Getting Started with Course Evaluations: Blue (Subunit Admins)

Table of Contents

Overview of the online course evaluation process

Currently, all courses are evaluated, regardless of enrollment, except those excluded by the college and marked as 'do not evaluate' in the workflow (see Sorting and filtering courses below). Starting in fall 2025, all courses except research (RSC) and tutorial (TUT) will be evaluated, regardless of enrollment. In order to protect student anonymity, instructors do not receive results reports for classes with fewer than five students.

Thirty (30) days before the published course end date, Blue sends evaluation administrators a form preview email for each course with an upcoming evaluation. Form preview tasks must be completed by evaluation administrators before the evaluation period begins. An evaluation survey is launched two (2) weeks before the last day of the course. 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 via Canvas (Learning Management System) or by signing into Blue directly. In addition, instructors may share the evaluation link or QR code with students in class. Throughout the evaluation period, instructors can monitor response rates (though not view the contents of responses) in Blue. 

Currently, three (3) days after the evaluation begins, Blue sends a reminder email to students who have not yet responded to the survey. Four (4) days before the evaluation ends, Blue sends a second reminder email to students who have not yet responded. In addition to these two reminders, instructors may also generate reminder emails at will. Students will stop receiving reminder emails after they've submitted the evaluations. Upon submission, students receive a 'thank you for your feedback' message on screen only.

Evaluation surveys are open for two (2) weeks, concluding at 11:59 PM on the published course end date, and no further responses are accepted after this time. If you are unsure of a course end date, you can find it in the Faculty & Advising Center (if you have the appropriate access) and in the Course Offerings Search. 

Starting in fall 2025, the evaluation period will be reduced to one (1) week, with the surveys opening two (2) weeks before the course end date and closing one (1) week before the course end date (before final exams begin). This change is planned to comply with course evaluation standardization resolutions passed by Faculty Senate in spring of 2025.

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 Blue Course Evaluations 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 Blue Course Evaluations Dashboard.

Accessing Blue

  • You can access Blue at the following link to see all active tasks assigned.

Sorting and Filtering Courses

  • Courses for upcoming Semesters can be requested using the  SubAdmin-BlueCourseListAudit Request Form.

    • Access to the form and files is restricted to the admins listed for Blue.

    • If you need access please visit the Technology Help Center page to create a ticket.

  • Select Initial course review and submit.

    • Once you receive your individual file, save the file without changing the file name.

      • If the file name is changed the upload will fail. 

  • The file can be filtered as you see fit, without removing columns.

    • Do NOT delete columns or the upload will fail.

  • For each course, you will need to update the "AG" column, titled "Course is evaluated Y or N."

  • Submit your updated file when you are finished making updates.

  • For further information, Blue: Course Audit Workflow Help Video demonstrates this entire process.

Accessing Course Evaluation Reports

  • Reports are sent out after grades are due for the full term. 

    • This includes courses that run less than 15 weeks.

  • Academic Unit Staff will receive a copy of the departmental reports they are responsible for as well as a copy of each instructor's individual report that falls under that department. 

  • Course reports are only generated for courses with at least 5 students enrolled and for which at least 1 evaluation response was submitted, but the data for these courses will be included in the aggregated department and college reports.

Blue Course Evaluations 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 and evaluation administrators will continue to receive the automated reports emails from Blue for individual course results and departmental reports. 

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 Course Evaluations Dashboard app in your PowerBI reports (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 Course Evaluations Dashboard app in your PowerBI Apps list. 

Navigating the dashboard

  • Use the menu along the left to navigate between the Welcome page and the Admin Pages section, which includes the Summary View and Question Details pages. The Admin Pages section currently displays a version of the question details page which allows you to select multiple course sections and produce combined data. If you are an instructor, as well as an administrator, you may also see an Instructor Pages section, which includes the same screens, but with more limited data.
    • Welcome is a landing page with some basic information about the dashboard and navigation instructions.
    • Question Details displays response option rate, number of responses, and mean score for each question on the evaluation form.
    • Summary View displays response rates and overall averages for courses and terms, including how averages trend over time.
  • 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 (terms evaluated 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 do not see a course as an option in the Class Section slicer, either the evaluation did not receive any responses or an evaluation did not occur.
  • The filters are 'sticky,' so when you return to the dashboard, the slicers 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.
  • Export Data
    • You can export data from the dashboard by hovering over the desired content and selecting the ellipsis menu (...), then choosing Export Data.
  • Response rates can be found on the Summary View

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 individual or combined class sections with fewer than five enrollments will not display in the dashboard. If slicers are selected for individual or combined sections with fewer than five total students enrolled, the dashboard will be blank.
  • Combining course sections 
    • Administrators have the ability to select multiple course sections to provide combined data in more granular detail than found in Blue's distributed departmental reports by using the Admin Pages section of the dashboard.
    • To protect student anonymity, faculty will be directed to contact evaluation administrators for support with combining course sections in the reporting dashboard.
    • This functionality also allows small sections to be combined to share data when the total enrollment for the sections meets or exceeds five students.
      • Only combine small enrollment class sections with classes that are taught together and in the same modality. 

Assisting Instructors and Students

Course Evaluations Standard Operating Procedures

Get help from OIT

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