FCQ Glossary

PDFs of instructor reports grouped by department and sent to department leads and administrators for review and archiving purposes. These are the same as the Campus Labs individual reports, but compiled for convenience.

The software platform that we use to manage and administer FCQs. Campus Labs provides integrated software and cloud-based assessment tools for higher education.

The Campus Labs environment for designated report administrators and department leads to view results (https://colorado.campuslabs.com/ce). CU sign-in required.

The Campus Labs environment for individual faculty members to view results and response rates (https://colorado.campuslabs.com/faculty). CU sign-in required.

The Campus Labs environment for students to complete their FCQ evaluations (https://colorado.campuslabs.com/courseeval). CU sign-in required.

The Central Information Warehouse (also referred to as the data warehouse) stores the university's data related to financial and human resources activities and transactions. The CIW updates every business day by 8 a.m. It is relevant to the FCQ course audit, as changes made in CU-SIS won't appear in the course audit until CIW updates. In other words, changes made in CU-SIS by 5 p.m. won't appear in the course audit until the following business day.

The official list of students enrolled in a class in CU-SIS. This is the roster used to open evaluations for appropriate students. Any student enrolled (and not withdrawn) at the time of FCQ administration will be able to complete an evaluation. Any students not on the CU-SIS roster will not be able to complete an evaluation.

For combined or cross-listed classes: the total of all students enrolled in all combined sections, including sponsor and non-sponsor sections. Combining enrollment allows all students to complete an evaluation even if their individual section doesn't meet the minimum enrollment threshold.

The process of identifying student comments that report or commit violations against individuals who belong to a protected class. At the end of the semester, the Office of Data Analytics runs a text analysis of student FCQ comments. Flagged comments are reviewed and will be reported if required by law.

These are the campus-created questions that are included in every FCQ. All classes that are evaluated receive these questions. These questions are required and not optional.

The core questions for a campus are combined in a single unit called the core question set (also know as the FCQ instrument), which is distinguished from the custom question set.

The course audit is an Excel document and web interface that compiles course information from CU-SIS and shows which classes will receive FCQs (including dates) and which ones will not. Think of this as a work request form for FCQs. FCQs are administered as they appear on this document.

The three-week period of each semester during which the course audit documents are updated daily. Though changes to the audits are typically possible before and after this window, the course audit period is the best time to review and edit a department's FCQs.

An instructor who assists with grading homework/exams, but does not actually teach the class. A course grader should not be evaluated with FCQs. If a grader is listed as an instructor in CU-SIS, please be sure to uncheck the "Print" button next to their name so that evaluations won't be generated for them.

A subset of the core questions that refer to the course content, not the instructor. It's important to distinguish between the course and instructor sections as a student may dislike a course but think highly of the teacher or vice versa.

An identifier attached to a class in Campus Labs to apply custom questions and sort FCQ data.

An instructor who doesn't actually teach the course, but oversees the person who does (e.g., a program director supervising a graduate student teacher). A course supervisor should not be evaluated with FCQs. If a supervisor is listed as an instructor in CU-SIS, please be sure to uncheck the "Print" button next to their name so that evaluations won't be generated for them.

CU Student Integrated Systems, also referred to as Campus Solutions, is the student information system that contains class info, such as instructors, student rosters and meetings dates and times. This is the official record of all CU classes, and these data are used to generate FCQs. Changes to FCQs usually require a change to the CU-SIS information.

Typically, this is the person who enters and edits course information into CU-SIS (though departments may vary). If a change needs to be made in CU-SIS, this is usually the person with that capability.

These are questions submitted by departments or colleges to be asked in addition to the core questions. These questions are supplemental to the core questions and can not be asked in place of the core questions. These items can be specific to a college, department, subject, course or instructor group, but they can not be specific to a single instructor (e.g., an instructor can't have custom questions that apply only to classes they teach).

Custom questions are grouped into units called custom question sets and applied to FCQs via a course-section attribute.

Stores the university's data related to financial and human resources activities and transactions. Also referred to as the Central Information Warehouse (CIW). The CIW updates every business day by 8 a.m. It is relevant to the FCQ course audit, as changes made in CU-SIS won't appear in the course audit until CIW updates. In other words, changes made in CU-SIS by 5 p.m. won't take effect in the course audit until the following business day.

