Student Workload Impacts Course Evaluations

While factors like teaching quality, course structure, use of technology and timely feedback have always been important factors for students when evaluating their professors and courses, there is another crucial aspect that can significantly impact the overall evaluation – the number of courses taken in a semester. Here’s how. The number of courses taken by …

Use a Software Vendor for Course Evaluations

If your school is looking to save time on course evaluations while simultaneously improving data accuracy, then switching to a software vendor may be the perfect option. Course evaluation software vendors, such as SmartEvals, can help schools break away from archaic means of conducting surveys. But what are the benefits? 1. Streamlined Process By using …

6 Benefits of Course Evaluations in Higher Ed

Course evaluations should play an important role in any college or university’s institutional research process. Students are asked to critique courses and instructors at the end of each semester, and their answers, compiling tons and tons of data, can be be used to affect necessary change. Those changes can be small, such as an instructor …

Tips for Designing Better Surveys

Making surveys understandable is critical in order to effectively collect reliable feedback from the respondent. If a survey is unclear or confusing, respondents are likely to provide inaccurate or incomplete responses. Additionally, surveys must be easy to navigate to encourage the respondent to provide quality and thoughtful responses. Understanding the survey content will help the …

Boosting Course Evaluation Response Rates: Part II

In our last blog post, we discussed best practices for improving course evaluation response rates through instructor buy-in. However, it’s imperative that the process is as easy as possible for students. After all, they are the ones completing the evaluations. When creating a course evaluation plan, institutions should consider the immediacy of the evaluation, incentives …

Boosting Course Evaluation Response Rates

Student response rates to college course evaluations are a vital measure of course quality and student satisfaction. It’s important for instructors to encourage students to complete their evaluations to ensure courses are held to the highest standards. For response rates to be maximally useful and provide meaningful data, it’s necessary to consider a variety of …