What role do departments play in course evaluation?
Instructional Development works closely with academic department staff to ensure that courses will be properly evaluated each quarter and to provide reports for particular departmental purposes. Departmental business officers designate a Course Evaluations contact who will be responsible for all communication and tasks related to course evaluations in their department. This includes quarterly tasks such as updating the STAR/GauchoBlue system, filling out the Survey Request Form and assisting the faculty/department in accessing reports.
How do I mark courses to be evaluated?
Departmental course evaluation administrators fill out the Survey Request Form (SRF) in week 4 of Fall, Winter and Spring to specify which courses should be evaluated. Note: to access the secure SRF website from off-campus, you’ll need to use Campus VPN.
What are the key dates for departmental admins of course evaluations?
The Survey Request Form (SRF) derives information from the STAR/GauchoBlue System. To save time and reduce errors when requesting course evaluation surveys, please ensure that all TAs in your department are properly entered into STAR by the end of Week 3.
The directions for using the SRF provide you with step-by-step instructions, including annotated screenshots. Note: to access the secure SRF website from off-campus, you’ll need to use the Campus VPN.
Contact the Course Evaluations office at support@course-evals.ucsb.edu for questions or training. The Survey Request Form closes on Friday of Week 4.
Departments receive a summary of courses that were requested to be evaluated to verify. Instructors receive an email with a list of their courses that are being evaluated. Any errors must be reported to the Course Evaluations office at support@course-evals.ucsb.edu for immediate resolution by Week 6.
Instructors and TAs receive a notification that they may review and add personalized questions to their surveys.
Course evaluations open Monday of Week 9 and close Friday of Week 10 during Fall, Winter and Spring.
Students receive an announcement that one or more of their UCSB courses are collecting student feedback. Reminder emails are sent out periodically until all surveys are complete.
Instructors receive a final email summarizing the student response rates for each of their courses (not actual responses).
Course evaluation reports are available to faculty to view/download on https://ucsb.bluera.com/ucsb around Week 1 of the next quarter (after the final grade deadline has passed).
How do I request, access, and/or distribute course evaluation reports?
Only a department’s Course Evaluation contact may access and distribute (summary and pre-Fall 2023) course evaluations as outlined in “Who may access Course Evaluation reports and for what reasons?”
Instructors and TAs can access their own end-of-quarter course evaluation reports at https://ucsb.bluera.com/ucsb.
For instructor and TA summary reports, please contact support@course-evals.ucsb.edu and include:
- Name
- Employee ID
- Type of report
- And elaborate on any special requests.
End-of-quarter evaluation reports prior to Fall 2023 are stored in the ESCI system. Distribution of these reports is the responsibility of the department’s designated Course Evaluation contact. Course Evaluation contacts can access these reports in Google Drive ‘Shared with Me’ folders. The ESCI shared Google folder will contain PDF files of all of the ESCI reports for all of a department’s faculty, teaching associates, and teaching assistants.
To assure confidentiality, please adhere to the Electronic Communications Implementing Guidelines 5612 and UCOP Presidential Policies when accessing, storing and sharing course evaluations.
Who may access course evaluation reports and for what reasons?
Course Evaluation reports and the underlying data are the property of the instructor or TA, who make them available as part of their personnel cases. Departmental course evaluation administrators may access Course Evaluation reports on behalf of instructors and graduate students when required (e.g. for personnel cases) or when requested by the instructor/TA (e.g. for teaching awards). End-of-quarter reports are accessed through https://ucsb.bluera.com/ucsb, while summary reports (e.g. 5-year summary) may be requested at support@course-evals.ucsb.edu (be sure to include Name, Employee ID, type of report, and elaborate on any special requests).
Department Chairs may request custom, aggregated Course Evaluation reports for their departments, so long as all personally identifying information is removed.
How can I get help with course evaluations?
If you need help with course evaluations and cannot find the information you need in these online guides, please reach out to support@course-evals.ucsb.edu