The college also uses Perception for course and faculty evaluations in gatekeeper and distance education courses, with plans for a major expansion to all courses this year.

In addition, SFCC is using Perception for course-related tests, particularly in the nursing department, the dental assistant program and the emergency medical technician program.

With Perception, the reports are immediate, and instructors see the results right away. Reynolds says this makes the feedback more meaningful for them, and gathering the feedback via Perception has improved its quality. “We get more information out of the students in this format, because they feel like their confidentiality is protected—their handwriting isn’t involved,” Reynolds says. “It also benefits the instructor because the comments have become so much more specific.”

The evaluations also tell faculty chairs what’s going on in the courses. The evaluation includes questions about the instructor’s performance and other aspects of the course, such as the textbook or the support services offered to students. “If 30 of the students say that the textbook isn’t good, that’s something we’ll reevaluate,” Reynolds says.

“For us, the value of Perception for us is not so much in how it delivers assessments,” Reynolds says. “That’s nice, but the reason we like it is the reporting. With Perception I can make the data get up and dance if I want to.”

“Up to now, Perception has been a sort of pet project for the testing center,” she says. “But now the deans and faculty have seen the reporting and what Perception is capable of, and we’re going to take it campus-wide in as many formats as possible.”