Abu Dhabi University Achieves a 90% Survey Response Rate with Explorance Blue

Challenge – Streamlining Arabic Program Feedback 

Abu Dhabi University (ADU) faced several challenges in administering Student Evaluation of Teaching surveys for its Arabic programs. These challenges included difficulties in formatting Arabic surveys due to the language’s Right-to-Left direction, manual efforts in the data uploading process, and limited language support when exporting data for further analysis. These challenges resulted in inadequate survey experience for students and low response rates. 

Solution – An Equivalent Experience for Arabic and English Programs 

ADU sought a survey platform that could provide an optimized and accessible experience for its students in Arabic programs, where surveys can be administered in both English and Arabic and are accessible through the institution’s portal and Learning Management System (LMS), Blackboard. Explorance Blue stood out for its ability to meet these criteria and offer additional features such as a built-in reporting suite, a real-time response rate monitor for faculty and college staff, integration with Outlook for email notifications, advanced reporting capabilities, and an automated process to prepare data for survey projects. 

Outcome – Improving Response Rates and Student Learning Experience at ADU 

The implementation of Explorance Blue yielded significant improvements in student engagement for Arabic programs, “survey response rates of Arabic programs skyrocketed! The response rates improved to 90%.” said Merlyn Kulapurath, Senior Analyst, ADU. 

• 90% response rates
• 82 projects
• 6000 responses 

The platform enabled the export of survey results, including comments in Arabic, facilitating data-driven decision-making and actionable insights for program enhancement, teaching and course delivery, and various aspects of quality assurance. 

The feedback loop established through Explorance Blue facilitated evidence-based decision-making, supported faculty appraisals and development processes, and drove curriculum enhancements based on student feedback. Student satisfaction scores became integral components of college deans’ and department scorecards, driving continuous improvement efforts institution wide.