Student Evaluations of Teaching
American University has partnered with eXplorance, Inc. to provide an online survey tool called Blue for its Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET).
Blue distributes the evaluations, collects responses, and provides reports. Blue operates on calendar-based triggers to send email notifications to faculty and students to complete their SET tasks. Instructors can expect these notifications 30 days prior to their course ending.
With the introduction of Blue, instructors are now able to oversee and manage their survey settings, while students benefit from a more flexible and accessible response collection system.
Issues with Blue, or the SET system as a whole, should be directed to the Office of the University Registrar at SET_services@american.edu.
Info for Instructors:
For detailed instructions on entering personalized questions or changing the default dates that the survey is available, please read the SET Instructions.
Timing and Response Rates
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Evaluation settings are managed in Blue through Subject View Management (SVM) tasks. SVM allows instructors to change the date the survey is available to students, as well as view response rates.
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The duration of the section (in calendar days) determines the default start and end dates for the survey. Standard evaluations are available for approximately one week.
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By default, most surveys will close on the last section meeting date prior to final exam week.
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Surveys must close prior to final grades being submitted.
Adding Questions
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Instructors can add personalized questions before the survey goes live to students using Question Personalization (QP) tasks.
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You cannot add additional questions after the survey goes live.
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See the Bank of Items for a list of statements that can be added during Question Personalization.
Administering Surveys
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We strongly recommend instructors allow students to respond to the SET during class time. Instructors who used class time had the highest response rates in the pilot.
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Instructors should inform students in advance that time will be allotted during class, and students should be encouraged to bring laptops, tablets, or other Internet-enabled devices.
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Instructors must leave the room while students are responding to the surveys.