty and administratorsFourth week in June	Evaluation Surveys OpenSecond week of July	Evaluation Surveys CloseLast day of session I extended classes	Results Made Available to Faculty10 Days after survey close	Results Posted to ClassieSecond week of September
Semester/Term*Summer Session II and II Extended	Notification to faculty and administratorsFirst week in August	Evaluation Surveys OpenSecond week in August	Evaluation Surveys CloseLast day of session II and II extended classes	Results Made Available to Faculty10 Days after survey close	Results Posted to ClassieSecond week of September

*In addition to the main semesters/terms listed above, evaluations are administered for courses with varying start/end dates (shorter intervals in PeopleSoft). For these smaller administrations, faculty and administrators are notified one week before evaluations open, surveys remain open for at least one week, and faculty receive results 10 days after evaluations are closed.

FACULTY RESOURCES

Boost Your Response Rates

Feedback from course evaluations is far more valuable if you can maximize your response rates. Listed here are tried-and-true ways to increase response rates to your course surveys. If you have other ideas or suggestions that have worked for you, please let us know! Email the CELT Course Evaluation Team at CourseEval@stonybrook.edu.

Take some time to explain to students why their feedback is valuable and how it will be used to improve the course or program. Sharing examples of how you might have modified a course in response to student feedback will help them see their feedback matters. For example: "Last semester the evaluations said I should make better use of the course website, and that is why this year I have been posting notes online."
Leave a few minutes at the end of class and ask that students take the time to complete their evaluations on their own devices. The Course Evaluations platform is mobile friendly! You can even pull up your view of the response rate and watch the number rise in real time.
You can keep the students aware of their progress by just writing the response rates on the board at the beginning of each class, or providing updates via Brightspace announcements. Consider sharing a specific goal to reach, such as a 90% response rate. You could also project the response rates for all your classes and have a competition between classes for the highest response rate.

You can monitor your response rates by logging into the course evaluations portal. When surveys are active, your response rates will be visible on the landing page after loggin in.
Periodically remind students about completing their course evaluations in class, through online announcements and email. Students have 3 to 4 weeks to submit their evaluations, so doing more than one announcement when they open will maximize your responses.
While you are able to add custom questions for your own class, keep in mind the amount of time it will take students to complete the survey. The core survey for all questions at Stony Brook includes 13 total questions (2 of these are open-ended). Response rates are higher when a survey is kept to 10 minutes or less (Galesiki & Bosjniak, 2009).

Midterm Student Feedback

Stony Brook University does not centrally distribute midterm course evaluations. However, here at CELT we encourage faculty members to gather formative feedback from students around the midpoint of the term in order to make modifications to improve student learning.

Feedback can be collected in the form of a mid-point survey deployed through Qualtrics, Google Forms or another survey tool of your choice. The purpose of midterm feedback surveys is to improve the current learning experience, by giving the opportunity for students to share their reflections with instructors. CELT is happy to provide feedback and guidance on creating or customizing questions for mid-point surveys. Reach out to courseeval@stonybrook.edu for a consultation.

Tips for Deploying Midterm Surveys

Make it optional and informal (no grade should be attached!)
Choose whether or not to make it anonymous (this may depend on the questions you ask!)
Provide students the opportunity to reflect by using open-ended questions
Consider using class time for students to respond
Share results with students and discuss how feedback may impact the course moving forward

Sample Midterm Student Feedback Form Developed by CELT:

*please modify this sample template to match your midterm evaluation goals

Sample Form Using the Start, Stop, Continue Approach featured on retrievalpractice.org

View the start/stop/continue Google Form template
Copy the start/stop/continue template directly to your Google Drive to edit the form
Click here for more context and tips on the blog, retrievalpractice.org

Online Evaluations Guidance

Confirm accurate teaching assignments in Solar (PeopleSoft)

Instructors will not be evaluated if they are not properly assigned to their course in PeopleSoft. Please note: only primary and secondary instructors are evaluated. For TAs to be evaluated they must be listed as a primary or secondary instructor in PeopleSoft.

Update department administrator access in the evaluation system

Deans, Department Chairs and their designees can request access to view evaluation results for all courses in their assigned college/school or department. To update or request administrator access, please email us at CourseEval@stonybrook.edu or call 2-8032.

If needed, submit an exception request

All courses and course sections are evaluated, EXCEPT those designated as TUT or SUP in PeopleSoft. If you require an exception to these rules, you must submit a request prior to the start of evaluations. Requests should be submitted in the following circumstances:

You want your TUT or SUP courses evaluated
Your lecture and recitation (LEC and REC) or lecture and lab (LEC and LAB) course sections are identical (i.e. same instructor and students) and you only want students to complete evaluations for one of these sections
You would like another exception request considered.*

*Any request to remove courses from evaluations will require approval from department chairpersons.

Submit an exception request

Please Note: Departments and faculty who have submitted exception requests in the past do not need to re-submit. If you’re unsure if your request was submitted, please email us at CourseEval@stonybrook.edu.

