Washington University implemented a new course evaluation system in Summer 2016. This is a vendor production known as “Blue.”
Getting Help
- Additional Student and Faculty FAQs can be found at Student and Faculty FAQs
- If you encounter technical issues or have additional questions, feel free to contact the WashU Course Evals Team at evals@wustl.edu.
- Questions regarding Course Evaluations for the MD program should be directed to OMSEsurveys@email.wustl.edu.
Using WUCRSL to Set-up Evals
Much of the course evaluation work previously done using spreadsheets and manual cleanup is now managed through WUCRSL. It is important to understand how the new eval fields in WUCRSL translate into Blue. All fields discussed appear on the Section record in WUCRSL. More information (including screen shots) on course evaluations can be found at Course Evals
- Templates
- In order for a section to be evaluated you must make a Primary Template selection. On the Section window in WUCRSL select one of your school templates or set this dropdown to Exclude. Selecting Exclude will block the course from entering Blue. The template appearing in this field will be used for course evaluation at the end of the term.
- We currently have two programs using Midterm evaluations. These programs have their own rules for when Use Midterm Eval should be set. All other schools should leave this dropdown set to Exclude.
- In order for a section to be evaluated you must make a Primary Template selection. On the Section window in WUCRSL select one of your school templates or set this dropdown to Exclude. Selecting Exclude will block the course from entering Blue. The template appearing in this field will be used for course evaluation at the end of the term.
- Start/End Dates
- The most important thing to understand about eval start/end dates in Blue: THEY ARE LINKED TO THE END DATE OF EACH SECTION. It is no longer the case that all evals start and end on the same day. Evals open and close on a rolling basis throughout the entire semester.
- Eval periods for each section are determined by the subsemester chosen in WUCRSL. Subsemesters with set dates are assigned set eval periods. Subsemesters with variable dates are assigned an eval offset and eval duration. Some common subsemesters include: Shortcourse, 8-Week 1, 8-Week 2 and Intersession.
- In WUCRSL when a subsemester is selected, the appropriate eval start/end dates are automatically applied. In the example below we see a Shortcourse with variable dates. Because the course ends on 11/13/2016, the eval period is set to 11/8/2016 through 11/16/2016. It opens 5 days prior to the end of the course and stays open for a duration of 8 days.
- Note: Eval Period Start/End Date fields function as an override when needed. This should rarely be necessary. After an eval project is published changes to these fields will no longer translate into Blue.
- Evaluate Checkboxes
- The evaluate checkboxes indicate who needs to be evaluated along with the section. Primary Instructors default to checked. Support Persons default to unchecked. In order for a section to be evaluated at all, at least one primary instructor must be set to Evaluate.
- The only Support Persons that have the option of being marked to Evaluate are AIs, TAs and UGrad TAs. You can only use this option if AI/TA evaluation has been set up for your school.