CoursEval Guide

The purpose of this guide is to provide an easy-to-use reference for accessing CoursEval and generating and understanding the reports that are available. A downloadable PDF version of the guide is available here.

Background

Course evaluations are conducted each term for every course offered in the Carl H. Lindner College of Business. These assessments provide a formal mechanism of feedback from students to the instructor. Course evaluation data are currently used in multiple ways including for annual performance reviews, RPT portfolios, teaching awards and other forms of recognition.

Process overview

The CoursEval system is made available to students for their input at the end of each term. Student assessment data is typically collected beginning the Thursday evening of the second to last week of the term until the Sunday preceding exam week.

During the evaluation period, instructors are sent a link that allows them to monitor participation so they may encourage overall participation in this important student assessment process.

The CoursEval system is set up to automatically generate an email to the instructor when the data reports are ready to be viewed. These reports are released to faculty the day after final grades for the term are due.

Accessing your evaluation data

Your CoursEval reports can be accessed in any of three ways:

1. A direct link will be provided in an email sent to each faculty member when new data is available.
2. Opening a browser and going directly to CoursEval.
3. A link in your MyUC Blackboard page, in the "Tools" section. See the CoursEval link on the left hand side of the screen below the "Tools" bar.

All links take faculty to a Central Login Service screen; log in using your 6+2 and password.

Creating a report in CoursEval

The CoursEval system allows the instructor to access both current and historical course evaluation data. After the user logs into the system, the Home Page Reports screen is displayed. You can choose to view a report, view all reports or preview a survey. You can also see the number and percentage of students who have responded to your survey. Note that the student participation data is available during the period that students are being surveyed. During that period, you will not be able to open the reports, but you will see real time participation data.

You can select which type of report you wish to view by clicking the 'Reports' option at the top of the screen. From the top menu select Reports and choose Evaluation Reports.

By selecting the various drop-down boxes, the instructor can see data for a specific year, term and department. The department may vary for some individuals if they teach in multiple areas. It's also important to note a class must have at least one student evaluation for the summary report to appear on the report list. It is recommended that the user set Department to "Show All" and Survey to "Show All" to ensure that all courses taught during a particular year and term are displayed.

Once the user has identified the available evaluations for a period, one or more of these reports can be selected to view.

Click on the box(es) under "Include" for those evaluations of interest and then select "View Report."

• A separate window will pop up with this data.
• The window will initially be blank. Population of this window may take a bit of time especially if it is retrieving a large amount of data.

A user may also modify the standard report by selecting "Options." The "Options" menu allows the user to limit the output and/or add graphs.

There are two basic types of Evaluation Report views:

Comparative view: presents an overview of the performance of all individuals evaluated for each course.
Individual view: presents the performance of each person assessed in separate sections of the report.

You can select the type of report you wish to view from the drop down list next to 'View.'

Evaluation report: more detail

The default report view will provide numerical results obtained for your course. If you selected more than one course from the reports page, they will be displayed in sequence as you scroll down the page. The default reporting system provides comparative results for your course, other courses in your department and all of the courses included in the evaluation period. Basic statistics are provided for your use as well. You may print any of these reports by clicking the 'Print' option located on the Evaluation Reports page, or select File/Print from your browser window.

Detailed results

The Detailed Results screen focuses on individual performance. This screen displays the faculty list for the year, term and survey selected in the drop-down menus.

To view the results for a different set of surveys, change the selections from the drop-down menus and allow the screen to refresh.

Note: For a course taught by more than one instructor, the CoursEval system will only generate a report for the Primary Instructor of record in Universis. Contact Robin Brinkman or Shannon Funk if an additional survey is needed.

Understanding your report

The CoursEval output shows your student feedback for all questions in the survey. It also includes detailed open-ended responses from students. The first data section shows number of responses by category from all students who answered a particular question. Response categories range from "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree."

Additional report sections provide department and college comparison data, including means and percentages of scores.

Individual/detailed results

The detailed results screen focuses on individual performance. This screen displays the faculty list for the year, term and survey selected in the drop-down menus.

To view the results for a different set of surveys, change the selections from the drop-down menus and allow the screen to refresh.

Under the Individual Reports bar make sure that drop down menu Year: is set to the current year.

Make sure that drop down menu Term: is set to the correct term.

Make sure that Survey is set to a specific evaluation type, such as clinical, classroom or course specific. If you select one of these categories only the surveys from that specific category will be displayed.

To view either report, click on the small graph button associated with the desired report.

To print your detailed report, select "File/Print" from the active browser window that is displaying the report.

Feedback report quick tips

Create a separate folder on your computer to store reports for easy access during RPT.

Cut and paste student testimonials from the CourseEval into a Word document that you can use in your annual performance review.

Compare your scores to past evaluations to spot trends, opportunities and areas for improvement. Ask yourself: what one change could I make next time to see improvements in my evaluation scores?

Need more ideas to enhance your teaching effectiveness? Consider resources at the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching at Learning (CET&L} at UC to provide with some fresh ideas for your course instruction.