Information for Students

• Be respectful
  • Instead of, “Ms. Jones…”
  • Use the appropriate title of your instructors. If you are not sure if they have a doctorate (Dr.), then you can always refer to them as “Professor.”
• Be specific
  • Instead of, “There is nothing to improve about the course – it was great!” 
  • Say something like, “I learned to [enter skill or topic here] in this course from [enter specific practices of instructor and/or assignments/course events/etc.] because [enter details on how that helped your learning].”
• Use examples
  • Include specific assignments, course events, etc. that stood out to you
• Offer recommendations or suggestions
  • Instead of, “too much reading” say something like, “I didn’t understand why we had to read so many articles on the same topic. Instead of reading more articles, I would have liked to spend more time unpacking them and discussing them.” OR “I had a really hard time keeping up with the reading for this course in addition to my other courses this semester. It might have helped if the instructor gave a quick quiz or assignment done on Pass/Fail and due before each class meeting for us to share what we thought about the assigned reading. That way, I might be motivated to have the reading done before class, so I’m prepared and ready to discuss it during class.”
• Base your feedback on the entire course so far and not just the most recent test/assignment

• Don’t include information that would identify you to the instructor, if you do not want to be identified (e.g., names, dates, specific events or discussions, etc.).
• Don’t say “n/a,” “none,” “I don’t know,” “see above,” etc.  since those will not help your instructor know what worked well and what they can work to improve.
• Don’t include inappropriate comments or language (e.g., commenting on the physical features of the instructor, anything that is emotionally-charged instead of logic-based, profanity, as well as commenting or criticizing based on an instructor’s race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc.). If you are unsure if your comments are inappropriate, then please refer to the Loyola Community Standards prior to submitting your course evaluation.
• Don’t forget that your instructor is a person and your words could hurt them. It’s fine to offer critiques and criticism, but be sure it follows the “Do’s” mentioned above and avoids the “Don’ts” mentioned here.
• Don’t use course evaluations as a way to report sexual harassment, discrimination, non-compliance/unethical activities, crimes, etc. Instead, use the following respective links (see more information on each in the respective FAQ below or visit the Title IX Reporting Resources website): Sexual Violence, Relationship Violence, and Stalking Report (tool for students to report violation of sexual and gender-based misconduct policy)
  • Report Bias (website includes a tool for students to report bias-related behavior) 
  • EthicsPoint Report (tool for the Loyola community to anonymously report behaviors in violation of the law or University policy)
  • Public Safety Anonymous Information Form (tool for anonymously reporting any incident a member of the campus community has witnessed)

Course evaluation surveys are typically the most common indirect assessment of courses in Higher Education. These surveys provide students the ability to share their course experiences and feedback with their instructors, so that the instructors can use student feedback to:

1. help identify areas of strength and where improvements can be made in the course
2. serve as evidence of teaching efficacy or excellence for use in faculty promotion and tenure processes, award nominations, etc.

For majority of courses, the course evaluations will be open 2 weeks before Study Day and they will close at 11:59 PM the day before Study Day. Specific details are available on the Academic Year Course Evaluation Schedule.

Students will receive an email to their Loyola email address directing them to click on their personalized links in the email itself or to log in to Moodle to access and complete their electronic course evaluations. The email will contain a table listing all their open course evaluations for the semester and the window for which each evaluation will be available. Electronic course evaluations will remain open for two weeks and students will receive email reminders throughout that time to complete their open course evaluations.

As long as students have access to their email, they will be able to access the online course evaluation system (e.g., mobile devices, laptops, desktop computers). Each email reminder sent from the Office of Institutional Research (OIR; survey@loyola.edu) will include a table of courses with open evaluations (with personalized links to each) and a personalized link under “Login Instructions” at the bottom of every email. Be sure to remove BOTH the table and the personalized link in the “Login Instructions” if you forward the email to anyone other than OIR. If you accidentally forward any of these, then contact OIR (survey@loyola.edu) as soon as possible so they can help you stop them from working and break their access to your SmartEvals dashboard. Otherwise, these links are automatically broken after 30 days.

Additionally, there should be a link to the SmartEvals course evaluation system in each Moodle course at the top of the course’s homepage. If an instructor has accidentally removed this link, then they can re-add it by following the “Add Course Evaluations to your Moodle Course” OTS Knowledge base article.

On May 23, 2023, the “motion for decision that Loyola pilot the SIR-II institution-wide as the systematic tool used to solicit Student Evaluations of Teaching beginning AY24 passed with 20 in favor and 15 opposed via a Zoom poll” (Academic Senate minutes). See Survey Form Setup for more details.

If you have questions or would like more information on this matter, please contact your Loyola Governance representative.

Although the SmartEvals system anonymizes the student information, from both Loyola faculty and staff, the student is also responsible for maintaining their anonymity. Specifically, students should avoid providing identifiable information in the open-ended question responses (e.g., names, dates, specific events, or discussions) that the instructor could use to identify the student respondent.

However, if a threat is made in a student’s evaluation response, self-harm or against another individual, then Loyola will be informed by SmartEvals and Loyola will be able to formally request identification of the student and information about the threat. Loyola will still not have access to the specific student’s response(s).

Requiring students to log in ensures that each student can only submit one course evaluation per course. Logging in also guarantees that students only evaluate the courses in which they are enrolled. Therefore, students will not be able evaluate courses for which they are not enrolled. Your responses will remain confidential and anonymous. 

FYI – in rare instances, if a student withdrew from a course close to the start of or during when course evaluations were open, then they may still be included in that course’s enrollment (see “I recently withdrew from a course, so why am I being asked to complete a course evaluation for it?” FAQ below for more details).