How does the USAT process work?

Instructors are then invited by their department administrators to submit an online form allowing instructors to customize their evaluation forms by adding additional items to the university-wide and department-chosen items from a bank of over 200 items. Instructors indicate whether or not their results are to be released to the student societies.

The USAT Office then prepares the evaluation forms and sends them to the departmental office for pick-up by class student representatives. The student government (ASUS and DSC chairs or equivalent) will let class representatives know when the packages are ready to be picked up. The packages are delivered in time to arrange evaluations within the 10th and 11th weeks of a 12-week term, or sooner in special cases.

The class student representative meets with the instructor to arrange a convenient time for the evaluation. The student representative distributes the evaluation forms, collects the completed evaluations, and returns them to the departmental office.

The completed evaluation forms are returned to the USAT Office where they are scanned electronically, and the data are converted into an easy-to-read graphical report. The reports are distributed in accordance with Article 29.3.5 of the QUFA Collective Agreement, which states, "Quantitative responses to the questionnaires shall be sent to the Member, the Department Head (if applicable) and the appropriate Dean(s) after the data have been converted into a report and following the submission of final grades. The report shall contain aggregated responses to each quantitative question, with the mean, standard deviation, frequency and number of eligible respondents calculated. Student responses to the University's questionnaire shall be aggregated in such a way as to present a fair and accurate picture of the opinions of the respondents."

Instructors also receive the completed evaluation forms so that they may review the students' comments.