Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions of Interest for Students and Faculty

What are the advantages of evaluating courses electronically?

Is the system secure and anonymous?

Is it possible to evaluate the same course more than once?

Will the names or characteristics of students be available in the results?

Is there an incentive for completing online course evaluations?

When will the online course evaluations be administered?

How will students be notified when it is time to complete the evaluations?

Are other colleges and universities using online course evaluations?

What should I do if my browser is blocking popup windows and I am unable to enter the Course Evaluations website?

What are the advantages of evaluating courses electronically?
Evaluating courses online is fast, easy, convenient, secure, anonymous, confidential, and, above all, important! Course evaluation results are used by faculty to improve teaching, and they are a significant component in the promotion and tenure process. The paper process is wasteful and difficult to administer. The course evaluation data are not maintained digitally, so they are unavailable for analysis. Evaluations are returned to the faculty member so long after the course is complete that the student feedback may no longer be useful.

Is the system secure and anonymous?
The online course evaluation system uses current technology security measures to ensure the security of the data, the anonymity of the participants, and the confidentiality of the results. For more details you can access the confidentiality information web page.

Is it possible to evaluate the same course more than once?
No. The system records the completed evaluation and will not present further opportunities for evaluation of that course.

Will the names or characteristics of students be available in the results?
Because the online course evaluation system disassociates the information that identifies the student at the time survey completion is marked in the system, no identifying information such as name, school, or major is included in the results stored in the system or seen by the instructor.

Is there an incentive for completing online course evaluations?
Students who complete all of their online course evaluations will have access to their posted grades on the first day of final exams.

When will the online course evaluations be administered?
Online course evaluations will be administered two weeks before the end of the final examination period and will close the day after the last final exam.

How will students be notified when it is time to complete the evaluations?
Students will receive an email announcement one week before the start of the course evaluation period. Subsequent reminders will be sent to students who have not completed all their evaluations.

Are other colleges and universities using online course evaluations?
A recent Jossey-Bass publication, Online Student Ratings of Instruction, identified some institutions that have converted their paper and pencil course evaluation process to a web-enabled electronic process including Brigham Young, Northwestern University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and Yale University. Stanford University has also started to administer course evaluations online.

What should I do if my browser is blocking popup windows and I am unable to enter the Course Evaluations website?
If you use the Firefox browser to access the Course Evaluations link, you may see a warning message near the top of your screen, such as "Firefox prevented this site from opening a popup window." Click on the Options button in the upper rၼight corner of the screen. Select the option to "Allow popups for agora.bc.edu," which will prevent this popup blocking with Agora in the future. As a final step, click on the "Enter Course Evaluations System" button. A new window will open for Course Evaluations.

If you are using Internet Explorer and click on the Course Evaluations link, you may see a warning message near the top of your screen, such as "Pop-up blocked. To see this pop-up or additional options click here." By clicking on the yellow warning bar and selecting the option "Always Allow Pop-ups from This Site" you can prevent this popup blocking with Agora in the future. As a final step, when asked "Would you like to allow pop-ups from "agora.bc.edu"? click "Yes" and a new window will open for Course Evaluations.

Questions of Interest for Faculty

How do I add customized questions to my online survey?

Can questions on the online course evaluation be added or changed?

Will there be a choice of using the old paper or the new online evaluation for each course?

Must a course evaluation be offered this semester?

What efforts will be made to ensure a good response rate?

How will team taught courses be evaluated?

What does "tx1" or "tx2" at the end of the course number refer to?

When and how will the online course evaluation results be available?

How long will the evaluation results be available to view?

What happens if a student withdrew from the course?

How will the success of the electronic survey be determined?

How do I add customized questions to my online survey?
Begin by logging onto Agora. and then click on Course Evaluations. You can enter up to five customized questions. If you want to use some of the Traditional Variation questions, they are available for reference at http://www.bc.edu/courseevaluations/. You can copy and paste these questions into the course evaluation screen. The answer key for all customized questions must be the agreement scale that follows: Strongly Agree, Agree, Uncertain, Disagree, Strongly Disagree, Not Applicable.

Student Services will offer training for faculty members interested in learning more about adding customized questions.

Can questions on the online course evaluation be added or changed?
The questions cannot be changed but up to five customized questions can be added. Instructors will be notified when the link to add questions is available in Agora.

Will there be a choice of using the old paper or the new online evaluation for each course?
No, all course evaluations are now completed online.

Must a course evaluation be offered this semester?
This decision is generally made by the department chairperson and dean. However, no paper evaluations will be offered. All courses will be evaluated online.

What efforts will be made to ensure a good response rate?
We will continue with the enhancements listed below.

The course evaluation survey period extends to the day after the last final exam.
Students who complete all of their online course evaluations will be given access to posted grades on the first day of final exams.
Instructors will receive emails during the survey administration period reminding them to encourage students to complete the survey and asking them to inform students why it’s important to do so.
During the summer sessions, evaluations are administered twice: in mid June for courses finishing at the end of June and again in early August for the remainder of the summer courses. Instructors and students will receive emails announcing when the survey is available.
Students can access all of their evaluations directly from Agora making access and completion simple and efficient.

How will team taught courses be evaluated?
An online course evaluation will be available for both instructors if they both wish to administer an online course evaluation.

What does "tx1" or "tx2" at the end of the course number refer to?
The ‘tx’ field is an indicator added into the course numbering scheme to help differentiate among multiple instructors in a course when classifying the evaluations. If a course has only one instructor, this indicator will always appear in the title as ‘tx1’. If a course has more than one instructor, the first instructor would see ‘tx1’ in his/her view of the course number, while the second instructor would see ‘tx2’ in his/her view of the course number. This helps to ensure that the correct evaluation data is associated with and accessible only to the relevant instructor. The instructor name is also included in the course numbering as an added visual cue to students, so that if they are evaluating a team-taught course, they will direct their responses to each of the appropriate instructors.

When and how will the online course evaluation results be available?
Faculty members will be notified by email when the results are available. The reports will be available through a link in Agora. The reports can be printed or downloaded for further analysis.

How long will the evaluation results be available to view?
The results will be archived, and in the future the results from prior semesters will be available for reference.

What happens if a student withdrew from the course?
Only students enrolled after the deadline for course withdrawal will be able to complete the survey.

How will the success of the electronic survey be determined?
Institutional Research has conducted surveys and focus groups with students and faculty to identify strengths and weaknesses of the online process. They are also comparing the results of the paper and pencil method versus the online method to determine if there are any systematic differences.