Interpreting SRTI Results: A Guide for Instructors

SRTI Development: A Brief Overview

The Student Response to Instruction (SRTI) is the product of a collaboration between the Office of Academic Planning and Assessment (OAPA) and the (then) Center for Teaching with guidance from and review by the (then) Faculty Senate Committee on Teaching and Technology and on- and off-campus measurement experts.

SRTI is designed to provide faculty members with useful feedback on students’ experiences in the classroom. The items were selected after an extensive review of the literature on student learning and teaching effectiveness, as well as a review of current course rating practices on other campuses. The goal was to develop a reliable and valid instrument that:

  1. Focuses on aspects of teaching that students are capable of judging and that are highly related to student learning and satisfaction
     
  2. Is appropriate for the wide variety of instructional styles and courses taught at UMass Amherst
     
  3. Provides information for both the improvement of teaching and the evaluation of instructors for merit, promotion, and tenure processes

(A more detailed description of the development, reliability, and validity of SRTI can be found in the following research brief: SRTI Reliability and Validity Research.)

This guide is designed to help you interpret the SRTI Section Report that summarizes your SRTI results for a specific course section. Keep in mind that student ratings of instruction are only one piece of any evaluation of teaching. While students can effectively judge aspects of teaching that reflect student experiences with an instructor (e.g., student-instructor relationships, instructor ability to communicate clearly, fairness of grading), they are not the best judges of aspects of teaching that reflect instructor subject matter expertise (e.g., knowledge in major field, course syllabus and reading list, selection of course objectives and materials). These elements can best be evaluated by an instructor’s peers. The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) maintains a collection of materials on peer review and teaching portfolios for individual and departmental use.