Course Evaluations

Before You Login

Before you can work with evaluation forms in any way, you'll need to have the appropriate permissions. Permissions are managed by the department chair or program director. The permissions page includes information for department chairs or program directors on how to manage the required permissions within your unit. If you have problems logging into the system, send email to [[evals]].

Learn how to:

• Access the Administrative Module
• Enter Departmental Delivery Information (First Time Only)
• Create a New Form
• Add Questions to Your Form
• Assign Your Form to Courses
• Activate Your Evaluations (Sending to the Printer)
• Prepare Your Forms for Scanning
• Access Your Results
• Manage Cross-Listed Courses

Access the Administrative Module

1. Log into myWM and click on Services
2. Click on Course Evaluations
3. Click on Administrative Module

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Enter Departmental Delivery Information (First Time Only)

1. In the Admin Toolbox, click on View/Modify Departmental Information.
2. Select Department to Edit, then click on desired department.
3. Fill in the Attention Box with the name of the person to whom the printed forms will be delivered.
4. Fill in the Building/Room number where you'd like the forms delivered.
5. Add any other delivery instructions.
6. When you're finished, click on Commit Changes to delivery info.
7. On the bottom of the form, select whether your department will be using on-line or printed evaluations.
8. Click on the Commit Changes to Type button.
   Note: The delivery information can be updated at any time if you have a staff change in the department.
   Note: You won't able to activate your forms if this delivery information is left blank.

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Create a New Form

1. In the administrative toolbox, click on View/Modify/Create Evaluation Forms.
2. Type in a name for the form.
3. You have the option of Giving this Evaluation a Description, but it's not required.
4. Click on the Create this evaluation button.

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Add Questions to Your Form

1. Once you've successfully created your form, it will show up under Your existing evaluations. (If it doesn't show up immediately, click on View/Modify/Create Evaluation Form in the Admin Toolbox.)
2. Click on the name of your form to take you to the screen to enter questions.
3. Each new form comes prepopulated with two default questions to secure information about whether the respondent is a major in that department and about enrollment status.
   Note: These default questions can be edited by just changing the text in the question box and then clicking on the commit changes button at the bottom of the form.
   Note: You can also change the order of the question by using the Move Up or Move Down button under each question. There's also a Delete link to remove the question altogether.
4. New questions are entered into the box in the Add new question section. (Numbering is done automatically by the program; you don't have to enter a question number.) Remember to include both the question and the possible responses in the following format:

How was the overall class organization?
1=Poor 2=Fair 3=Good 4=Very Good 5=Excellent

5. After you've entered each question, click on the Commit Changes button to save it to the database. Clicking on the Commit Changes button opens a new input box for entering the next question.
6. Questions that you enter can be assigned to different types using the Type of Answer drop down box. Use Survey type questions when you don't want the results to be averaged. Default question 1, for example, is a survey question, since respondents are either male or female. It wouldn't make any sense to calculate an average for that question. Numeric questions, such as How would you rate the overall effectiveness of this instructor? do lend themselves to being averaged.
   Written question types refer to open ended questions and are only used in on-line evaluations. The question applies to drop down box is only used for on-line evaluation of courses with multiple instructors.
7. When you've entered all your questions, you can use the Print Evaluation button to generate a hard copy for proofreading. (You can get an actual copy of the form as it will be printed emailed to you once the form has been assigned. More on that in the next section.)

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Assign Your Form to Courses

1. Once your form is created, it needs to be assigned to courses. In the Administrative Tool Box, click on the link Assign/Active Course Evaluations. That will open the Select a Department to Edit box. Inside is a drop-down called Select a Term. Click on the desired term. Then click on the desired course name under this same heading. All your courses will appear sorted by Term and Subterm. (The subterm listing is primarily used during the summer when schools and departments have multiple sessions.)
2. The name of the form you created will show up in the Choose Form to Assign drop-down box at the top of the page.
3. Use the check boxes on the left side of the list to select which classes will be assigned to this evaluation form. You can check the boxes individually, or use the Check All, Check Subterm, or Check All Unassigned links at the top of the page.
4. When you've selected all of the courses that will be evaluated, make sure that the correct form is selected in the drop-down box and click on Assign to all checked courses. The page will refresh and the courses will be labeled to indicate the form that has been assigned.
   Note: If you need an exact copy of the form that will be printed, you can click on the Email Preview link, and a PDF document will be sent to your email address. It may take 5 minutes or so for the PDF to be generated and mailed to you. Print that form out if you need a hard copy.
   Note: Once you have assigned a form to a course, it can no longer be edited. If you need to edit the form, you can unassign it from all courses, by clicking on Check All and selecting UNASSIGNED from the drop-down box. Click on the Assign to all checked courses button. The page will refresh and confirm that all your courses are unassigned. You can edit your form and reassign it when you're done.

