Submitting Surveys, Feedback Forms, and Rubrics
For Publication in Flashlight Online

This document is both for:

1. People who are considering whether to suggest a survey, item bank, rubric or feedback form for potential publication as part of the TLT/Flashlight Collection, and

2. Peer reviewers who are judging those suggestions. (click here to go directly to rubric used for review)

The first part of the document is mainly for those preparing submissions, and the second part mainly for reviewers, but both groups should read the whole document.

Subscribers Can Submit Templates for Publication in the TLT/Flashlight Collection

Templates are surveys, rubrics, item banks, and feedback forms that you and other authors can use either “as is” or as a first draft for creating new Flashlight Online documents.  You can also submit a study package, which includes one or more such templates, documentation on why and how to use the templates, and an example of how resulting data has been used by the author or others in the past. (More on the content of survey packages can be found below.)

Such templates need not have been created with Flashlight methods or tools, nor do they need to deal with technology use. They will be judged for their utility for Flashlight Online users..

Who Can Submit a Survey Package for Potential Publication?

Anyone associated with a TLT/Flashlight subscriber institutions may submit a survey package, e.g.,

• a student who has used the instrument in a dissertation,

• a faculty member who uses this rubric regularly to assess student work,

• an administrative unit that has repeatedly used a needs assessment

• an accreditation self-study team that has studied achievement

• a vice-president who has collected data for a cost-analysis

• ...

What to Submit, and How

Submissions should include:

1. The proposed template;

2. Statement of purpose for using the template, description of results from past uses of the proposed template, and any other contextual information that peer reviewers might need to decide its value for other users;

3. Assurance that you have the legal right to allow The TLT Group and its subscribers to use, modify, and distribute the materials you have submitted.

If the submission is a study package, the submission might also include a brief summary of the validity and reliability tests of the survey plus any relevant references.  Summary of findings from some previous use of the survey

Survey packages and questions about the review process should be e-mailed to Steve Ehrmann, Director of the Flashlight Program < ehrmann@tltgroup.org >.

Publication

Survey packages will be published for at least two audiences:

• as a TLT Group-approved template in Flashlight Online

• for Basic subscribers, on request, as a Word file or pdf .

Invitation to Serve as a Peer Reviewer

We also invite you to serve as a peer reviewer, to make this process of user-to-user sharing work. If you’re interested in serving as a member of the peer review committee in this publication process or if you have questions, please send e-mail to Steve Ehrmann at Ehrmann@tltgroup.org.

Review Process

Each submission will be reviewed by at least two reviewers.  Some submissions may be tested at the reviewers’ institutions. See below for rubric to be used in evaluating surveys for inclusion in Flashlight.  Each package will be reviewed independently on four criteria (purpose, plan, validation/reliability, report) as shown in the scoring sheet below.

Then, after independent review, reviewers will confer and agree on a final rating:

1) Not appropriate for publication to Flashlight users. Author will receive feedback.

2) Promising; returned to the author for improvement (or modified by reviewers, with revisions returned to the author for approval)

3) Appropriate for publication as a survey package.

RUBRIC FOR EACH PEER REVIEWER'S INITIAL EVALUATION OF A SURVEY PACKAGE