At the end of your first semester, you will likely be asked — or even begged — by your professors to fill out your Universal Student Ratings of Instructions (USRI) forms. USRIs are essentially a way for you to give anonymous feedback to your professors about the course.
Unfortunately, many students simply just don’t fill out this survey. On the one hand, it’s understandable. USRIs are given out at the end of the semester, and you’re either stressed about the six essays you need to hand in by Friday or you’ve already handed in your essays so you don’t want to even think about university right now. But USRIs are an important resource the university uses to improve your courses. For example, did you think it was unfair that your six hypothetical essays were all due on the same day? You can communicate this on your USRI form. What you liked, what you didn’t like, any suggestions you might have, if you have an opinion about a course you just took, USRIs are one of the best ways to inform your professor and potentially have something done about it.
USRIs are also a valuable resource for future students as well. After each semester, USRI results are made publicly available, allowing potential students to see the general opinion of previous students who have taken the course. If you’re debating between two different instructors, USRI results could help make that decision easier. Of course, these results won’t mean anything if too little people submit USRIs, and the opposite is also true — the more people submit USRIs, the more accurate the results are. So help your future first years out by submitting those surveys. More information on when and how to fill out your USRIs can be found on the University of Calgary website.
