5 Reasons Why Your Educational Institution Needs to Move Towards an Automated Course Evaluation System

Now it’s no secret that one principal strength of any experience management platform is its flexibility. One major aspect of this is a platform’s ability to be able to fit the needs of a variety of different types of environments. We at Explorance are very proud of the fact that Blue has served a wide array of customers in different industries, from consulting firms, corporations, government organizations and universities.

We’re especially proud of our track record of success when it comes to improving the information gathering capabilities of some of the world’s most prestigious universities, including University of Pennsylvania, University of Louisville, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Dalhousie University, Sheridan College, the University of Toronto and many others. These are just some of the many esteemed institutions of higher education that count on Blue to bring order to their course evaluation and survey planning processes.

Watch the webinar  “Moving Course Evaluations Away from Paper – Once and For All” – Presented by Sheridan College and Dalhousie University

Now there are many good reasons why it’s strongly in the interest of your institution to move towards web-based course evaluations, if you haven’t already. Among the reasons to consider include the following.

1. Enhanced ability to create course evaluations that fits your evolving needs and goals: 

   One nice thing about automated course evaluations is that set up is so easy. In short order, you can create an evaluation with multiple question types, from essay, short answer, true/false, multiple choice and much more. An automated system not only allows you to easily set these up, but if after doing a series of evaluations over time, you realize you need to change questions or change focus, changing question blocks is very easy to do.

2. Improved ability to track results over time:

   Let’s face it. Paper has a tendency to get lost or shuffled away. So it’s hard to keep track of various issues. Automating things centralizes information, making it easier to evaluate progress over time.

3. More flexibility for the users:

   Housing your course evaluations online allow a lot of conveniences that using paper just does not afford. You can complete your evaluations when you want, from wherever, using whatever device you want, whether a laptop, desktop, tablet, or smartphone. Moreover, consider those that are blind or visually impaired. The convenience of having technology that integrates with screen readers and Braille readers ensure not only enhanced accessibility for all, but a much richer feedback.

4. Security:

   Doing course evaluations online helps to ensure the randomness needed for absolute anonymity, but a sturdy and secure course evaluation system also eliminates the need to provide authentication or login credentials at every turn. This only helps to make the course evaluation process go much faster.

5. Sophisticated analysis and reporting capabilities: 

   As was previously mentioned, automated system allows for enhanced tracking capabilities, an online course evaluation system allows you to track results over different time periods,  and do cross tabulations across many different possibilities.