The evaluation of courses and instructors is done in different ways at different times with different tools at institutions of learning across America and the world. Experts agree that the opinion of those who are taught is invaluable to those who do the teaching, which is why practically every institution of higher learning spends significant time and money to collect, analyze, and distribute opinion surveys. The focus of the surveys may vary—students evaluate courses and instructors, students evaluate their peers and themselves, instructors evaluate each other and students—but the task is always there and serves as an important component of any institutional assessment plan.

Generations of students and instructors learned to get this job done by using a pencil to complete a paper questionnaire in the minutes between the end of the final exam and the beginning of the school vacation. As with almost every other administrative function within the academy, the web is positively changing the way business is done. This certainly applies to the wide realm of course evaluation.

CoursEval™ is a web-based software product that was designed by an academic administrator and instructor with the explicit goal of making the required task of course evaluation easier, smarter, and less expensive for other administrators and instructors. CoursEval™ will allow you to evaluate courses and faculty online, replacing the paper process/bubble sheet approach. The software provides the means to create, deploy, and analyze longitudinal surveys geared to evaluate courses and faculty instruction, as well as other services provided by academic units. CoursEval™ will easily handle your traditional semester-end summative evaluations. It is also used to conduct formative evaluations to promote mid-course adjustments, and allow you to create peer-review surveys to monitor the individual performance of all participants over the span of a course. CoursEval™ will also support Self-Assessment activities.

“The relationship with CoursEval and Academic Management Systems has provided a wonderful improvement to the services I am able to offer my campus.  My faculty, skeptics about on-line evaluations at the start, have become its biggest fans.  They love the quick access to the results, especially since students seem to write longer, more meaningful comments now that they can key them in and remain truly anonymous – no handwriting to reveal identity!

              -          Janet Maddox, Director of Institutional Research -Oglethorpe University