Faculty FAQs about Course Evaluations

How does Loyola use course evaluation surveys and why are they important?

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:

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

How can we access the course evaluation system?

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.

Why did the course evaluation survey form change?

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.

Why did the Moodle location for the SmartEvals link change?

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.

When will electronic course evaluations be open to students?

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.

Are the responses anonymous?

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).

Is there a way to find out which of my students participated?

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.

Can students see my SmartEvals instructor dashboard when they click on the Moodle or reminder email links?

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.

How are electronic course evaluations secured?

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.

How will co-instructors be evaluated?

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

I cannot see my current course(s) from this semester. Why would that be?

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.

Why am I seeing a student that withdrew?

There is a small window of time between the start of the end-of-semester evaluation periods opening and when OIR and SmartEvals stop the connection between Loyola’s Colleague system and the SmartEvals system – until at least after the two-week-long evaluation period. If a student was to withdraw from the course in that small window of time or during the evaluation period, then SmartEvals would not have been able to be updated to indicate they are no longer enrolled in the course. Therefore, those withdrawn students would still receive emails requesting that they complete the course’s course evaluation as if they were still enrolled in the course. You can contact OIR (survey@loyola.edu) with proof of the student’s withdrawal date from the course, to request that they be removed from that particular course’s roster, so they don’t continue to receive email reminders to complete your course’s survey.

Otherwise, as soon as the Loyola’s Colleague system and the SmartEvals system are reconnected, then any withdrawn students’ course evaluations will be removed from the course from which they withdrew. This will occur prior to when the results are released to faculty and they are emailed their PDF reports, so that the values of participants in those reports and in the SmartEvals instructor dashboards have the same final number of respondents.

Why aren’t graduate courses on separate course evaluation windows than the undergraduates?

Please see the details provided in the Survey Completion section of the course evaluation process.

Why should I use my Loyola email address as my preferred email address at Loyola?

SmartEvals will not bounce back from Loyola’s email system and should not be directed towards the Junk folder, unlike if you were to use a non-Loyola email. If you are using a different email, then you might accidentally “Unsubscribe” yourself from one of the SmartEvals systems, which means you will not be able to receive any emails from SmartEvals again. If this happens, please contact OIR (survey@loyola.edu) and we can re-subscribe you to SmartEvals.

How can I change the email address that SmartEvals uses to send me reminders?

To change your primary email in SmartEvals, you must update your primary email address in Loyola’s Colleague system. To do that, you need to reach out to the HR hiring partner (Toya Dailey-Smith; tdailey-smith@loyola.edu) or HR program assistant (Brianna Perry; bperry1@loyola.edu).

How can I change my name in the SmartEvals system (e.g., emails)?

To change your name in SmartEvals, you must update your name in Loyola’s Colleague system. To do that, you need to reach out to the HR hiring partner (Toya Dailey-Smith; tdailey-smith@loyola.edu) or HR program assistant (Brianna Perry; bperry1@loyola.edu).

When will faculty be able to see the course evaluation reports?

Please see the details provided in the Result Dissemination and Analysis section of the course evaluation process. Additionally, see “How can we access the course evaluation system?” on how to access your personalized SmartEvals dashboard.

Please note that OIR and SmartEvals have put certain settings in place to help ensure student confidentiality that might affect your access to reports for certain courses. For instance,

only courses with 5 or more students are included in the course evaluation process/SmartEvals system (For possible alternatives for student feedback from small enrollment courses, see "I cannot see my current course(s) from this semester. Why would that be?"); and
reports are not shared for courses that had fewer than 3 student respondents (To help ensure you have enough participants, see Increase response rate ideas provided in the Course Evaluation Best Practices Resources section of the Faculty Resources and Training website).

Why aren't there any graphs in the course evaluation reports?

Data visualizations of all the survey form questions cannot be shown in the graphs in the course evaluation report PDF files. This is based on two factors:

There is a limitation in the reporting capabilities of SmartEvals when generating graph images on the report PDF pages which only allows the first twelve questions to be shown.
The length of the survey form exceeds twelve questions.

Therefore, any questions beyond the first twelve questions in the form are not shown in the graph. To avoid confusion, OIR has turned off the feature to display graphs in the report PDF files.

However, faculty can go to their SmartEvals dashboard (see “How can we access the course evaluation system?” FAQ above, as needed) and generate custom reports (including graphs) based on any question(s) they choose. To find out more about custom reporting in SmartEvals for any completed and released course evaluation report, follow the instructions in the resources provided in the SmartEvals Training section of the Faculty Resources and Training website.

How can I find out more about custom reporting in SmartEvals?

Go to your SmartEvals dashboard (see “How can we access the course evaluation system?” FAQ above, as needed). For any completed and released course evaluation report, follow the instructions in the resources provided in the SmartEvals Training section of the Faculty Resources and Training website.

Can administrators (e.g., Department Chairs, Deans) see the course evaluation reports of their faculty?

Unless faculty send their individual course evaluation reports to their respective Department Chair, Dean, etc. – then those administrators will not be able to see them. Be sure to remove the personalized link in the “Login Instructions” if you forward the email with your course evaluation results attached as PDF(s), to ensure your SmartEvals account is not accessed by someone that is not you. If you accidentally forward this link, then contact OIR (survey@loyola.edu) as soon as possible so they can help you stop the link from working and break its access to your SmartEvals dashboard. Otherwise, this link is automatically broken after 30 days.

How can I access course evaluation reports?

Visit OIR's Accessing Course Evaluation Reports knowledge base article to find out where and how you can access course evaluation reports, if available.

Otherwise, if you are unable to access your course evaluation report(s), then please go to the OIR request portal and click “Submit a Request”.

If you receive an error that you cannot access the form, that is because only Loyola individuals (not the general public) can access this data request form at this time. Therefore, if you do not see your name in the top right corner of the OIR request portal, then please click the “Sign In” button there to authenticate and then that will allow you to access the data request form. It should automatically sign you in via your Loyola credentials, but otherwise, please enter your typical username and password if requested.
If you have questions or feedback about this form or the ticketing system, please email us at ir@loyola.edu.

The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European regulation standard for data protection and privacy. Since Loyola University, like many Higher Education institutions, has students/faculty that are either studying/teaching in Europe (e.g., Study Abroad) or that are European citizens. Therefore, to comply with the European GDPR, SmartEvals has included a link for individuals to remove themselves from the system such that their personal data is not included on the platform. Only individuals that have non-education email addresses (e.g., gmail, yahoo) as their SmartEvals email of record will be allowed to request this removal due to the GDPR. However, the final removal of the individuals will not be performed until after review by OIR staff to ensure the user did not mean to do this or, upon explanation of the consequences of removal from SmartEvals, will not want to be removed. Specifically, faculty that are permanently removed from SmartEvals would not be able to access their course evaluation reports and would not receive their reports at the end of each term through the SmartEvals automated emailing system. Therefore, the Provost’s office has decided that faculty requests for removal from the SmartEvals system shall not be approved – to ensure faculty have continued access to their course evaluation reports.

Who can I contact if I have questions about course evaluations?

You can contact the Office of Institutional Research (OIR; survey@loyola.edu) with any questions or concerns regarding course evaluations.

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