FLEX FAQ

FLEX  is a web-based system used to administer FLEX questionnaires. In FLEX, students complete the questionnaires; and instructors and departments can access the reports. 

We automatically load all eligible courses into FLEX. By default, this excludes Independent Study (IND) sections, Research (RES) sections, internship and study abroad sections without a classroom component, and sections consisting only of a series of speakers. Please contact us at flex@illinois.edu if your section has not been loaded when it should have been. 

 
Only individuals regularly interacting with all of the students registered in a section in a teaching capacity are eligible to administer FLEX. Those who are only grading, staffing office hours, or providing other forms of administrative support are not eligible. 
The FLEX system will load any instructor who has greater than 0% responsibility for a course (as listed in Banner). Your departmental scheduler is responsible for ensuring this information is accurate in Banner.  

Yes, FLEX is a mobile-friendly website, so students can access it from their smartphones or laptops. We recommend providing students with about 10 minutes at the beginning (not the end) of class to complete their FLEX questionnaire. 

Two practices that can significantly increase the response rate are the following: 

• Make the completion of FLEX questionnaires a task to be completed on your course website but bear in mind that it can’t be required.  All users, including students, use the  go.illinois.edu/flex to access the system.
• Instructors can allocate time (10-15 minutes should be adequate) at the beginning, not the end, of one of their classes for students to complete the forms.  The instructor should leave the room while students are completing the forms and resume class later. 

For full-length 16-week courses, the final feedback form is available for fourteen days with the period set to end on Reading Day by default. However, to avoid conflicting with the Thanksgiving holiday, the period for 16-week fall sections lasts twelve days and begins on the Saturday after Thanksgiving Day. 

For 8-week courses, the feedback period is ten days long by default, and it generally begins four days before the last day of the term. 

Please note that departments and instructors may choose to adjust the evaluation start and end dates. 

At least three students need to be enrolled in a section for it to administer FLEX. This is to help preserve the confidentiality of student responses. 

Within FLEX, each instructor has their own separate questionnaire. A single questionnaire cannot be shared among more than one instructor. There is not a single evaluation form that covers the team instructors. It would be wise to consult with your co-instructor(s) about questions you ask on your form, so you don't overburden your students with questions. You may wish to release results to your co instructor(s) as well (add their NetID to receive results). 

Yes, you can administer FLEX when you are finished teaching. You will need to contact us at flex@illinois.edu in a timely manner to let us know when you will be finished teaching so that we can set up FLEX accordingly for you. In fact, we encourage you to reach out to us if your class is taught this way. Administering FLEX soon after an instructor finishes teaching allows students to provide higher-quality feedback. It also reduces the number of FLEX questionnaires students need to complete at the end of the semester, which reduces survey fatigue. 

No. We want to use FLEX only for the official end-of-course? What word goes here? We value and encourage mid-semester feedback, but do not want to confuse students by offering FLEX for both informal and formal feedback. 

Yes, FLEX responses are confidential. Instructors cannot associate student ratings with any particular student unless the student openly identifies themselves within the open-ended comment section.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to reopen a FLEX form after its period has ended. If you feel comfortable doing so, you could email the instructor and/or department head to provide feedback although it wouldn't be associated with FLEX.

FLEX results become viewable over the web two to three weeks after final exams end. Instructors can log on to the FLEX system and view their full results. Department administrators can also view the results Both parties will be emailed when results are available. 

Longitudinal profiles contain a chronological listing of your ratings for global items 1 and 2. Longitudinal profiles for courses taught through Spring 2025 will include responses to both global items. For courses taught in Fall 2025 and beyond, global items 1 and 2 will only be included if the department made a decision to include them across all courses within a department. Longitudinal profiles are often utilized in promotion and tenure applications, teaching awards decisions, and department third-year reviews. Faculty and teaching assistants can request a profile at any time by completing a Longitudinal Profile Request Form. If you have questions, contact us by calling 217-244-3846.

Yes, the first two global questions will be stored in our database and included in longitudinal profiles. Please note: global questions 1 and 2 will only be included if the department made a decision to include them across all courses within the department. Your mean scores for these global questions will be displayed, along with a norm comparative label (High, High-Average, Average, Low-Average, Low) based on comparisons to others who have used the system. 

Only instructors with a greater than 0% responsibility for a course (as listed in Banner) will be loaded into FLEX. Also, Independent Study (IND) sections, Research (RES) sections, internship and study abroad sections without a classroom component, and sections consisting only of a series of speakers are automatically excluded from FLEX 

Only individuals regularly interacting with all of the students registered in a section in a teaching capacity are eligible to administer FLEX.  Those who are only grading, staffing office hours, or providing other forms of administrative support are not eligible. 

If you think there’s an error, please notify us via email at  flex@illinois.edu 

The system will send your students an email on the first day the evaluation form becomes available to them. They will also receive up to four reminder emails before the system closes the evaluation form. Reminder emails are only sent to students who have not yet completed an evaluation. Instructors also receive a copy of the emails sent to students. We encourage you to remind your students to fill out FLEX. It would be beneficial to explain why the feedback is valued and how the course has changed based on past course feedback. 

All users can access FLEX at go.illinois.edu/flex

No. We require students to log in with their university Net ID and password (to authenticate that they are enrolled students and haven't completed an evaluation form already), but their identities (names, NetIDs, UINs, etc.) are not reported back to instructors or departments.