Course Operations Survey (formerly Faculty/Course Survey)

STEP 1

Chairs/Directors/Assistants:

• Read the instructions on how to access and validate courses (see the next drop-down item) for their department/school/program;
• Log into my.torontomu and click the "Course Operations Survey" link;
• Review and modify the list of courses to be evaluated; and
• Send emails (via the application) to faculty members and contract lecturers notifying them that the list of courses to be evaluated is ready for their review.

STEP 2
Faculty Members and Contract Lecturers:

• Receive notifications from Chairs/Directors/Assistants via TMU email;
• Log into my.torontomu
• Review the list of courses assigned to them; and
• Respond (via the application) to Chairs/Directors/Assistants indicating any errors or issues.

STEP 3
Chairs/Directors/Assistants:

• Resolve all errors or issues;
• If you see any error such as a wrong instructor assigned to the course, please check MyServiceHub and confirm the information on MyServiceHub is accurate;

If the instructor information on MyServiceHub is incorrect, please update the instructor information in the Teaching Assignment Integration (TAI) system. Ensure the Chair and/or Dean approve these changes as appropriate in order for the changes to appear on the change report.

Please complete these changes as soon as possible to avoid a backlog.

Please note that University Scheduling runs a TAI change report on the following schedule:

• Term Start-up schedule (from two weeks before the start of term start until the third week of term):  three times a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday - capturing changes approved by 6 pm the previous business day.
• Regular schedule (starts the third week of term): once a week - Monday - capturing changes approved by 6 pm the previous Friday.

Each Chair/Director/Assistant Must Take Personal Responsibility to:

• Ensure accuracy and timeliness in revising your COS list;
• Ensure that all instructors have their valid TMU ID to enable them to access my.torontomu;
• Notify all instructors when the list of courses to be evaluated is ready for their review; and
• Update the instructor information in the Teaching Assignment Integration (TAI) system.

To Access the List of Courses

To access the list of courses to be evaluated, log into my.torontomu portal using your TMU ID and password.

On my.torontomu.ca home page, in the Participate section, click on the "Course  Operations Survey" link. The same link can be found on my.torontomu, the "Apps" tab.

Click on the "Courses" tab. "Available and Excluded Courses" page will appear.

On this page, please check the following information:

• Semester;
• Faculty and department/school/program (the name of the faculty and department/school/program you are assigned to will be selected by default)

To Exclude Courses

Verify the list carefully. Certain courses cannot be evaluated and must be excluded from the list. Please refer to the Courses to Include or Exclude from Evaluation below guidelines to determine which courses should be excluded.

To exclude a course from the list, click on the check box to select it and then "Exclude" button located at the bottom of the table. The course will move from the "Available Courses" table to the "Excluded Courses" table.

To bring any course back from the "Excluded Courses" table, select the course and click on the "Include" button. The course will appear in the "Available Courses" table.

To Notify Instructors

Once you have finished verifying the list of courses, you must notify instructors that the list of courses to be evaluated is ready for their review.

Select the fields with the instructors you want to send notifications to by clicking the check box on the left and click "Notify Instructors" button.  The following email will be sent to the selected instructor(s):

* * *  

Hello (Instructor's Name),

The following survey(s) are being prepared for the course(s) that you are teaching this semester:

1. Course Name 1 [Course Code - Section Number]
2. Course Name 2 [Course Code - Section Number]
3. Course Name 3 [Course Code - Section Number], etc.

In order to verify and validate each course, follow these steps:

• Log into https://my.torontomu.ca/ using your TMU ID and password.  
• Under the “Apps” tab, click on the "Course Operations Survey" link.
• Click on the "Validation" menu item and follow the instructions to validate your courses.    

 IMPORTANT

• Paper-based in-class COS process will be suspended for all courses. For all tenure-stream (probationary and tenured) and Limited Term Faculty, the COS will continue to be administered online.
• The COS has been modified to include only the following five course operations questions that speak to the student educational experience:

1. I received timely feedback on my assignments. 
2. The course handouts/postings contain all of the information I need about the organization of this course.
3. Students are treated with fairness.
4. The class meets as scheduled and on time.
5. The instructor is available for consultation as specified on the course handouts/ postings.

