Create end-of-term course evaluations

Introduction

This guide will focus primarily on the project setup for end-of-term course evaluations, specifically where courses are team-taught, both the course and instructor will be evaluated, instructors will be able to add questions, and coordinators will be allowed to adjust the evaluation schedule and add questions as well. Once the course has ended, the feedback will be analyzed in reports shared with instructors and academic leaders (provosts, deans, and department chairs). In this case, end-of-term evaluations are often summative in nature. Alternatively, you can learn about creating mid-term evaluations which are often considered more formative.

Midterm vs. end-of-term evaluations

Step 1 - Add datasources

The first step is to add datasources containing relevant information on courses, the people involved, and their relationships to each other.

What you need for datasources:

What We Are Building

An end-of-term evaluation that allows students to evaluate a course being taught by multiple instructors using a single questionnaire.

Our Choices

The following parameters will be applied throughout this guide:

• Evaluations for team-taught courses: Instructors teaching the same class/section will be evaluated by their respective students on the same questionnaire as the course.
• Core questions: Each evaluation will include predefined core questions at the institutional, school, or departmental level.
• Question personalization for coordinators and instructors: Coordinators and instructors can add or select questions. Coordinator questions focus on course aspects, while instructor questions focus on their own teaching (e.g., approachability, knowledge of course material, student engagement).
• Delegated timing: Coordinators can adjust the timing of the evaluation.
• Shared reports: Reports are shared with academic leaders and instructors.

General Overview of Steps

1. Add datasources – Include data for the courses being evaluated, the people involved in the feedback process, and their relationships.
2. Create the Definition – Select the type of evaluation structure to use.
3. Define groups and privileges – Create the groups participating in the evaluations and assign privileges.
4. Create the project – Select the project's Definition, audience type, confidentiality level, and group update settings.
5. Verify subjects and members – Ensure the correct subjects and group members are included.
6. Build the questionnaire – Configure the mandatory survey and optionally allow coordinators and instructors to add or select validated questions.
7. Configure tasks – Apply initial task settings.
8. Schedule tasks – Set task and reminder schedules to collect feedback.
9. Publish project – Set the overall evaluation schedule and publish the project.
10. Create reports – Analyze feedback and generate summary reports.

Common Terms in End-of-Term Course Evaluations

These terms may vary by region or institution.

• Course evaluation: A student end-of-class summative survey. Also known as "student evaluation", "learning feedback", "student feedback", "paper evaluation", "module evaluation", or "teaching effectiveness survey".
• Instructor: Someone who teaches one or more courses. Also referred to as “professor”, “teacher”, or “lecturer”.
• Course: A unit of teaching typically lasting one academic term. Also called “class”, “module”, or “paper”.
• Program: A collection of related courses defining a degree focus. Also known as "module" or "field of study".
• Academic term: A portion of the year during which courses are held. Also referred to as “semester”, “trimester”, or “quarter”.
• Course coordinator: Oversees teaching quality and materials for one or more courses. Also called “course leader”, “module leader”, or “primary instructor”.
• Academic leader: Head of an academic department, faculty, or institution. Titles include "provost", "dean", "headmaster", "department chair", "director", "superintendent", etc.
• Organizational unit: A functional division within an institution (e.g., School of Arts & Science, Department of Dentistry, Sub Department of Civil Engineering).
• Hierarchy level: Organizational structure levels, such as University (Level 1) > School (Level 2) > Department (Level 3) > Sub Department (Level 4). These levels and names may vary by institution.

Midterm vs. End-of-Term Evaluations

Step 1 – Add Datasources

The first step is to add datasources containing relevant information on courses, the people involved, and their relationships.

What You Need for Datasources:

Example of Entity Relationship Diagram for datasources:

Step 2 - Create the Definition

The next step after adding datasources is to create the Definition.

What you need for the Definition:

Step 3 - Define groups and privileges

As part of the Definition, you will also need to create the groups of individuals that will be participating in your end-of-term evaluations and assign them privileges.

What you need for groups and privileges:

Step 4 - Create the project

The next step after defining groups is to create the feedback project.

What you need to create the project:

Step 5 - Verify subjects and group members

Since Automatic Update was enabled for all subjects and groups when creating the project, Blue will automatically populate subjects and group members in the project.

Get started by navigating to the MEMBERS - EXPORT/IMPORT tab and select export members to download a CSV file of all courses and associated group members in your project. For more information, see Export or import project members.

Example of exported data (courses and their paired group members):

Step 6 - Build the Questionnaire

After project creation, construct the questionnaire containing:

• Core questions (standardized)
• Personalized questions (from instructors/coordinators)

Reference: Build and manage a questionnaire

Questionnaire Components

Example Questionnaire:

Step 7 - Configure Tasks

Set up task permissions for each user group:

Task Configuration Summary

Common Settings

• Authentication: Required for all tasks
• Owner Removal: Deletes task in all cases

Get started by navigating to the TASKS tab and enabling the subject management, question personalization, and fillout tasks. For each task, select configure to configure the settings.

Step 8 - Schedule tasks

After you have configured the tasks, the next step is to schedule when each task starts and ends.

Example of end-of-term evaluation schedule (your schedule may vary):

Step 9 - Publish project

The next step is to publish the project, which is essentially activating the tasks so that they can be completed by all the groups.

What you will need to publish the project:

Step 10 - Create reports

The final step is to create reports which analyzes the student feedback collected from the project. For end-of-term evaluations, reports will be shared with instructors and academic leaders.

What you will need for reports: