Getting started with student evaluations of teaching: Blue for instructors

Table of Contents

Overview of student evaluation of teaching

All for-credit courses with at least one student enrollment will be evaluated, except those tutorials for which the catalog number is appended by a T (e.g. 3450T). In order to protect student anonymity, instructors do not receive results reports for classes with fewer than five students, although the responses from small classes are still included in the aggregated department and college reports received by academic leadership. For courses that run seven (7) weeks or longer, an evaluation survey is launched two (2) weeks before the published last day of the course. Evaluations launch for courses that run six (6) weeks or shorter is five (5) days before the course end date. Instructors and students are notified of the evaluation launch by an email sent from CourseEvaluations@ohio.edu. The student version of the email contains a link to the survey. Instructors and students may also access evaluations using any of these methods:

  • Select the Student Evaluations of Teaching link in the Canvas course menu.
    • If you don't see this link in your Canvas course, you may have hidden it (see Canvas evaluation link section below).
  • Select the Account icon at the top of the green menu along the left of Canvas, then select the Student Evaluations of Teaching link on the slide-out panel.
  • Sign into Blue directly at https://my-ohio.bluera.com (select the SAML button to authenticate). 

In addition to the above, instructors may share the evaluation link or QR code in class or by sending reminder emails through Blue. Throughout the evaluation period, instructors can monitor response rates in Blue without viewing the identities of students who have participated. Two (2) and four (4) days after the evaluation begins, Blue automatically sends reminder emails to instructors and to students who have not yet responded to the survey. Students will stop receiving reminder emails after they've submitted the evaluations. Upon submission, students receive a 'your feedback for [class] has been submitted' message on screen only.

Evaluation surveys are open for one (1) week for courses that run seven (7) weeks or longer, concluding at 11:59 PM one (1) week before the published course end date (before final exams). The surveys for courses that run six (6) weeks or shorter are open for the last five (5) days of the course, closing at 11:59 PM on the published course end date. Under no circumstances will responses be accepted after the deadline. If you are unsure of a course end date, you can find it in the Faculty & Advising Center and in the Course Offerings Search

After final grades are due for the term, instructors receive an email from Blue containing links to the evaluation results report in Blue and to the Student Evaluations of Teaching Dashboard in PowerBI. Instructors may also find past results reports at any time by signing into Blue directly (see "View all reports" link in My Reports widget) or via the Student Evaluations of Teaching Dashboard in PowerBI

Access Blue

You can check your evaluation status in Blue by

  • Using the link provided in your email

OR

Monitor evaluation response rate

You can view the response percentage for your course in the response rate circle.

  1. Log into Blue 
  2. Once on the Home page, you can view response rates for your active tasks in the My Active Tasks widget
  3. You can view the response percentage for your course in the response rate circle 

Image of Course Evaluation Dashboard showing student response rate, reports and an ellipses for more options

(Select image to enlarge)

Canvas evaluation link

Confirm evaluation link 

The Student Evaluations of Teaching link will appear automatically in your Canvas course, but you should confirm that the link is present and visible to students before the evaluation period begins.  

  1. Navigate to your Canvas course  
  2. Check the white course navigation menu on the left and confirm that the  Student Evaluations of Teaching link is present

Hide evaluation link 

Nearly all courses are evaluated, but if your course is one of the few that will not be evaluated in Blue, you can hide the link from students.  

  1. Navigate to your Canvas course  
  2. In the white course navigation menu at the left, scroll down to the bottom and select Settings  
  3. On the Settings page select Navigation  
  4. On the Navigation page, select the Student Evaluations of Teaching item and drag it down to the bottom section labeled “Drag items here to hide them from students”  
  5. Select Save  
  6. The Student Evaluations of Teaching link will no longer be visible in your course navigation menu

Provide evaluation link to students

Image of Course Evaluation Dashboard showing student response rate, reports and an ellipses for more options

(Select image to enlarge)

  • Create a QR Code
    • Select the ellipsis (…) on the course you are interested in
    • Select View QR Code
    • Select View QR Code on pop up screen
    • You can copy and paste this link to display to students
  • Generate a link
    • Select the ellipsis (…) on the course you are interested in
    • Select View QR Code
    • Copy the link and paste into your desired communication
  • Send a reminder email
    • Select the ellipsis (…) on the course you are interested in
    • Select View Respondents
    • Select Resend invitation emails to all raters who have not yet submitted
    • You should see a confirmation message that your email has been sent

Image of confirmation message that reads Confirmation Success with a green check mark.