Departments are responsible for their own archives and are expected to hold onto their FCQ reports. Archival copies of the reports are sent to departments at the end of every semester (paper versions were sent prior to fall 2017 and have been replaced by the PDF batch reports). The FCQ program does not have the staffing to provide archival services.

Also referred to as the unit lead. This is someone at the head of a department (e.g., dean, chair, director) who is designated as an FCQ report administrator. A department usually has two report administrators: the FCQ coordinator and a designated department lead (though more are allowed for larger colleges or departments). In cases where the department lead changes, it is the FCQ coordinators responsibility to inform the FCQ program of this change.

Early ending courses are special session courses that end prior to the end date of traditional 15-week courses. Special session courses do not participate in the final FCQ administration at the end of the semester. Instead, they receive FCQs the final week of class in one of our weekly administrations.

Faculty Course Questionnaire. An end-of-class survey that students complete to evaluate their courses and instructors.

A designated liaison from each department who serves as the go-between the FCQ program and department faculty and leadership. Responsibilities include relaying messages from the FCQ program to faculty, answering faculty questions and managing course audits and results.

An FCQ summary report for the Boulder campus containing all FCQ data from fall 2006 to the present. The Results Viewer consists of both graphic visualizations of the data and downloadable spreadsheets, both of which are interactive. The spreadsheets are recommended for teaching portfolios and department or instructor summaries.

An FCQ summary report for the Denver and Colorado Springs campuses containing all FCQ data from fall 2006 to the most recent semester of administration. The Instructor Summary consists of both graphic visualizations of the data and downloadable spreadsheets, both of which are interactive. The spreadsheets are recommended for teaching portfolios and department or instructor summaries.

The combined FCQ core and custom question sets that are administered to students.

Graduate Part-Time Instructor. Graduate students who have master's degree or equivalent and are fully responsible for teaching undergraduate classes.

Data from earlier incarnations of the FCQ. Changes to the FCQ content (e.g., questions) and form (e.g., paper to online) require the building of new reporting tools. Historic data are the existing reporting tools that remain posted but are no longer updated.

The first release of FCQ reports through Campus Labs. This typically occurs 1-2 days after grades are posted. In the overwhelming majority of cases (<99.9%), the initial report is the same as the batch and summary reports, which are released a few weeks later. The only exceptions are cases where a response is removed for threatening or abusive language or there is inaccurate instructor information. Prior to the switch to online FCQs, reports would take ~6 weeks to be distributed. The initial report gives quicker access to results.

Instructor or Senior Instructor. INST is one of the four FCQ instructor groups (the others are TTT, TA and OTH). Instructors and senior instructors are not tenure-eligible.

The person(s) teaching the class. The term "instructor" is used generally to refer to the class teacher and not their instructor group or official title. This terminology is applied to all classes for the sake of consistency (e.g., both a full professor and a TA would be considered an "instructor" for FCQ purposes).

A subset of the core questions that refer to the instructor's performance, not the course content. It's important to distinguish between the course and instructor sections as a student may dislike a course but think highly of the teacher or vice versa.

Campus Labs-based reports for individual classes. Reports are only available to the instructor and their department's report administrators. Contains quantitative and qualitative data.

All employees who have the authority to hire, promote, discipline, evaluate, grade, formally advise, or direct faculty, staff or students are considered "responsible employees" and are required to report to OIEC any incidents of sexual misconduct, discrimination or harassment involving a member of the CU community. See also Responsible employees and Mandatory reporting.

All "responsible employees" are required to report to OIEC any incidents of sexual misconduct, discrimination or harassment involving a member of the CU community. The purpose of mandatory reporting is to ensure safety, offer support and resources, understand the scope of the concern, and to get the behavior to stop. See also Responsible employees and Mandatory reporters.

In order to protect student anonymity, a minimum of 3 students must be enrolled in a class for it to be eligible to receive FCQs. In the case of combined or cross-listed courses, this is based on the total enrollment across all combined sections. Other restrictions on eligibility still apply, so a class may meet the minimum enrollment requirement but not be evaluated for other reasons. However, a class not meeting the minimum enrollment requirement will not receive FCQs.

A class taught by more than one instructor. FCQs can be provided for 1-5 instructors for a single class and are flexible to handle most multi-instructor scenarios. See also Team-taught: concurrent courses and Team-taught: consecutive courses.

In a combined or cross-listed course, one section is designated as the sponsor. All other sections are considered the non-sponsor. Any number of classes can be non-sponsors, but only one can be the sponsor.

