This article contains information on course evaluations and how to set them up for an online course.
Contents:
- Evaluations overview
- Adding an evaluation to an online course
- Setting up Surveys and Feedback
- Setting up Assessments
- Evaluation emails
- Course evaluation report
Evaluations overview
Three levels of course evaluation are available within Blue LMS:
- Pre-course
Comprising Survey and/or assessment
Pre-course can be used to gauge learner opinions on a topic area, to measure confidence and to assess knowledge prior to taking a course.
- Level 1&2
Comprising Feedback and/or assessment
Level 1&2 evaluation can be used to obtain feedback and satisfaction immediately after taking a course, this can be useful for course development and for detecting any problems which may exist within a course. This level can also be used to administer assessment on course content to be taken immediately after completing the course. When used with the other two evaluation types, this can be used as a bench mark to measure knowledge acquisition (compared to the pre-course assessment) and knowledge retention (compared to the level 3 evaluation).
- Level 3
Comprising Feedback and/or assessment
This level of evaluation is activated at a chosen point after completing a course (often after 3 months). It can be used to gauge thoughts and opinions on course content, which may have changed over the elapsed period. Level 3 evaluation can also be used to measure knowledge retention.
These can be activated individually, e.g. to obtain feedback on a course using Level 1&2 evaluation, or together for a full, beginning to end, programme of evaluation.
All three levels of evaluation can be used to obtain opinions and thoughts (survey/feedback) and to administer assessment to measure learning and knowledge retention.
Adding an evaluation to an online course
To add an evaluation to a course, access the Courses menu, search for the required course and select the Edit icon.
Controls for adding and amending evaluations are contained within the Course evaluation menu:
Select the evaluation level to be activated from the menu then select 'Yes':
Next choose the type of evaluation required.
For Pre-course the options are: Survey and/or Assessment
For Level 1&3 and Level 3 the options are: Feedback and/or Assessment.
The evaluation can be customised by changing the title, sub-title and evaluation text. These will appear at the top of the evaluation form when accessed by learners.
By selecting 'Yes' to Enable course details section the course name and training provider will be displayed at the top of the evaluation form:
The evaluation can be made mandatory or non-mandatory. If a pre-course evaluation is set to mandatory, learners will not be able to access the online course until they have completed the evaluation (and passed the assessment, if applicable). For a Level 1&2 evaluation which is set to mandatory, the course certificate will not be activated until the evaluation is completed (and the assessment passed, if applicable).
Setting up Surveys (Pre-course) & Feedback (Level 1&2, Level 3)
Surveys for pre-course evaluations and feedback for level 1&2 and level 3 evaluations are set up and amended in the same way.
A survey/feedback title and instructions can be entered if required.
The survey/feedback questions section contains generic questions by default. These can be activated and deactivated by ticking the red cross/green tick icon.
Questions can be edited by clicking the pencil icon and new questions can be added with the Add question button. Available question types are:
Descriptive: a free text box will be provided underneath the question for learners to type into
Single-select: Learners must select one answer from a pre-filled list
Multi-select: Learners must select multiple answers from a pre-filled list
Setting up Assessments
An assessment title can be entered if required, otherwise this can be left as the default ('Assessment').
There are no generic assessment questions as each assessment must be created as bespoke to the course and level of evaluation, therefore all questions will need to be entered at this stage.
As with surveys and feedback, questions can be activated and deactivated, they can also be edited after creation.
Available assessment question types are:
True / false: True or false must be selected
Single-select: One answer must be selected from a pre-filled list
Multi-select: More than one answer must be selected from a pre-filled list
For all question types, feedback can be entered for both correct and incorrect answers.
A passing score can be set as required (the default is 80%). It is possible to randomise the display order and also to select a number of questions to be included in the assessment. Using these controls, an assessment could contain ten questions with only five being included and the display order randomised. This will increase the element of challenge for the learner on subsequent attempts.
Assessment instructions can also be entered. It may be necessary to change the default text if the number of questions and the pass mark differs from the defaults.
Evaluation emails
To activate and deactivate evaluation emails, access the Emails menu section. From here emails and reminder emails can be activated and deactivated for all levels of evaluation.
Learners can access evaluation forms directly from evaluation emails, meaning it is not necessary for the learner to log into the system to complete the evaluation.
Course evaluation report
Access the Reports menu then Course evaluation report. One course to be reported on must be selected using the course search box, or by selecting from the full course list. It is possible to apply filters on learners and dates at this point if required by selecting the orange Show filters link. Select run report to view evaluation data.
The on-screen report will show a list of all learners who have completed at least one level of evaluation within the search criteria selected (course(s) and any other filters). Completed evaluations are displayed with a green tick, evaluations which have been activated but not completed are represented by a red exclamation mark and evaluations which are yet to be activated are represented by a grey exclamation mark. Survey and feedback questions are represented as pie charts along with the range of responses and the responses given by learners as percentages.
Selecting the Details icon from the list of learners produces a screen with full details of all levels of evaluation undertaken by that learner. Survey and feedback questions are shown in the report, along with learner responses. For assessments, the passing score, learner's final score and the number of attempts are provided.
The report can be saved, filters can be saved as a template, the report scheduled and also exported to excel. These options are accessed via the drop down menu which appears both above and below the user list:
