Academic Programs Catalog

General Information, Policies, Procedures and Regulations

General Procedures and Regulations

Student Opinion of Courses and Teaching (SOCT)

Preamble

The following policy operates as a complement to the Student Instructional Rating System (SIRS) policy to provide selected public information for students as an aid to choosing courses.

Policy on the Student Public Evaluation System

Students at Michigan State University have an interest in being able to make informed judgments in selecting courses and faculty members as students pursue their academic programs. To this end, the University Committee on Undergraduate Education has framed a set of questions that should provide the type of information that students seek. In order to facilitate the transmission of this information to the students, the following procedures are established:

  1. In addition to using standard university or unit-based SIRS forms in every class each semester in compliance with the Student Instructional Rating System policy, faculty members at the rank of instructor or above, and specialists who are assigned to teach, shall administer a standard form (Student Opinion of Courses and Teaching) in all of their regular undergraduate classes.
  2. The SOCT forms shall be administered within the last two weeks of classes. Instructors should leave the room until the forms have been completed and collected. The forms should be collected by a neutral party, turned in to a predetermined location, and should not be accessible to the instructor until grades are submitted. 
  3. Results will be disseminated in summary form, displayed by instructor and department, once per year through a Web site, https://soct.msu.edu, accessible to students and other members of the University community with the appropriate identification. A maximum of two recent semesters taught by that instructor over a maximum of two years with a minimum of five student responses will be displayed.