Faculty FAQs about Course Evaluations

Course evaluation surveys are typically the most common indirect assessment of courses in Higher Education. These surveys provide students the ability to share their course experiences and feedback with their instructors, so that the instructors can use student feedback to:

1. help identify areas of strength and where improvements can be made in the course
2. serve as evidence of teaching efficacy or excellence for use in faculty promotion and tenure processes, award nominations, etc.

As long as faculty and students have access to their email, they will be able to access the online course evaluation system (e.g., mobile devices, laptops, desktop computers). Each email reminder sent from the Office of Institutional Research (OIR; survey@loyola.edu) will include a table of courses with open evaluations (with personalized links to each) and a personalized link under “Login Instructions” at the bottom of every email. Be sure to remove BOTH the table and the personalized link in the “Login Instructions” if you forward the email to anyone other than OIR. If you accidentally forward any of these, then contact OIR (survey@loyola.edu) as soon as possible so they can help you stop them from working and break their access to your SmartEvals dashboard. Otherwise, these links are automatically broken after 30 days.

Additionally, there should be a link to the SmartEvals course evaluation system in each Moodle course at the top of the course’s homepage. If you accidentally removed this link, then you can re-add it by following the “Add Course Evaluations to your Moodle Course” OTS Knowledge base article. Note: when adding this new link, it is important that you change the “Grade” setting (see step 5) from the default of adding the new External tool (Loyola Course Evaluations) as a graded assignment to one that is not graded – if that is your intention.

On May 23, 2023, the “motion for decision that Loyola pilot the SIR-II institution-wide as the systematic tool used to solicit Student Evaluations of Teaching beginning AY24 passed with 20 in favor and 15 opposed via a Zoom poll” (Academic Senate minutes). See Survey Form Setup for more details.

If you have questions or would like more information on this matter, please contact your Loyola Governance representative.

The previous location of the Moodle SmartEvals link was the top right corner of each individual's Moodle dashboard (homepage). However, both to improve security and stability of the link, this will now be placed as "Loyola Course Evaluations" or "Course Evaluations" in the top section of each Moodle course's homepages. This allows faculty the easier ability to remind students of that course-specific link. Starting in summer 2023, this will be included in the Moodle course template. This SmartEvals link should always remain in this location in your course so that you and your students can access your respective SmartEvals dashboards. When students click on their dashboard, based on if it is during a course evaluation period and whether they submitted their course evaluation(s), they will see the correct information and instructions. Therefore, please do not remove this external tool resource unless your course is evaluated in a different way outside of the SmartEvals platform (e.g., Psychology courses).

At any point, if you accidentally removed this link, then you can re-add it by following the “Add Course Evaluations to your Moodle Course” OTS Knowledge base article. Note: when adding this new link, it is important that you change the “Grade” setting (see step 5) from the default of adding the new External tool (Loyola Course Evaluations) as a graded assignment to one that is not graded – if that is your intention.

For majority of courses, the course evaluations will be open 2 weeks before Study Day and they will close at 11:59 PM the day before Study Day. Specific details are available on the Academic Year Course Evaluation Schedule.

• Students will receive an email to their Loyola email address directing them to click on their personalized links in the email itself or to log in to Moodle to access and complete their electronic course evaluations. The email will contain a table listing all their open course evaluations for the semester and the window for which each evaluation will be available. Electronic course evaluations will remain open for two weeks and students will receive email reminders throughout that time to complete their open course evaluations.
• Faculty will similarly be notified and sent reminders via email when online course evaluations are open and available to students. The instructor email will contain a table showing each of the open course evaluations assigned to them, the evaluation questionnaire assigned to each course, the evaluation window, and student response rates (as of the time the email was sent). Instructors can also log in to SmartEvals to see their up-to-date course evaluation response rates for each of their courses (see “How can we access the course evaluation system?” FAQ above). In SmartEvals, instructors can access MyEvalCenter and click the "Get QR codes" link for their course(s) to print the page that is displayed and distribute it to their students. Using their mobile devices, students can scan the QR code and complete their course evaluations during class. Keep in mind that this QR code is different for each course/section each semester, so faculty should be sure to update the code(s) as needed in their copied Moodle course(s) from the previous semester.

Although the SmartEvals system anonymizes the student information, from both Loyola faculty and staff, the student is also responsible for maintaining their anonymity. Specifically, students should avoid providing identifiable information in the open-ended question responses (e.g., names, dates, specific events, or discussions) that the instructor could use to identify the student respondent.

However, if a threat is made in the student evaluation response, self-harm or against another individual, then Loyola will be informed by SmartEvals and Loyola will be able to formally request identification of the student and information about the threat. Loyola will still not have access to the specific student's response(s). 

Yes. Although SmartEvals does not allow instructors to identify which students participated, as needed, there is a workaround. You can request that students take a screenshot of their SmartEvals dashboard that includes their name, your course’s tile, and “Completed” under that tile – and then share that with you (via email, Moodle, or any additional way you specify to them). Therefore, students are responsible for providing the course evaluation participation evidence to any faculty that request that.

Please refer to the details provided in the "Take class time to let students know that their feedback is important to you" section of the Faculty Resources and Training website.

To ensure that students can respond honestly and maintain the confidentiality of their responses, faculty should step out of the classroom for about 10-15 minutes while students complete the course evaluation survey. 

Additionally, typically one month prior to the majority of fall and spring course evaluation surveys' opening, an email will be sent from the Provost's Office to faculty. This will include important details and guidelines to follow as well as a template Powerpoint slide with suggested language for orienting students to the survey. Faculty can update the latter for each course and show it when administering the surveys to provide an introduction and context to the students.

No. Only you will see your dashboard when you click on the links. Similarly, students clicking on the link will only take them to their individual SmartEvals dashboard. As an example, if Jane Doe clicks the button through Moodle or the reminder email links, then she will only see the course evaluations that are available for Jane Doe - or a message that says that there are none for her to complete at this time.

Faculty and students can only access their electronic course evaluations by entering their Loyola login credentials through Moodle or via each of the SmartEvals-related emails in the table of courses with open evaluations (with personalized links to each) as well as a personalized link at the bottom under “Login Instructions.” Access through Moodle is password-protected. 

Access through the table of courses with open evaluations (with personalized links to each) as well as the personalized link in the “Login Instructions” at the bottom of email reminders are NOT password-protected. Therefore, either remove BOTH the table and the personalized link in the “Login Instructions” prior to forwarding any emails to anyone outside of OIR – OR – do not forward SmartEvals email reminders to anyone outside of OIR. If you accidentally forward any of these, then contact OIR (survey@loyola.edu) as soon as possible so they can help you stop them from working and break their access to your SmartEvals dashboard. Otherwise, these links are automatically broken after 30 days.

Each student will need to fill out the course evaluation survey for each instructor.

Some courses are excluded from the SmartEvals system since the evaluation process is not applicable to them, e.g. Psychology and School of Education courses (they will email their students directly); courses offered at other non-Loyola locations, such as study abroad or study away; etc.

Also, if a course has fewer than 5 students enrolled, then no evaluation will be administered. This is done as a measure to ensure student confidentiality. However, you can request that your students provide feedback directly to you (e.g., email, written note, discussion) or provide you with a letter of support that you could use for your promotion and tenure, etc. that describes your teaching and their resulting learning. If your students are willing, then they are free to provide that type of feedback to you outside of this online course evaluation system.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to OIR (survey@loyola.edu) if you think you are missing a course that you think should be included in the SmartEvals system for course evaluation.