Grades and Performance Evaluations: A Faculty Handbook

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The performance evaluation is a description of the quality and characteristics of the student’s performance in your course (SCR 9.2.1). The instructor of record is responsible for the content and timely submission of the performance evaluations and the registrar will not initiate any changes to the evaluations.

• Materials for Writing and Submitting Performance Evaluations
• Electronic Submission of Evaluations
• Direct Entry Using the "Evaluations" link in AIS
• Course Descriptions
• Confirming Perfromance Evaluations After Input
• Script Center Staff Responsibilities
• A Few Writing Tips

There are three methods for submitting evaluation text: electronically via e-mail or diskette, or direct entry using AIS Headers for e-mail submission of evaluations can be generated by accessing your class roster and clicking on the "Saveable Eval Data" button. A separate window will open with the headers, and they can be copied and pasted into a document. Further details are at http://reg.ucsc.edu/NES/nes_form.html.

The electronic headers must be used when submitting evaluations via e-mail or disk in order for the entries to be uploaded to the system. Class list headers insure timely and accurate transfer to the NES database.

Class list headers for e-mail and/or disk will look like this (all names, SIDs, and e-mail addresses are fictitious):

@@@@, ART   108    01 ,59112,2048034
&&&&,AMAINA, ANN KAY        ,1234567,
F,PR,SO,ms_student@ucsc.edu
&&&&,CHAPPEL, JOE JAMES
2345678,M,PR,SR,studentim@ucsc.edu
&&&&,GILAKA, MARSHA DAWN
3456789,F,ST,JR,studenttoo@ucsc.edu

Do not change the information in the course (@@@@) or student (&&&&) headers or the information will not transfer into the NES database.

Evaluations for each student should be entered between the student header lines. Each new student line begins with 4 ampersands (&&&&) and ends with the student’s e-mail address. If the student does not have e-mail the line ends with the word “unknown.” A completed course of evaluations before it is sent via e-mail or diskette will look like:

@@@@,ART    108    01 ,59112,2048,7654321
&&&&,AMAINA, ANN KAY           , 1234567,F,PR,SO,ms_student@ucsc.edu

Ann Amaina's performance evaluation.



Note: insert a carriage return to start a new paragraph.
Do not indent the text anywhere in the evaluation.

&&&&,CHAPPEL, JOE JAMES        , 2345678,M,PR,SR,studentim@ucsc.edu

Joe Chappel's performance evaluation.


&&&&,GILAKA, MARSHA DAWN       ,3456789,F,ST,JR,studenttoo@ucsc.edu

Marsha Gilaka's performance evaluation.

E-mail completed performance evaluations to the Script Center (script@ucsc.edu). The script@ucsc.edu account contains all the data and processing systems that are used to transfer your files to the permanent NES database. Do not send evaluations to nes@ucsc.edu, which is only for correspondence.

The "Evaluations" link allows faculty members to directly input evaluations to the NES database. The evaluation can either be typed directly into the text input frame or text can be cut and pasted from a word processing document to the text input frame. The link allows the faculty member to view all of the evaluations for all classes taught since approximately 1979 to the current quarter. This is helpful for making sure there are no missing evaluations. If an evaluation is entered directly, there is no need to send an electronic copy to the Evaluations Office.

Course description text is optional. However, the instructor may choose to write a brief description of the course to precede each student’s evaluation. The course description is information about a class that is applicable to ALL students enrolled in it; e.g., scope of the course, textbook, titles, number and type of exams, and/or requirements for passing. The Registrar’s Office has been instructed by CEP to enforce a limit for course descriptions of no more than 60 words.

A new or updated course description may also be submitted with the evaluations. The revised course description may be placed at the top of the file above the electronic headers (it should not be included with every student evaluation) and submitted as usual (e-mail or disk) to the departmental or faculty service office or Script Center.

Important: Course descriptions are not retained and must be included in each quarter.

It is very important to review your evaluations on-line to check for accuracy. To verify that your evaluations are on-line, please follow these steps:

1. Log into my.ucsc.edu and go to the "Evaluations" link under "Grades, Rosters, Evals, etc."
2. Click on the class you want to view. If you only have one class, the page will load automatically.
3. Right above the first student's name will be five fields: "Eval," "Student ID," "Name," "Gender," "Grade," "Status," "Last Update."
4. If an evaluation has been loaded for a student, their "Status" field should read "Complete." If one hasn't been loaded, the "Status" field will read "Blank."
5. The "Last Update" field will display a timestamp indicating when an evaluation was last entered for a student. If you wish to view an evaluation for a particular student, click on the blue "Eval" link to the very left of their name.

You may edit evaluations directly on MyUCSC. Click on the blue "Eval" link to the left of the student's name. The evaluation will load; now click on the "Edit Evaluation" link located underneath the performance evaluation text. Enter your corrections and click "Update" to save them.

You may also submit your corrections to script@ucsc.edu. All corrections must be submitted with the proper headers.

For questions regarding the preparation of your performance evaluations, please contact Rebecca Peet at the Faculty Instructional Technology Center, rpeet@ucsc.edu, or at 459-1573.

The staff who enter evaluations into the NES database do not proof, edit, or make any changes to the text of the performance evaluation, but will:

• Check for proper format. This includes the use of class list headers.
• Check the length of the course description and limit it to no more than 60 words.
• Check that the name in the text of the evaluation matches the name in the header.

Use of Class List Headers

Be sure NOT to make any changes to the header. See the section above regarding Electronic Submission of Evaluations for further explanation.

Commonly Used Vocabulary

Hardworking is one word.
Midterm is one word-no hyphens or space.

Hyphens

She turned in a very well-written paper. (Preceding the noun)
Her paper was well written. (Following the noun)
E-mail
In-between

Student Names

Use the student’s full name, first and last, at the beginning of the performance evaluation. There are many common first names, and this would help the reader know exactly who you are evaluating. It also helps the Script Center to confirm the match between student enrollments and completed perfomance evaluations.

Nicknames

The official name should precede a nickname. If the official name is quite different from the nickname, the nickname should be enclosed in parentheses immediately following the official name; e.g., "Jennifer (Linsey) did a good job this quarter." The student can then be referred to as Linsey in the rest of the performance evaluation.

Dashes

Use two without spaces around them; i.e., “I really enjoyed his first paper--although it was marred with typographical errors.”

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Revised 4/13/05