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Assessment

Office of Institutional Effectiveness & Evaluation Texas A&M University Office of InstitutionalEffectiveness & Evaluation

Liaisons 101


What do SCE Liaisons do?


SCE Liaisons should work in collaboration with department/college leadership and faculty to:

  • Serve as the departmental/college point of contact for faculty notification of the evaluation process.
  • Periodically review and confirm departmental items to be included on course evaluations. The most straightforward method is to download a Course Evaluation Analysis report from the previous semester and identify questions labeled as "Department Question". Alternatively, you can reach out to assessment@tamu.edu to obtain the latest questions added at the department level.
  • Ensure that all instructors who need to be evaluated are entered into Compass with instructor's name, UIN and official university email address. For courses with Teaching Assistants (TA's) needing evaluation, the TA must be listed in the SWASECT Compass screen using the AC_TA-Teaching Assistant role with name, UIN and official university email address. More resources are available as part of the Compass User Training.
  • Verify SCE open and close dates of the partial terms in your department in HelioCampus or through this spreadsheet.
  • Verify courses assigned for evaluations, and that all instructors and TA's are entered correctly.
  • Monitor response rates in HelioCampus during the open evaluation period.
  • Verify and update individuals within the department who are authorized to have access to all departmental SCE reports.
  • Gather the list of courses which are opted in for Mid-Term SCE, and submit it to assessment@tamu.edu before the deadline.

Note: Please click on the provided links for access to the corresponding information or walkthroughs.

How to access SCE results in HelioCampus (AEFIS)


On your HelioCampus Dashboard, locate the 'Report' widget, which should contain the following three reports: 


  • Course Evaluation Analysis  - This report allows users to run a report that aggregates the results of a specific course evaluation by type (instructor or teaching assistant) and view aggregate results by either Course or Course Section. This report displays the results in the same format as instructors see, i.e., with bar chart, word cloud, and student comments.

  • Course Section Trend Analysis  - This report will organize the data collected by surveys utilizing the same survey template and allow the user to compare the results to another set of aggregate results. For example, a department can compare both their overall results and specific survey question results to their College or the Institution if the same survey template is used. Another option is to compare the course section result with the aggregate course results. The user can choose to display multiple statistics for comparison purposes. Please note that this report will generate a large data set that often will require the user to export the results to review the data.

Note: Please click on the provided links for access to the corresponding information or walkthroughs.

How to access SCE Tableau Results in Department Dashboard


The Department Head and users authorized by the department head have access to SCE results in Tableau format through the dedicated Department Dashboard Landing Page designed exclusively for SCE results. 

SCE Summary Report for Department Head  

This dashboard provides easy access to descriptive statistics (average/mean, median, frequencies) and comments from students across courses offered by your department.  It allows for filtering by subject code, course number, sections (e.g., selected combined sections for a course), and course level (e.g., all 200-level courses). Additionally, the dashboard allows you to review and compare results across teaching assistants (TAs) or specific instructors (note: TA filter became available starting from AY22-23). 

There are several tabs included: Department Summary; Statistical Summary; Instructors Comparisons; and three Download Reports (Download Overall, Download Comments, and Download Questions). These downloadable reports allow for extensive analysis and data manipulation if needed.      

  • Department Summary  provides both descriptive statistics and comments, as well as the response rate for selected courses. A question needs to be selected first to view the results. 
  • Statistical Summary provides ONLY the descriptive statistics (thus, no comments included), but presents all the questions on ONE page. 
  • Instructors Comparisons allows the department to sort the average scores of selected instructors based on a multi-choice SCE question. The default sorting is from highest score to lowest.

SCE Summary Report for Comparison  

This dashboard provides faculty descriptive statistics at the department or college/school/campus level, by subject code, course type (lecture, lab, seminar, etc.), and course range (e.g., all 200-level courses). No instructor specific information is provided on this report to maintain confidentiality. This is the dashboard designed to share with faculty within your department as you see fit. 

How to access SCE results in PICA


For access to previous evaluations (prior to Fall 2020), submitted electronically, use the Department Login at https://pica.tamu.edu.

  • PICA Longitudinal Summary Report - Compare overall ratings in one course with the same course taught in previous terms for which data is available in PICA.
  • PICA Statistical Summary Report - Summative data for a single section.
  • PICA Comparative Reports - Compare overall ratings in one section to similar courses across the Department/ College/ University.