• Information collected through the COS for Fall 2024 will be available to individual faculty members and contract lecturers through the COS portal for formative purposes and shall not be included in faculty annual reports nor contract lecturers’ currency reports.
• Regardless of the mode of delivery of the course, CUPE 3904 Unit 1 and 2 members will be given the option of whether or not they wish to submit their online COS results, as part of their application process, as the official results for the in-person or virtual course(s) they are teaching.

Note that the deadline for the [SEMESTER] course validation is [DATE]. No changes will be allowed after this date.

Depending on the courses you teach, you may receive separate notification emails from your undergraduate program, graduate studies program(s) and/or continuing education program(s). You must respond to each notification email in order to validate all courses that you teach.

Signature (Name of Chair/Director/Assistant who is sending emails will appear as a signature)

* * *

To Receive Responses from Instructors

The next step is for instructors to confirm that the list of courses they teach is correct.

Once instructors verified the list of courses to be evaluated, they will send you an email confirming that the list is correct or contains errors.

Note that all emails sent by instructors from the COS online system regarding course validation will go to the mailboxes of:

• both Chair/Director and Assistant;
• Chair/Director only, if no Assistant has been assigned to a particular department in the COS online system.

All automatic responses from instructors will contain the following message:

Hello,

(Instructor's Name) revised the list of the courses to be evaluated this semester and made the following comments.

Course(s) approved:

1. Course Name [course code - section number] - Online
2. Course Name [course code - section number] - Online, Paper
3. Course Name [course code - section number] - Online, Paper, etc.

Course(s) excluded:

1. Course Name [course code - section number] - Online
2. Course Name [course code - section number] - Online, Paper
3. Course Name [course code - section number] - Online, Paper, etc.

Comments:

(If instructor leaves no comments, the following message will appear):

- Instructor made no comments.

To Fix Errors

Please note that, if an instructor finds an error on the list of courses to be evaluated, you must approve or disapprove the changes, and forward the email with your approval to the Scheduling.

This is a very important stage in the process of verifying the courses to be evaluated!

You will be able to see the corrected list of courses within 48 hours of sending the email with the authorized changes to the Scheduling.  The status of the course in the table "Available Courses" will then change from "Notified" to "Corrected".  Verify the information, select the field with the corrected courses using the check box on the left and click the "Notify Instructors" button.  The instructor(s) will receive an email with the corrected list of courses.

Please note that no changes in the system will be allowed after the deadline for verifying and correcting the list of courses!

1. Non-Enrolled Sections/Components – These must be reviewed to determine if the instructor (TFA, CUPE Unit 1 or CUPE Unit 2) is to be evaluated.
2. Internet (Distance) courses/sections will be evaluated.
3. Independent study will not be evaluated.
4. Courses which are Pass/Fail (e.g., work-term courses, thesis courses, practicum courses, field work and placement courses) are not normally evaluated.  If you wish to have such a course evaluated, you must get approval from your Dean.
5. Courses which are team taught such that an instructor has less that 50% of the contact with the class, or which are taught in some other non-standard mode whereby there is minimal instructor contact, may not need to be evaluated.  If you wish to have such a course evaluated, you must get approval from your Dean.
6. Any course which is a combination of CE and day classes, or which are part of collaborative programs, and taught by TFA, CUPE Unit 1 or CUPE Unit 2 (the Chang School instructors), regardless of who is teaching a course, will be evaluated online. If such a course has a day code and is taught by an TFA facluty members who must or chooses to participate in paper-based evaluation, paper forms will be printed for the whole class.*
7. Courses taught in an unusual time frame or fast-track courses should be identified at the beginning of the semester so that surveys can be prepared earlier, if necessary.  Please contact fcshelp@torontomu.ca indicating course name, code, section number, name of instructor and the date by which surveys are required.
8. Surveys will not be prepared for courses which have fewer than 5 students.

Courses should be excluded from the COS list when, in the judgment of the Chair/Director, the listed faculty member/instructor should not be included as outlined above, or if they are not teaching the course.

Only TFA faculty member, CUPE Unit 1 and CUPE Unit 2 contract lecturers should be evaluated.  Teaching Assistants (CUPE Unit 3) should not be evaluated.

Since COS results may be of value to any faculty member or instructor for career purposes, decisions to exclude courses should be verified with those whose courses are being eliminated before the completed COS list is ready.

*Not applicable for the online evaluation.