SBU Classie Evals

Search Course Evaluations

Access to course evaluation data from previous semesters (must login using netid and password). Like "Rate My Professor" but more relevant to Stony Brook University. Important Information

Launch Classie-evals

General Information

In Fall 2010, with Faculty Senate and Provostial approval, Stony Brook adopted an online course evaluation system that began during the Spring 2011 semester. This adoption was preceded by a pilot test of the system in Fall 2010 involving 200 course sections and significant discussion with stakeholder groups across the University.

At this time, the system is in place for all West campus courses. All undergraduate and graduate courses will be evaluated online, unless department chairpersons designate courses that should not be evaluated (such as dissertation, readings, small seminars, etc.)

The system is hosted by an external company which provides an extensive set of services including the survey engine, question banks, pre-created analysis and reports of the survey results, as well as a system for managing survey assignments and email reminders to faculty and students. The system is accessible via any Web browser from any Internet-connected computer.
Faculty and students will automatically receive email notifications and instructions before and during each of the following events.
1. Instructors will be given 7-10 days before the evaluation period starts to prepare their own customized questions and add them to the evaluation system.
2. Student access to the course evaluations will start during the final third of a course (approximately four weeks before for full semester courses), and will end the last day of the official final examination period. Students will receive multiple email reminders during this period if at least one course evaluation remains uncompleted.
All instructors and teaching assistants listed as primary and secondary instructors in PeopleSoft/SOLAR are evaluated. If a faculty member manages a course, but does not teach it, he or she should be listed in the SUP field in PeopleSoft to prevent an evaluation being assigned. It is very important that instructor information for courses be correct in PeopleSoft prior to the beginning of each evaluation period or faculty may not get evaluated or the wrong instructor may be evaluated for a course.
All instructional staff who are assigned as Primary Instructors or Secondary Instructors are evaluated, including TAs. It is important for academic departments to enter TA teaching assignments accurately and in a timely manner in order for the course evaluations to be accurately assigned, usually within the first 4 weeks of the semester. If your courses are not listed or you are listed as teaching the wrong course, please contact your department administrator to make the changes in SOLAR and contact the CELT Course Evaluation Team to make corrections in the course evaluation system: CourseEval@stonybrook.edu
Evaluations are assigned based on the data entered by departmental staff in SOLAR. Please contact the appropriate staff member in your department to ensure that your correct teaching assignments are up to date before each semester's evaluation period begins. If you are assigned an evaluation for a course that you are not teaching or have not been assigned to a course that you are teaching, please contact the person in your department who is responsible for maintaining faculty teaching assignments in Peoplesoft/SOLAR. Then, that person needs to contact the CELT Course Evaluation Team: CourseEval@stonybrook.edu
Yes, policies and procedures determined all courses including low enrollment will automatically be evaluated except those designated as TUTorial or SUPervisory or CLN (clinical).

However, faculty and departments can choose to evaluate these courses by submitting an exception request. To submit an exception request, fill out the exception form. Please note you must be logged in to your Stony Brook Google account to complete the form.
The system administers separate evaluations for all instructors in the course. Common questions such as those focused on the learning space are delivered only one time to each student within each course.
Technical support regarding login, navigation, incorrect instructor assignments, adding custom questions, downloading reports/data, and interpreting results is available to all users. Please email CourseEval@stonybrook.edu for details.

About the Evaluations

Yes, faculty can their own questions. You can add questions from the question bank or, submit a question to be added. If you choose a question from the question bank, you will need to select it each semester.

Requests for new questions not already in the question bank must be submitted at least three business days prior to the survey becoming active.
After an extensive two year process led by a faculty committee in which feedback was gathered from faculty, staff, and students, the following questions were approved by the University Senate during the 2024-25 school year.

Beginning this spring, students will be asked 10, rather than 13, questions. New questions are in bold. Five questions did not change.
1. The instructor clearly communicated what was expected of me in this course and the rules of classroom engagement. [5-point Likert scale: Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree]
2. The instructor was effective in teaching the subject matter. [5-point Likert scale: Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree]
3. I think the overall quality of the course was [Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor].
4. The course content (assignments, readings, lectures, etc.) helped me meet the learning expectations set forth by the instructor. [5-point Likert scale: Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree]
5. The textbook, readings and required resources were valuable. [Agree / Disagree / I did not read the required materials / No text, readings or resources were required]
6. The class environment was inclusive towards people of diverse backgrounds, identities, life experiences and diversity of thought. [5-point Likert scale: Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree]
7. The methods of evaluating my work were fair. [5-point Likert scale: Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree]
8. On average, how many hours did you spend on the course outside of class? [0-3 hours / 4-6 hours / 7-9 hours / 10+ hours]
9. What did you find most valuable about this course? [open]
10. In what ways could the course be improved? [open]
Deans, Department Chairs, or their designated administrators can add questions for all courses in a department (see steps 6-9). To request questions be added for all current and future sections of a specific course (e.g. WRT102), please contact courseeval@stonybrook.edu

Evaluation Results

The evaluation data is made available approximately 15 days after the evaluation period ends to ensure that all grades have been submitted. While the Registrar's grade submission guidelines ask for grades to be submitted 72 hours after final exams, many faculty do not submit grades for several weeks. Consequently, results are delayed until the Registrar indicates that all grades have been submitted.
Faculty are able to review their own evaluation reports, including student comments, before they are published to the university community, by logging into Course Evaluations.

