When is the Best Time to Perform Course Evaluations?

When to administer your course evaluations is directly tied to the purpose of the assessments.

If you want to improve the curriculum or change your teaching approach before the end-of-term, you can perform early assessments like mid-term reviews.

If you are interested in improving your course for future students, or in using the results for advancement purposes, then end-of-term evaluations would be more suitable.

However, it is recommended that you use both types of evaluations to improve teaching, learning and better manage the student experience at your institution.

Let’s take a closer look at each type of assessment, starting with the most common: the end-of-term evaluation.

End-of-term Evaluations:

1. Timing:

   These evaluations come at the finish of the term and are often administered in the last week of classes.

2. Purpose:

   End-of-term assessments are summative and measure the success of the course, providing an informed course and instructor / professor evaluation. These can then be used to inform annual reviews, hiring, promotion and determining tenure offers for faculty staff, all in line with institution policies.

3. Participation:

   Most institutions enforce end-of-term evaluations. They are mandatory and often are centrally administered by the Registrar’s Office, or equivalent body.

4. Flexibility:

   Usually, there isn’t a lot of flexibility with end-of-term evaluations. They must adhere to a schedule, and come at the end of the term – including institution-wide, standard questions. These barriers can be surpassed with Experience Management (XM) platforms like Blue, which feature course evaluation libraries that offer hundreds of personalized course evaluation questions scripted in line with best practices.

5. Results:

   The feedback is shared with the instructor, department, faculty and human resources depending on the institution. Results are compared to a university standard or benchmark.

Benefits of End-of-Term Evaluations:

• Comprehensive evaluation of the course and teacher across the entire term.
• Feedback obtained can be used to make improvements to the course for future students.
• The results can be used to identify areas for improvement in teaching effectiveness during the student journey, forming part of an ongoing stepwise feedback strategy.
• Feedback is used for comparative benchmarking throughout the university, ensuring standards of quality.

Early & mid-term evaluations:

1. Timing:

   Early evaluations can be scheduled at various points throughout the semester, whenever the instructor wishes to receive student feedback. Mid-term assessments are administered half-way through the course delivery cycle.

2. Purpose:

   These evaluations are formative and are used in shaping the curriculum and teaching approach. The feedback is used by the instructor and the students to address any issues and make improvements within the current course.

3. Participation:

   Early and mid-term assessments are often optional and managed by the instructor. However, many universities are beginning to use mid-term evaluations as pilot projects and in some cases are rolled out institution-wide.

4. Flexibility:

   These evaluations are very flexible and can be used whenever the instructor chooses to obtain feedback. Early assessments give control over the timing and the content as instructors can request feedback on a variety of topics. This kind of feedback can be used to help identify and support students who may need some help at this earlier point in the semester.

5. Results:

   The feedback is reviewed by the instructor and shared and discussed with the students. If mid-term evaluations are formal at a university, then the results would be shared with other key internal audiences.

Benefits of Mid-term Reviews: 

• Feedback is gathered throughout the course, allowing for continual improvement.
• Allows the instructor to respond quickly to student concerns.
• Students directly benefit from changes implemented from the feedback.
• Mid-term feedback can help improve end-of-term evaluations as any issues or adjustments have already been addressed.

Feedback forms the core of any responsive, effective Higher Education institution. By gathering feedback from every possible student touchpoint, a strategy that considers every experience can be put into place. Explorance’s Blue Experience Management (XM) platform is built to facilitate just that – enabling feedback insights that lead to better decision making at your institution.

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