Course Evaluations
A course evaluation is a questionnaire requiring responses to a series of prompts in order to evaluate the instruction of a given course. Feedback from students is critical to help inform improvements in the quality of instruction. Instructors benefit by learning strengths and weakness of their teaching methods. Administrators can make formative recommendations (identify areas for improvement) and summative decisions (promotion and tenure, salary increases). Course evaluations should be used as one of multiple methods to evaluate teaching performance.
Instrument
Currently each college has a specific evaluation instrument. Evaluations for common curriculum courses, honors courses, and first year seminars include additional, customized items.
System
In fall 2014, the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness launched online course evaluations through EvaluationKIT (evaluationkit.com), a fully-hosted online course evaluation and survey software system. This vendor was selected by an ad hoc group of faculty members representing each college after the Faculty Senate granted permission to move course evaluations online.
Access the system here using your user name and password: https://loyno.evaluationkit.com/MyEval/Login.aspx
Emails sent from evaluate@loyno.edu come directly through EvaluationKIT and should not require a log in. You can also access the system on Blackboard.
Process
Course evaluations are electronically distributed to all enrolled students two weeks prior to the last class meeting during the fall and spring semesters. Students and instructors are notified via email (from evaluate@loyno.edu) and on Blackboard. Course evaluations are only open for the last two weeks of the semester and close before exams begin. Course evaluations in the summer remain open for one week.
At the request of the deans, class sections with five or fewer students do not receive course evaluations due to confidentiality concerns. (Exception: College of Music and Fine Arts.)
Please note that EvaluationKIT course and enrollment information comes from Blackboard. While we run clean-up reports as best as possible, instructors are urged to check their Blackboard rosters for accuracy. Courses should not have multiple instructors listed unless the course is team-taught. Use the “teaching assistant” function to grant other instructors or colleagues access to your Blackboard site.
Course evaluations results are available to instructors, chairs, and deans after final grades are posted on LORA.
Reports
Instructors have access to courses taught, chairs have access to all courses within the department, and deans have access to all courses within the college. Download the EvaluationKIT Report Instructions.
Help
Click the question mark circle located on the top right corner of any screen in EvaluationKIT. The Help Center provides articles and video tutorials as well as administrator and instructor help.
Contact
For questions and concerns related to course evaluations, please contact Nate Straight in the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness. nmstraig@loyno.edu, evaluate@loyno.edu, (504) 864-7910