After reviewing student feedback from the evaluation reports, faculty may request redaction of any comments that harass, threaten, defame, slander or otherwise fall outside the scope of the course by submitting a request to the department chair.

What are the course evaluation completion rates?

Year	Administration Term	Evaluations Expected	Evaluations Received	Completion Rate
2024	Fall	124,453	35,503	28.50%
	Summer I	8,026	1,621	20.20%
	Summer I Extended	1,854	367	19.80%
	Summer II & II Extended	9,940	1,756	17.70%
	Spring	110,159	32,227	29.30%
	Winter	3,695	539	14.60%
2023	Fall	117,656	38,772	33%
	Summer I	7,658	903	11.80%
	Summer I Extended	1,751	472	27%
	Summer II & II Extended	8,973	1,686	18.80%
	Spring	106,767	27,920	26.20%
	Winter	3,732	663	17.80%
2022	Fall	119,089	34,838	29.25%
	Summer I	8,062	1,790	22.20%
	Summer I Extended	2,029	461	22.72%
	Summer II & II Extended	8,783	1,741	19.82%
	Spring	108,974	30,649	28.13%
	Winter	3,613	866	23.97%
2021	Fall	121,951	36,770	30.15%
	Summer I	7,765	1,845	23.76%
	Summer I Extended	1,403	257	18.32%
	Summer II & II Extended	8,674	2,069	23.85%
	Spring	109,035	30,530	28.00%
	Winter	3,192	846	26.50%
2020	Fall	119,453	40,896	34.24%
	Summer I	7,403	2,575	34.78%
	Summer I Extended	1,380	501	36.30%
	Summer II & II Extended	8,861	2,700	30.47%
	Spring	107,886	47,048	43.61%
	Winter	3,274	486	14.84%
2019	Fall	116,082	39,967	34.43%
	Summer I	6,580	1,915	29.10%
	Summer I Extended	1,153	245	21.25%
	Summer II & II Extended	7,485	1,739	23.23%
	Spring	106,198	43,414	40.88%
	Winter	3,393	517	15.24%
2018	Fall	118,832	54,773	46.09%
	Summer I	7,118	2,053	28.84%
	Summer I Extended	1,263	302	23.91%
	Summer II & II Extended	7,320	1695	23.16%
	Spring	105,745	45,751	43.27%
	Winter	3,028	989	32.66%
2017	Fall	117,795	57,598	48.90%
	Summer I	6,639	2,121	31.95%
	Summer I Extended	1,562	627	40.14%
	Summer II & II Extended	6,773	2,148	31.71%
	Spring	103,016	45,869	44.49%
	Winter	2625	858	32.69%
2016	Fall	114,661	57,739	50.36%
	Summer 1	6,723	2,068	30.76%
	Summer II	7,064	1,905	26.97%
	Summer 1 Extended	1,776	419	23.59%
	Spring	103,305	455,08	44.05%
	Winter	2373	804	33.88%
2015	Fall	111,181	55,551	49.96%
	Summer 1	7,271	2,234	30.77%
	Summer II	6,839	1,788	26.14%
	Summer 1 Extended	1,562	480	30.73%
	Spring	103,276	47,868	46.35%
	Winter	1,932	720	37.27%
2014	Fall	109,972	50,950	46.33%
	Summer 1	7,207	2,168	30.08%
	Summer II	113	57	50.44%
	Summer 1 Extended	1,272	335	26.34%
	Spring	104,422	43,955	42.09%
	Winter	2,389	690	28.88%
2013	Fall	107,730	41,094	38.15%
	Summer 1	8,051	1,831	22.74%
	Summer II	6,067	1,294	21.33%
	Summer 1 Extended	727	82	11.28%
	Spring	102222	0	0.00%
	Winter	2,241	302	13.48%
2012	Fall	103,941	0	0.00%
	Summer	16,107	3,920	19.57%
	Spring	96,597	25,534	20.91%
	Winter	2,358	570	19.47%
2011	Fall	102,390	3,346	24.62%
	Summer	17,871	2,817	13.62%
	Spring	98,907	25,619	20.57%

Course evaluation results will be emailed to faculty and approved reviewers after the survey concludes and grades are posted. Approved reviewers can access the evaluation results of all the faculty within a department and generally tend to be department chairs or their designees. Should chairs wish to designate additional reviewers they should email a request which includes the reviewer's 9-digit Stony Brook ID Number to CourseEval@stonybrook.edu
The evaluation data will remain online as long as the University maintains its contract with this vendor. Each semester, all Stony Brook results are exported and stored in the data warehouse along with all previous course evaluation results so that faculty course summaries will always be available.
When the online system was being considered by faculty, conversations were conducted with student government and they told us that many students rely on public "rate-my-professor" websites to make course decisions and expressed instead the desire to see Stony Brook's instructor ratings to make informed course choices. Subsequently, the University Faculty Senate approved a motion to make course evaluation data available to students.