Skip to main content

Student Perception of Instruction

The end-of-semester student evaluation forms are known as Student Perception of Instruction (SPI) forms at UCF.

SPI Questions

  1. The course expectations were clear.
  2. The course was well organized.
  3. Graded work was aligned with course content.
  4. The instructor made clear efforts to engage students.
  5. The instructor was helpful in responding to questions.
  6. I received sufficient feedback on my performance in the class.
  7. The instructor was available for assistance.
  8. The instructor enhanced my understanding of the material.

Possible responses are Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly Disagree.

Additionally, there will be two new nonstudent-facing averages for overall effectiveness that will be calculated based on the responses to the student-facing questions above:

  • Overall Effectiveness of the course and its content (a composite for questions 1-3).
  • Overall Effectiveness of the instructor and the instruction (a composite for questions 4-8).

The open-ended questions are:

  1. Describe to the instructor the most effective elements of the course and its instruction.
  2. Explain to the instructor your suggestions for improving the course and its instruction.

SPI Process

  1. Two weeks before the final scheduled day of class in a given semester, SPIs open to students. The SPI window closes at the end of the last day, just before the Final Exam period.
  2. Faculty will be notified by email that the SPIs are available.
  3. Students will see a popup each time they log in to the Student Center section of myUCF during the open SPI window. If they complete the SPIs for all their classes, this popup will no longer appear.
  4. After semester grades are due, SPI results are released to department chairs and individual faculty, who will be notified by email. The results include SPI averages for the department and for the College.

Ideas for Improving SPI Results

Faculty are strongly encouraged to adopt a mindset of continuous improvement with regard to their teaching. Student feedback about your teaching is an important consideration.

Here are some ideas for improving SPI results:

  1. Pay attention to trends in the SPI results over multiple semesters, whether all the numbers move in lockstep or there are particular outliers. These might suggest areas where you could try different approaches in future teaching.
  2. Student comments to the free-response questions can be particularly revealing.

Faculty are encouraged to connect with the Faculty Center to request individualized, private consultations or perhaps arrange for a peer observation.

Ideas for Increasing Student Completion Rates

pending

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Can I see how many students completed the SPI? Yes. In myUCF, click on Faculty Self-Service, then Instructors, then SPI Counts.
  2. Can I find out which individual students completed the SPI so that I can award extra credit? No. Keeping students anonymous is central to the integrity of the process. It will also not work to ask students to generate a screencap of their finished process, due to the same need for anonymity (plus, one student could make such a screencap and share it with all other students). It is better to avoid any extra credit in the SPI process.