Planning and implementation

Course evaluation – Step by step

The organisation of course evaluation is usually a collaboration between the departments, you as teachers and us. The departments organise the course evaluation internally, we make sure that information and results reach you as teachers, and you get in touch with the students, conduct the evaluation and talk to the students about the results.

Minimum number of participants for a course evaluation

Courses with fewer than 6 participants are not evaluated for data protection reasons. You are of course welcome to use alternative evaluation methods.

Your contact persons at the departments

Each department has a contact person for course evaluation. If you have questions about evaluation in your department, you can contact this person directly.

List of contact persons (TU ID required)

Online In-Presence Course Evaluation (OiP)

What is it?

Course evaluation carried out with online questionnaires within/during the attendance course.

Take advantage of online surveys and face-to-face courses to get comprehensive feedback.

You can bring your own questions into the evaluation and shape the way you want to evaluate online.

Which courses are evaluated in which period is determined internally by the department. Each department has its own procedure, according to which criteria this is done and, above all, how the teachers are made aware of the possibility of course evaluation in a semester.
Please get in touch with your contact person.

Exception:

Every three semesters, the departments are obliged to evaluate all courses with ten or more participants.

In some cases, the time period set by the department does not fit your course. Perhaps there are other reasons why you could not/can not carry out your evaluation in this period. If this is the case, please contact us directly.

About two weeks before the evaluation period begins, you will receive an email with all the information you need to conduct an evaluation. If you are evaluating several events, you will receive a separate e-mail for each course.

What information do you receive?

  • Direct link
  • Password
  • Short URL

The direct link takes students directly to the questionnaire that is valid for your respective course. Perfect for use with moodle or other platforms!

Short URL and QR code lead to a general page of the evaluation software. Your individual survey will only start after you have entered the password. This is particularly suitable if you do not have moodle or another platform available.

Feel free to combine all the information as it best suits the implementation of your evaluation!

Do you have questions that you would like to ask students as part of the course evaluation? The use of online questionnaires now opens up the possibility for you to easily integrate your own questions into the existing questionnaire. Individually for each course .

Learn more

  • Consider what information you want to use to implement the evaluation and in which session the evaluation should take place.
  • Announce to your students when you want to evaluate and that the evaluation will take place in the course.
  • Ask students to bring a mobile device (mobile phone, tablet, laptop) to this session.
  • If you want to ask your own questions to the students, enter them in the questionnaire.

Prepare the survey. Keep in mind that the aim of online in-presence evaluation is to provide your students with access to the evaluation in the face-to-face course.

If you use moodle:

Use a separate section for the evaluation, which you only make visible on the day of implementation. Write a short text about it and insert the direct link.

You do not have access to moodle?

If possible, use the short link, the QR code and the password during the course. Prepare a PowerPoint slide/Word document or similar to show during the course. You are also welcome to use our PowerPoint template.

You have no possibility to share information online during the course?

Write us an . We will try to find a solution for you too.

Carry out the evaluation at the beginning of the course.

Take five minutes and explain to the students why the evaluation is important for you (or this course).

  • If you have specific examples, name them. If you have a particular interest in feedback on a specific topic, share that.
  • For example, have you made improvements to your teaching as a result of course evaluations in the past? The script is neater now, you pay more attention to the fact that there is a common theme running through your course?
    Tell the students about it!
  • You have come up with a new concept and want to know if it has been received by the students the way you imagined it? Tell your students!

Now ask the students to log in to moodle, scan the QR, enter the short link,…

Advise students to click the “Submit” button at the end of the questionnaire.

Give the students about 15 – 20 min to complete the questionnaire.

By giving feedback, you are indicating to your students that their feedback is taken seriously and that they can make a difference. You show the students that you value their effort and that you critically consider the feedback.

This not only increases students' willingness to participate in course evaluations in the future, but can also strengthen their sense of responsibility when participating in evaluations.

Feedback to students can range from a simple “Thank you!” to a specific discussion of individual results. However, it should not take longer than 15-20 minutes. Ideally, you should plan a time slot for this in one of your last sessions of the course and inform the students in advance.

Find suggestions here on how to design such feedback.

What you as a teacher also need to know about the course evaluation

Guidelines for the course evaluation at the TU Darmstadt

The course evaluation procedure is basically regulated in the guidelines for course evaluation at the TU Darmstadt. These are valid for all departments and all course evaluations. They describe the goals, responsibilities, procedures, evaluation of the course evaluation and the discussion of the results. Even though course evaluations are organised slightly differently in each department, these guidelines form the specifications.