(Select image to enlarge)

Accessing reports

  • Automated reports are sent to instructors via email once grades have been submitted for full term courses.
    • This includes courses that run for less than fifteen (15) weeks (e.g. first summer session courses will not receive reports until after second and full summer session grades are submitted).
  • An email will be sent from Blue with a link to access your individual reports for courses that have at least five (5) students enrolled and for which the evaluation has received at least one (1) response. The email will also include a link to the Student Evaluations of Teaching Dashboard in PowerBI.
    • In order to preserve student anonymity, course results reports will not be generated for sections with fewer than five (5) students enrolled, however, responses from these courses will be aggregated into department and college reports provided to academic leadership.
    • In some cases, response data for sections with small enrollments may be combined with data for larger sections in the Student Evaluations of Teaching Dashboard (see below). Contact your college/school/department evaluation administrator for assistance with determining whether a class qualifies for a combined report.
  • In addition to accessing past reports in Blue, you can download a PDF or CSV copy of your reports for archival purposes.  
    1. Select the link in the email to access your report.
    2. In the top left of your report, you will see the option to download in either PDF or CSV format.
    3. Reports can also be obtained by visiting https://my-ohio.bluera.com/.
    • Please note this link only works after you have received the email notification that your reports are ready.
    • Once on the Home page, your most recent reports will be available in the My Reports widget located at the bottom of the page. Select the View all reports link to see additional reports, including those for past evaluation periods.

A information screen with the option to download a pdf or csv version of the report

(Select image to enlarge)

Student Evaluations of Teaching Dashboard

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) has developed a PowerBI report dashboard to provide instructors and academic leadership with access to more robust reporting of evaluation data. Instructors will continue to receive the automated reports emails from Blue for individual course results reports, which include student comment responses.

Accessing the dashboard

  • The first time you access the dashboard, you will need to use the direct link that is provided in the automated report notification emails received from Blue (CourseEvaluations@ohio.edu) after the evaluation period ends and term grades are submitted. This link will 'install' the Student Evaluations of Teaching Dashboard app in your PowerBI reports list (does not install anything on your device).
  • After your first time accessing the dashboard, you may continue to use the direct link, or you can open the dashboard from the PowerBI site:
    • Once you've signed into PowerBI with your Ohio account, select Apps from the menu along the left, and then select the Student Evaluations of Teaching Dashboard app in your PowerBI Apps list. 

Navigating the dashboard

  • Use the menu along the left to navigate between the Welcome page and the Instructor Pages section, which includes the Summary View and the Question Details pages.
    • Welcome is a landing page with some basic information and navigation instructions.
    • Summary View displays response rates and overall averages for courses and terms, including how averages trend over time.
    • Question Details displays response option rate, number of responses, and mean score for each question on the evaluation form.
  • On the Summary View and Question Details pages, you'll find various Slicers (drop-down menus) that you can use to filter the displayed data. The available slicers include the following variables: 
    • Term (includes only the terms evaluations were conducted in Blue) 
    • Campus
    • College
    • Department
    • Career (graduate or undergraduate course) 
    • Component (course type) 
    • Delivery Type (in-person or online) 
    • Instructor Name (can only by filtered by academic leadership or admins) 
    • Class Section 
    • Question Section
    • Question   
  • Note that, depending on your level of access, you may not have options for all visible slicers.
  • By default, only data for the most recent term is displayed; data for additional terms can be selected with the Term slicer. 
  • If you select a course from the Class Section slicer, but no data is displayed, the selected course section did not have at least five students enrolled.
  • If you do not see a section as an option in the Class Section slicer, either the evaluation did not receive any responses or an evaluation did not take place.
  • The slicers are 'sticky,' so when you return to the dashboard, the options selected during your previous session are still in place.
  • If you are seeing unexpected values in the data or in the slicer options, select the Clear all slicers button at the top right of the dashboard to reset all of the slicers and start again.

Exporting

  • To export data from the dashboard, do not use the Export option at the very top of the page. Instead, hover over the desired data and select the More Options ellipsis (...) in the upper right of the frame (outlined with red in the image below), then choose Export Data.

In PowerBI, export data using the ellipsis icon that signifies the More Options menu, which is outlined with a red box for emphasis

Considerations

  • Responses to open-ended questions are not displayed on the dashboard at this time. Student comments continue to be available in the individual course reports that Blue automatically distributes by email to instructors and evaluation administrators. 
  • To protect student anonymity, data for class sections with fewer than five enrollments will not display on the Instructor Pages. If slicers are selected for class sections with fewer than five students enrolled, the dashboard will be blank.
  • Combining course sections
    • If a course section does not meet the enrollment threshold for reporting, but it was taught with a larger enrollment section (or multiple sections), you can request a report of the combined data from your college or school evaluation administrator. Combined reports are only intended for sections that are taught together. 

Get help from OIT

Additional resources