Course Evaluations
Course evaluations are distributed to students enrolled in classes in the Fall and Spring Semesters. Online course evaluations are conducted using Blue, an Explorance product. IRPA provides an administrative service to the colleges by supporting the course evaluation process and summarization of evaluation results. IRPA works with other IT staff, Academic Departments, and the Office of Faculty Affairs to ensure guidelines are followed and the process is smooth.
IRPA adheres to the policies and course evaluation content that has been approved by the University and the Academic Senate. For more information regarding the policies that guide course evaluations please refer to CPP Academic Manual, Policy No 1329.
Fall 2024 Course Evaluations
The course evaluation period for the Fall 2024 term is November 17 through December 1 for students. Please note that some instructors may have a shorter evaluation period for their courses. Evaluations can be accessed directly within the Blue system, through email invitations sent directly to your CPP email, or Canvas. Contact evaluations@cpp.edu if you experience any technical issues accessing evaluations.
Resources
- The Course Evaluation Timeline is a short overview of the evaluation process at CPP.
- The Blue Navigation Guide for instructors provides information on how to monitor response rates and access evaluation reports within Blue.
Student FAQs
The online course evaluation system uses single sign-on to validate that you are a student enrolled in the course. Any identifying information will not be included in any course evaluation reports, nor accessible to instructors, including whether or not you have completed the evaluation. Instructors will receive their course evaluation reports only after grades have been distributed.
Completing a course evaluation helps you to reflect on your learning experience and helps you to start thinking of the next semester. Your responses also inform curricular and teaching improvements that can better CPP courses and benefit your peers in the future.
No, however students are highly encouraged to complete them as results can better CPP courses.
You can expect to provide ratings on various questions regarding your experience in the course. Questions and forms can vary by department, course type (lectures, labs), and instructional modality (online, in-person).
Yes, at the end of each course evaluation form, there are two comment questions in which you are able to provide written feedback. If these two comment questions do not address your concerns or if you want to provide additional feedback, you may do so by submitting a letter to the department chair. Letters should be sent from your Cal Poly Pomona email address, and they can be sent at any time. A directory with names and email addresses can be found at this link.
Per the University Policy No. 1329:
At any time a student may submit a letter/petition expressing his/her/their opinion of the teaching performance of a faculty member. Such a letter/petition must be signed and addressed either to the chair of the appropriate department or to the chair of the appropriate departmental evaluation committee. The letter/petition must include the Bronco Identification Number of all student signators.
You have the ability to access your submitted evaluation form any time during the evaluation period to make any necessary revisions. As long as the evaluation window is open, you can go into Blue and resubmit your responses. If you saved your response in Blue but did not submit the response and the deadline has passed, your partial response will be submitted. Once the evaluation period has closed, evaluation forms cannot be re-taken nor opened to allow for late submissions.
Although course evaluations will be administered for most courses, some courses are not eligible to be evaluated. Depending on the Department the course belongs to, the type of course (e.g., Activity, Seminar, Lab, etc.) may not be eligible to be evaluated, and therefore will not be listed on Blue. Similarly, course evaluations are typically not administered to courses with 5 or fewer students or supervisory courses.
It may also be the case that your instructor has designated a special evaluation period within the two-week course evaluation timeframe. In this case, the specific course evaluation will be inaccessible until the date(s) the instructor has designated. Instructors will notify students when their course evaluations will open for responses should they have a special evaluation period.
All course evaluations that are open for responses can be accessed at any time directly through the Blue system.
Faculty FAQs
Some suggestions include, but are not limited to:
- Provide dedicated time in class to allow students to complete course evaluations
- Emphasize the importance of course evaluations
- Tell students how you use course evaluation feedback to better your course
- Provide assurance of anonymity
- Frequently remind students of the course evaluation deadline
The Blue Navigation Guide details how to generate QR codes, a unique link to your evaluation, and re-send invitation emails to students to help increase response rates.
Once the results are ready and the grade submission deadline has passed, a link to the results will be emailed to you. Typically this will occur around 5 business days after the grade submission deadline. Evaluation reports can be accessed directly through Blue, including previous reports up until Spring 2022.
If a course is taught by multiple professors then students will receive a separate course evaluation form for each professor.
Moreover per the University Policy No. 1329:
"All student evaluations shall be administered between the start of the 13th week and the end of the 14th week of the academic semester. There are two exceptions: One, when multiple instructors teach a class, the evaluation for each individual instructor shall take place during the last two weeks of the instructional period of each individual instructor..."
If this is applicable to you and you would like your evaluations to be sent out during the last two weeks of your instructional period, please provide three weeks of advanced notice by emailing evaluations@cpp.edu.
Since CPP switched to the Blue evaluation system beginning Spring 2022, Blue contains reports from Spring 2022 and onwards. For historical copies of course evaluation reports prior to Spring 2022, please contact your college administrator as they are the official custodians of these records. Each term, they place these records in your PAF. Should they not have all the reports you have anticipated, please email evaluations@cpp.edu with your request. Include in the email, the term, subject, and catalog numbers needed.
Staff FAQs
Please see our Course Evaluation Timeline Resource.
They are administered anywhere between the start of week 13 and the end of week 14 of the semester per Policy 1329.
Early course evaluations need to be requested 3 weeks before their expected launch date.
Relevant information from University Policy No. 1329:
All student evaluations shall be administered between the start of the 13th week and the end of the 14th week of the academic semester. There are two exceptions: One, when multiple instructors teach a class, the evaluation for each individual instructor shall take place during the last two weeks of the instructional period of each individual instructor...
Departments are encouraged to contact CPP’s CAFE (Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence) for resources and consultation when developing evaluation instruments. Once updated evaluation instruments are adopted by the department they must communicate these changes by sharing a copy of the template to all instructors, Faculty Affairs, and Institutional Research, Planning, and Analytics (evaluations@cpp.edu) no later than 14 days after the first day of instruction.
Relevant information from University Policy No. 1329:
The probationary and tenured faculty of each department or equivalent unit shall design the instruments for official student evaluation. Instruments appropriate to the content, method of instruction, and learning objectives of the course shall be designed by the department. Therefore, there can be more than one instrument used for official student evaluation in a department. Departments are encouraged to ensure that evaluation instruments are reliable and valid for the purpose of collecting data for summative evaluation of faculty. The Faculty Center for Professional Development can provide resources and consultation to this end and faculty are urged to contact the center when developing evaluation instruments.
After census has passed, typically Week 8 of the semester, your department will receive a course list for approval. If there are any changes to the course list after approval has been submitted, please notify IRPA as soon as possible at evaluations@cpp.edu.