Using the Course Equity Portal, you will be able to:

A group of faculty having a discussion

Course Equity Portal FAQ:

The Course Equity Portal is a tool instructors can use to identify patterns in the grade outcomes of their students. It provides data-informed insights that focus on identifying the biggest opportunities for improving your students' academic progress and closing equity gaps. The portal helps faculty understand whether certain student groups are experiencing disproportionate challenges while taking their classes. It is hoped that identifying such gaps will help us to better understand our students and create a more equitable learning environment both inside and outside of the classroom.

The Course Equity Portal was specifically created with faculty members in mind. It provides faculty with personally curated, actionable data, based on the courses and students they teach. It also offers resources that instructors can implement to improve disparities. The Course Equity Portal was designed and built in collaboration with the Student Success Strategic Innovations Division of the Chancellor’s Office, members of the Academic Senate of the CSU, and Faculty Development Directors from two CSU campuses. It also incorporates feedback from dozens of faculty who participated in early pilot studies. Your feedback is also greatly appreciated as we are always seeking to improve these tools to better serve you.

When looking at course outcomes, equity gaps are defined as collective differences in academic outcomes (grades of D, F, WU, and NC versus A, B, C) between different student groups, such as those based on race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, or first-generation college status. These kinds of disparities are widely seen throughout the CSU system and we know that they do not reflect any individual student's intellectual potential. The Course Equity Portal highlights these disparities by course. It is incumbent upon us, as individuals and as an institution, to reflect on these disparities and search for ways to adjust our practices (without sacrificing rigor) so that we can help students reach their full potential.

The portal provides faculty with curated data on student grades, data insights, and demographic information that are tailored to each instructor. The portal also provides resources and useful links to the university faculty development center and other campus specific, student-centered resources.

Academic equity gaps have their roots in both historical and current disparities in how we as a society support and serve our communities. But no individual student's academic potential is determined by their demographic background. Actions we take across our institution can enable students to achieve their full potential. That said, the efforts we've made to date to close our equity gaps in retention and graduation rates have not been enough to overcome our societal inequities. We must increase our efforts. Among all stakeholders, instructors are arguably the most important to creating an equitable college experience. Instructors spend more time, and often develop deeper connections, with students than any other campus professional. The data and resources in the Course Equity Portal are meant to encourage and empower instructors to identify otherwise hidden disparities in their course outcomes and adjust the classroom experience to foster an even more inclusive environment.

The goal of the Course Equity Portal is to empower faculty to critically examine outcome data from courses they have taught, reflect on what this information means within the context of their courses, and learn what actions they might take to create a more inclusive and equitable learning environment for their students. These actions can be a series of small changes implemented over a period of time or can be a complete redesign of a course. The “What Actions Can I Take” section of the Course Equity Portal will help guide you to resources that can help you determine what changes you might make to give all students in your courses the opportunity to be successful.

Instructors can use the data and resources in the portal to continually evaluate and reflect on their teaching practices and to help identify otherwise hidden disparities. Reviewing the resources provided may spark new ideas for ways to foster even more inclusive environments and connect students to existing support services. These data-informed adjustments, along with demonstrated professional development through portal resources, can be highlighted in retention, tenure, promotion, or lecturer evaluations to showcase a commitment to student equity and success.

The Course Equity Portal applies a set of statistical algorithms to present a curated set of findings tailored to each instructor. These algorithms process grade data and analyze rates at which students receive D, F, WU, and NC grades along with any equity gaps between populations of students in a classroom. Using regression techniques that can identify trends over time, the algorithm produces a summary to the user. Similarly, if there is a comparison that involves user data and other data at a course or department level, statistical values are calculated to gauge whether differences exist between groups. For an overview click here and for a more detailed description click here.

First, what are covariates? Covariates are variables which are correlated with other variables in our analysis. For example, if 1st Generation students also tend to be more likely to be Pell and URM, the estimated 1st Generation equity gap when not controlling for Pell and URM status would be different than if we were to control for these other factors. At this time, covariate analyses are not included in the algorithms used to identify the insights presented to the faculty user. In future versions of the Course Equity Portal, it is possible that covariates will be taken into account, allowing faculty members to determine whether the nature of the equity gaps they have are attributable to just one demographic factor or whether there are multiple sources of equity gaps. Student-level covariates (like High School GPA, family income, etc.) cannot be incorporated into the analysis due to student privacy data considerations. We thus cannot run analyses at the student-level but instead at a class-level.

Only you can view the data-charts and currated insights that were created in the Course Equity Portal for you. However, the data used to create these charts and insights came from datasets that already exist on your campus and at the Chancellor's office. As such, the underlying data are available to administrators at your campus (including your department chair, and dean) and at the Chancellor's Office. Their access to the underlying data is neither increased nor decreased by the existence of the Course Equity Portal.

The curated and individualized set of data insights created for you is viewable only to you. We encourage you to view, reflect and use your personal data without fear and with an eye towards growth. These individualized data are being provided in order to reveal areas where you can help the CSU better support student success and equity. You are free to share these insights with others as you consult and collaborate on identifying ways to support students better.

The data in the portal is updated each semester or term, so if you are a new instructor, you will not see your data until midway through your second term. Also many of the insight-finding algorithms search for patterns in trends over time or by aggregating multiple terms together. As a consequence, the portal may initially be unable to present any salient findings in your first term or two.

The Chancellor's office only began collecting grade data from the campuses in 2011. Consequently, the Course Equity Portal cannot access or present data from before then.

Currently, we cannot connect your body of work across multiple campuses, past or present. Each campus assigns its own employee ID number, which is what we need to connect you to your course data. If you're actively working on more than one campus, you can see your data for each campus separately by using the separate SSO logins you have for each campus.

We're currently collaborating with CO's IT office to see if a tool they've recently developed to enable cross-campus matching will help us combine/present all of your data together.

After all instructors submit the end of term grades, these data go through a lengthy validation process. As a consequence, data in this portal are typically updated in March (with data from the prior Fall) and August (with data from the prior Spring).

If you’re having any kind of problem accessing or using the Portal, please contact us here to let us know what problem you’re encountering. Please keep in mind that only CSU faculty can access and use the portal and that each faculty member will only be able to see their own personal data.