Course Evaluations (SmartEvals)

 Introduction

The Idea Team manages course evaluations delivered via SmartEvals.com. This platform provides informed and timely feedback to faculty regarding course instruction. Instructors are unable to see who responded to their course evaluations as they are anonymous. Evaluations help the School of Social Work improve the educational-experience of all students. 

Receiving Course Evaluations via Email

Instructors receive an email and can log into the system from a link at the bottom. They have access to previous evaluation data. Instructors will also receive a PDF formatted report with survey results for their courses once they are closed. If you wish to see additional data or views, you can log into the SmartEvals Course Eval system using your campus UMID/password/Duo. 

Logging In

You can log into SmartEvals here: https://sswumaryland.smartevals.com/

MyEvalCenter

Once you are logged in as an instructor to SmartEvals, your default view will be the "MyEvalCenter." MyEvalCenter is divided into sections depending on course status: surveys that are open, awaiting release, ready for viewing, and by year for historical data. SmartEvals provides an extensive set of tools to help faculty view and analyze the results of their surveys.  

This will include a view of the current "Overall Response Rate" - the percent of students who have completed your course evaluations. It will also display open surveys, the timing of the surveys opening/closing, the specific number of respondents, your response percentage rate in real-time, a way to generate QR codes, and a preview of the evaluation. 

Click on "Get QR Codes" to generate a printable sheet that you can bring into the physical classroom or email to students. Students can use the camera on their smartphone (iPhone) or an app on Android to read the QR code and go directly to the course eval on their mobile device - so that they can fill in the course evaluation in your classroom on their personal device.

NOTE: Students will need to enter their UMID in order to access the evaluation. The printed QR code will last for the evaluation period.

Instructor Tabs

The menu at the top of myEvalCenter includes:

• • Handouts - to generate the QR code print out sheet

  • Edit: Use the Email Students feature to contact non-responding students and increase your overall response rates (Note that we will already send out reminders every several days to students who have NOT already filled in the course eval)

• • Reports - once the evaluation period is complete you'll be able to generate more reports

Best Practices For Increasing Response Rates

• Announce to students in advance to bring their laptop or phone to the next session to spend time in class completing course evaluations 

• Describe the value of end-of-course evaluations and how the results are used to modify future offerings of the course 

• Set aside time in one of the course sessions near the end of the semester to have students fill out the evaluation in class 

• Consider creating a QR code for students using mobile devices 

• Send an announcement as the instructor encouraging students to complete the evaluation

If you are an instructor or student who is having issues with your course evaluations, please contact the IDEA team at ideateam@ssw.umaryland.edu