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Activate Your Evaluations (Sending to the Printer)

1. The final step in ordering your evaluations is to activate them. Once all the courses that you want to evaluate have been assigned the appropriate form, select them using check boxes, and click on the Activate all checked button.
2. When your forms are activated, PDF files are created with one form for each student registered in the course, along with three forms to cover students who might make errors in completing the form. Each night, any evaluations that are activated that day will be sent to the printer at the IKON copy shop. The forms will be delivered to the location you specified in the Departmental Delivery Information.
   Note: Once you have activated a course, it can no longer be edited. You can, however, easily create a new form with the same questions as the old and then edit those.
   Note: Before you activate your courses, take one more look to make sure you've handled any cross-listed courses properly. A later section covers cross-listing in more detail.
3. Whenever you wish to exit this process, click on Log Out at the top right of the screen.

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Prepare Your Forms for Scanning

1. Note: The new scan forms no longer have to be completed with #2 pencils. They won't work with highlighters or thick permanent markers, but they do work with ballpoints, fountain pens, and most other kinds of dark colored pencils and pens.
2. Distribute the forms according to the policies your department or program has adopted. Please take care to make sure to protect the extra forms that are supplied for each class. Students should be reminded that there are two open-ended questions that need to be answered on the back of the form. (The questions are written in bold on the top of the evaluation from.)
3. Before delivering your forms for processing, remove all the cover sheets and any blank forms. Please don't use staples, rubber bands, envelopes or paperclips to separate by class. Make sure that all the forms are face-up and going in the same direction. Print and complete the scanning submission form and include it with your forms to be processed.
4. Return your completed evaluation forms to Jones Room 206 for processing within three days of the end of scheduled exams for the semester. Once the forms are scanned, someone from the department will need to pick them up to protect the confidentiality of the written comments.

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Access Your Results

1. Online reports will be available as soon as the scanning is complete for a course and grades are submitted and processed by the registrar. Scanning of all evaluations will generally be completed within three weeks after they are dropped off at Jones 8.
2. Evaluation administrators and department chairs/program directors will have access to evaluation forms of all courses listed or cross-listed in their departments or programs. These results are also available as soon as scanning is complete and grades are submitted.
3. To access the forms for your departments, click on Faculty Course Evaluation Results on the Course Evaluations section in myWM. Select a term from the drop-down menu, and then click on the Review Results link. (If the results are not available, a button will be displayed. Click on it to find out why.)
4. To print a report of all the classes in a department or program click on the link to all courses using a specific form on the results page. (It will be in the format: Form: Evaluation_Name near the top of the page.)
   Note: You'll need to use Internet Explorer as your browser to ensure that the pages break properly. Producing this report requires intensive calculations, so be patient. Once the page loads, you can click on the Print this page link to finish printing the report.
5. You can also download the raw data for all the classes using the same form (even across multiple years) by clicking on the Get evaluation results in Excel format link.
6. Individual faculty members can also access the evaluations for their classes through myWM. To access their evaluations, they click on the Self-Service tab, followed by the Evaluations link, and finally on Faculty Course Evaluation Results. They will then be taken to a page listing all their classes from the previous term. From there they can click on the View Results link to review and customize their evaluation reports for each course.

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Manage Cross-Listed Courses

The most complex part of the new evaluation system is the handling of cross-listed courses--just as it was in the old mainframe-based system. Each course is evaluated with one form, and there is no technical way to determine which department or program maintains control over that course. There are some pretty complex agreements between faculty members and the programs and departments will require effective communication among all the evaluation coordinators involved.

1. Cross-listed courses will be clearly marked in the master listing of courses for each department or program. Any of the evaluation administrators has the technical privileges to assign an evaluation form to a class, so care must be taken to ensure that the appropriate form is assigned.
2. All students in a class will use the same form to evaluate the class. The form should be assigned and activated by the department that owns the class. Ownership may be determined by the department initially proposing the course, or by the home department of the instructor of record, or by actual contract with the faculty member.
3. If none of the individual departmental evaluation forms are adequate to capture the information needed to accurately assess the quality of the teaching and the course, the chairs and program directors can easily create a new evaluation form that includes specifically designed questions.

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