Spring Student Course Evaluations Available May 3 - May 16

Wed, 03 May 2017 09:30:46 -0400
blackboard, course, evaluations, instructor, spring, student

The student course evaluations for Spring 2017 are now available to complete online between May 3 - May 16. Please note, you will not be able to change your answers after you submit, or access the evaluations after the time window closes.

Course evaluations are used to help improve, not only courses, but the quality of instruction at UMBC. The online survey includes both Likert scale responses and open-ended Direct Instructor Feedback Form (DIFF) questions. Instructors will only see aggregated responses to the survey questions. They will also see responses to open-ended questions but will not be able to connect those responses to individual students. You can see what the survey looks like here.

In Fall 2016, UMBC made the move away from paper scantrons for student evaluations and toward an online system, allowing more opportunity to complete evaluations.

As a student, you can go to your evaluations anytime during the open window and even save your responses to come back to later. To access them through Blackboard, log into your Blackboard account and click the MyBlackboard tab. There you will find a section with the heading “Online Student Course Evaluations.”

Screenshot of Blackboard and where to find the student course evaluations link.

Students will also receive an email from StudentCourseEvaluations@umbc.edu where they can access the evaluations with the link provided. You might notice a question mark next to the sender name. This happens when UMBC Gmail detects an email that was not sent by UMBC Gmail servers. In this case, the emails are being sent by eXplorance Blue, the online service used to administer the Student Course Evaluation program. The link in the email is safe to click with.

If you’re an instructor, you will also receive an email communication from StudentCourseEvaluations@umbc.edu with a link to a list of your courses. This link can be used for both monitoring response rates throughout the evaluation process, and reviewing survey results after final grades have been posted.

If you have any questions, you can check DoIT’s extensive FAQ collection here. Be sure to follow the Course Evaluations myUMBC group for important updates as well.

Follow the DoIT myUMBC group for more news and updates.