UM Student Reflections on Instruction (UM SRI)

Overview

• 1. Courses and instructors loaded into Banner/Aurora

  Schedulers for faculties and departments enter course and instructor information into the Aurora/Banner system. This information feeds into the SRI database but should be verified for accuracy during Step 2.

  • When: Before the term begins
  • Responsibility: Faculties and department schedulers

• 2. Course data verification   

  SRI Coordinators will receive an email from the SRI Management Team inviting them to verify certain details of the course(s) that have been fed from Banner into the SRI system. This includes confirming the instructor(s) assigned to each course and the last day of classes.

  • When: The verification email for a term is distributed near the end of the previous term. Starting this process early captures courses with early ending dates and eliminates the need for a separate verification.
  • Duration: The verification period remains open until near the conclusion of the term. Reminder notifications will be sent at this time.
  • Responsibility: SRI Coordinators

  Spanned courses: Courses that span more than one academic term will appear in the SRI system in the final term.

• 3. Question personalization (QP) - Optional

  Instructors will receive an email from the SRI Management Team inviting them to log into the SRI system and add a maximum of five personalized question to their survey(s). These questions will be in addition to the core questions that are automatically included in every survey. This step is optional.

  • When: 19 calendar days before the last day of the course
  • Duration: Eight calendar days
    • Short courses (less than 14 days in length): Approximately 11 days before the last day of the course
  • Responsibility: Instructors

• 4. UM SRI opens    

  Students will receive an email from SRI providing them with a link to their courses and inviting them to provide feedback. A separate feedback section will be offered for each instructor if more than one individual taught a class.

  Instructors must provide a 15-minute window during the second last day of class to give students time to provide feedback.

  Please note: Once the feedback window closes, students will no longer have access to submit feedback.

  • When: Eight days before the course end
  • Duration: Eight calendar days; the deadline is the last day of the course
  • Responsibility: Students and instructors

• 5. Reports distributed

  Instructors will receive up to three reports for each course and can access the reports for the full array of questions, including core questions (quantitative), core questions (qualitative) and personalized questions (QP).

  Deans, department heads and other unit leaders will receive one report for each course: core questions (quantitative)

  Please note: Reports are only generated for courses where six or more students are enrolled in a course and one or more survey is filled out.

  • When: Within six weeks of the end of the exam period for that term
  • Responsibility: Instructors, deans and department heads and other unit leaders

• Report type	Access	Data retention
  Core questions (Quantitative)	Deans, department heads, other unit leaders and instructors	Retain for five years
  QP questions (Qualitative and Quantitative)	Instructors only	Retain for five years
  Core questions (Qualitative)	Instructors only	Destroy 12 months after release*

  As per the Procedure for Student Reflections on Instructions and Courses (SRI), UM SRI procedures section 2.10, flowing from the Teaching Evaluation policy: “The Qualitative response data will not be retained beyond 12 months of the end of each term by the University unless the comments identify concerns regarding potential misconduct by the student, by the Academic Staff or by others within the university community.” As such,  

  • Qualitative core question reports will be expunged from the system 12 months after each term. 
  • Qualitative reports only will be available to instructors and not to deans, department heads and other unit leaders. 
  • No other academic staff, including SRI Coordinators, have access to SRI reports.  

• 6. Student-view reports

  Students have access to the quantitative SRI questions through UM Learn. The reports are viewable for one year and one term after collection (e.g., Fall 2024 results are viewable in Summer 2025). 

  Instructors may opt out of releasing their reports to students on a term-by-term basis. Details and the opt-out form are available on the SRI SharePoint site under SRI for instructors.