An instructor group encompassing faculty who are not considered tenured/tenure track, teaching assistants or instructors/senior instructors. OTH is one of the four FCQ instructor groups (the others are TTT, TA and INST).

A type of special session course in which classes run prior to the traditional 15-week semester (e.g., preterm fall courses that run in early August).

A type of instructor role in CU-SIS. There are three instructor roles, Primary, Secondary and TA. By default, FCQs are administered for all instructor roles, but can be customized to target questions to specific roles (e.g., questions only asked of an instructor in a TA role).

CU policy prohibits discrimination and harassment based on protected class identity. Protected classes are Race, color, national origin, pregnancy, sex, age, disability, creed, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and its expression, veteran status, and political affiliation/philosophy.

The FCQ qualitative data are text generated by student comments and other text-based questions, in contrast with quantitative data which have numeric values and are generated by questions with numbered responses.

The FCQ quantitative data have numeric values and are generated by questions with numbered responses, in contrast with qualitative data which are text generated by student comments and other text-based questions.

Someone with access to a department's reports through Campus Labs and batch reports. Report administrators are designated by the department and include FCQ coordinators and department leads.

Any incident of sexual misconduct, discrimination or harassment involving a member of the CU community.

All employees who have the authority to hire, promote, discipline, evaluate, grade, formally advise, or direct faculty, staff or students are considered "responsible employees" and are required to report to OIEC any incidents of sexual misconduct, discrimination or harassment involving a member of the CU community. See also Mandatory reporters and Mandatory reporting.

A type of instructor role in CU-SIS. There are three instructor roles, Primary, Secondary and TA. By default, FCQs are administered for all instructor roles, but can be customized to target questions to specific roles (e.g., questions only asked of an instructor in a TA role).

Special sessions refer to classes that do not follow the traditional 16-week schedule (15-week classes, 1-week break) for the fall and spring semesters. This also applies to classes that follow a nontraditional format.

In a combined or cross-listed course, one section is designated as the sponsor. All other sections are considered the non-sponsor. Any number of classes can be non-sponsors, but only one can be the sponsor.

A student is a general term for anyone enrolled in a class, regardless of their student status (e.g., part-time, degree-seeking). Everyone who is on the class roster at the time of course evaluations is eligible to receive an FCQ, including course auditors and employees using the tuition benefit.

Text-based responses to narrative questions. In the FCQ, students are asked to provide constructive feedback for their instructors and these are the student comments.

Tableau-based reports compiled by the FCQ program and posted to a public-facing website. In addition to individual class results, these reports allow the user to compare and summarize data across semesters and courses. Contains only quantitative data.

Teaching assistant. TA is both an instructor group designation and an instructor role in CU-SIS. TA is one of the four FCQ instructor groups (the others are TTT, TA and INST). TA is one of the three instructor roles (the others are Primary and Secondary).

Interactive data visualization software that the FCQ program uses to post public-facing reports.

Dashboards are the individual Tableau visualizations that appear online.

Teaching assistant. TA is both an instructor group designation and an instructor role in CU-SIS. TA is one of the four FCQ instructor groups (the others are TTT, TA and INST). TA is one of the three instructor roles (the others are Primary and Secondary).

Classes that are taught by multiple instructors throughout the length of the course. FCQs for these classes are handled the same as those taught by a single instructor.

Classes that switch instructors during the course. This course setup is not ideal for FCQ evaluations and requires a workaround for administration.

All individuals submitting an FCQ are required to adhere to the Terms of Service posted online. By submitting FCQs you agree to be bound by these terms. If you disagree with any part of the Terms of Service then you may not submit an FCQ. The Terms of Service define prohibited behaviors, how to properly access and employ the results and mandatory reporting.

The process of identifying student comments that report or commit violations against individuals who belong to a protected class. At the end of the semester, the Office of Data Analytics runs a text analysis of student FCQ comments. Flagged comments are reviewed and will be reported if required by law.

An instructor group encompassing faculty who are tenured or in a tenure-track position. TTT is one of the four FCQ instructor groups (the others are INST, TA and OTH).

Also referred to as the department lead. This is someone at the head of a department (e.g., dean, chair, director) who is designated as an FCQ report administrator. A department usually has two report administrators: the FCQ coordinator and a designated department lead (though more are allowed for larger colleges or departments). In cases where the department lead changes, it is the FCQ coordinators responsibility to inform the FCQ program of this change.