Teaching Analysis By Students (TABS)

What is TABS?

TABS provides full- and part-time faculty (including teaching assistants) a free and confidential opportunity to assess pedagogical strengths and weaknesses at the mid-point of the fall or spring semesters.

Updates for the 2023-24 academic year!

To give faculty members more options on how to assess their classes, registrants must select at least one of the TABS services offered to participate. To receive evaluation results, participants must complete a brief asynchronous module in Bridge that includes information on how to read, interpret, and improve evaluation results. After the module has been completed and the week evaluations have been sent to students has concluded, results will be shared with the faculty member by the Center for Faculty Excellence.

TABS Services

CFE strongly recommends that TABS participants request one or more of the following services during their registration:

Meet with a TABS consultant – recommended as best practice and highly encouraged for faculty in their first three years
1. Only available for participants with an average 40% or higher student participation rate.
2. Faculty provide a copy of the class syllabus/syllabi to CFE at the time of the request.
Register for a Faculty Observation of Teaching (Note: Observation partner does not have to know the participant is requesting this service in conjunction with TABS unless shared by the participant).
Schedule a Faculty Wellness Coaching session to discuss enhancing relationships with students, and managing teaching tasks, or a topic of their choice.
Complete a student syllabus review. (In development)
Complete an additional online, asynchronous Bridge module that provides information on how to increase student participation in course evaluation surveys. (In development)

If no service is requested during registration, participants will be required to complete a brief self-reflection survey in relation to their results.

Fall 2023 Semester Dates

Evaluation Week		Application Due Date
Week 6	September 25 - 29	Wednesday, September 20
Week 7	October 2 - 6	Wednesday, September 27
Week 8	October 9 - 13	Wednesday, October 4

Registration is available on CFE's calendar.

Registration Process

Faculty members select the optimal week for students to complete the evaluation and the TABS service(s) being requested. All participants will be added to and required to take the mandatory Bridge course and to choose from at least one of the services listed above.
List each class to be evaluated. Cross-listed courses and each section of a multi-section course must be listed individually.
During the TABS evaluation period requested, students will access the evaluation via Canvas. CFE recommends faculty allow students approximately 15 minutes of class time to complete the evaluation.
Upon completion of the Bridge course, student assessment results will be sent to the participating faculty member the week following the week student assessments were completed (spring/fall break may delay distribution of results depending on the academic calendar). At that time, participants will be provided the option to request an additional service or modify their initial service request.

Recent TABS Participant Feedback

"I love being able to get an anonymous temperature of my courses during the middle of the semester. For some classes, I may be able to make changes immediately for serious issues, while for other classes I may need to consider making changes for a future semester."

"Helpful for making tweaks to my courses; also helpful for annual review process."

"As a new faculty hire, participating in TABS during my first semester gave me insight into how student evaluations are conducted at UNO. It was also helpful to get a baseline understanding of my students' reactions to the course…”

Schedule a TABS Consultation

When registering, list each class to be evaluated. Courses for cross-listed and each section of a course with multiple sections must be listed individually.
During the TABS evaluation period requested, student assessments will be available online. CFE recommends faculty allow students approximately 15 minutes of class time to complete the assessment.
A trained TABS consultant will contact the faculty member to arrange a private consultation to review the results. Results are only shared with the consultant and the faculty member. Results are deleted from the system at the end of the semester. Faculty who wish to keep their results should save the copy provided to them by the consultant.