Frequently Asked Questions

No UBC user can reconnect responses to the person who submitted the survey.
The Senate Policy on Student Evaluation of Teaching indicates that student evaluations are confidential: Evaluations of teaching shall ensure students’ confidentiality, e.g., the students will not be required to provide their name and/or student number.

Students are asked to provide their CWL as a means to control access — akin to making sure that their name is on the class list and they are therefore eligible to participate. A student can access the survey, fill out all or part of it, and save it to complete later. Once the survey is submitted, at the database level, the individual responses to individual questions are associated with an internal ID that is generated by the CoursEval® system. The mechanism by which the data are connected to usernames is proprietary and is the intellectual property of Academic Management Systems. Neither the CWL nor student name is stored with specific responses.

Academic Management Systems, the company that makes the product, could make that connection if there is a threat of personal bodily harm or similar serious situation that involves legal authorities/law enforcement. The decision to make this request would be made by a senior administrator and/or the Office of the University Counsel (under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the University cooperates with authorities in these matters).

Two UBC policies in particular govern the use of data collected through its Information Technology Systems. the primary use of these confidential data is identified in the Senate Student Evaluation of Teaching Policy:
[the]…University will use data from student evaluations of teaching to improve the learning environment of the University. In addition the University will use this data for operational purposes, including but not limited to assessment of faculty for promotion, tenure and institutional recognition.

The data management is also governed by Policy 104, Responsible Use of Information Technology Facilities and Services, which has further Privacy and Security stipulations.

Yes. The system tracks who has and who has not submitted surveys, and will send reminders until the deadline for completion. Once the survey has been submitted, the system sets a flag for that student that their survey has been completed. A student cannot submit a survey more than once.

Please note: the administrator of a Faculty’s database can see who has and has not submitted the survey (much like WebCT surveys); this information is not shared with the faculty member and is only accessible to the administrators of the systems. Students and Faculty log in to the CoursEval® system through a different interface and URL than the system administrators.

If a student submits a survey prematurely and would like to edit the response, the student can edit the survey response by visiting the Completed Surveys list.

To access the Completed Surveys list, select Completed Surveys under the “gear” icon.

From the survey list, select Edit Survey Answers for the survey you’d like to edit.

Note:

• Students cannot edit a survey that is closed
• Students will not be able to Save Progress on a re-opened survey; they will, instead, have the option to Submit the response, or to cancel/exit out of the survey.

Access to responses by the faculty member is controlled by the administrator. Survey results are not released until after grades are submitted (normally three weeks following the last day of exams).