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Fresno State Student Ratings of Instruction (FSSRI)

For Students

 

Frequently Asked Questions

You may log in to SmartEvals using your Fresno State credentials. From this portal, you can complete student ratings surveys that are currently open for any of your classes. You will also receive reminder emails from SmartEvals that will have links to any available surveys. You should also be able to access through your Canvas course.

Log in to SmartEvals

Student Ratings are an official and anonymous way for all students to have a voice at Fresno State and serve several key purposes:

  • Provides Feedback for Instructors
  • Measures Teaching Effectiveness
  • Identifies Areas for Course Improvement 

First of all, know that your responses are completely anonymous. They are combined with other students from the same class, and are not connected to you. No one can ever see how you, specifically, answered the questions. Not your instructor. Not the department chair. No one. The Office of the Academic Senate administers the surveys, maintains their anonymity, and verifies that faculty see the reports only after grades have been submitted. All of the combined responses from a particular class are provided to the instructor. The main purpose of student ratings is to improve instruction, so the teacher is your primary audience. 
The chair of the department in which the class is offered reviews all student ratings, including the written comments. The ratings (but not the comments) always go into the instructor's permanent personnel file. 

  • Specific feedback is more useful than general comments. 
  • Include feedback about what you liked, what helped you learn, what you appreciated. Instructors need to know what's working. 
  • Include constructive feedback about things that could potentially be changed. 

You may retake the survey by logging into your SmartEvals dashboard and clicking on "Retake Survey" button on that class tile so long as the evaluation period has not ended.

Student ratings surveys are available during the final two weeks of the semester. They close at midnight on Thursday of finals week.

While 85-90% of Fresno State classes are rated each semester, the rest are exempt for various reasons. Feel free to ask your instructor if the course is exempt.

Once the surveys are closed, you will be unable to access them. However, you are welcome to provide feedback directly to your instructor and/or the department chair.