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Introduction

Online Course and Instructor Ratings
The Evaluation System is designed specifically for conducting formative and summative (end of term) evaluations of your course sites. However, it can also be used for more general surveys. An evaluation consists of a series of scaled (i.e. rating) questions, multiple choice with single answer questions, multiple choice with multiple answer questions, and/or free text questions, which are delivered to site members over a fixed time period (typically a few days).

The Evaluation System runs under Sakai version 2.2 or higher.
It allows colleges, departments, and instructors to manage their own body of questions which are part of a combined end of term evaluation. This allows colleges and departments within a larger institution to collect targeted information from their students, while preserving a consistent set of questions used through the institution.

Evaluation results can easily be reviewed within a single course, across colleges or departments, or across the entire university. Results can be reviewed for a single evaluation covering a short time period, or can be displayed for a series of evaluations conducted across a larger time period.

The evaluation system contacts students to notify them of upcoming evaluations automatically, and to remind students to complete an ongoing evaluation. The notification scheme is intended to increase the response rate.

The Evaluation System tool is primarily designed to allow an institution to measure/evaluate/rate courses. Ease of access for evaluation participants and protection of data (results) are also primary concerns. Use of the tool by instructors and non-institutional groups is a secondary design concern but is being factored into the current round of development.

More information about the work being done is available at Evaluation Status. Check out the System Development Info and Links below as well.

More Information

Project Team

Name	Institution	Role	Details
Aaron Zeckoski	CARET, Cambridge, UK	Project Lead/Developer	Design/Tool/Logic/DB/Integration
Richard Ellis	University of Michigan	Developer	Email/Scheduling/Logic
Gonzalo Silverio	University of Michigan	Designer	Tool/HTML/CSS
Lisa Emery	University of Michigan	UM lead/Tester	Design/Testing
Sean Michael DeMonner	University of Michigan	UM Project Manager	Project Management / Testing
Rick Moyer	University of Maryland, College Park	Developer	Testing Externals
Ellen Yu Borkowski	University of Maryland, College Park	UMD lead/Tester	Design/Testing
~~Kapil Ahuja~~	Edtech, Virginia Tech	Developer	Tool/Eval Settings
~~Will Humphries~~	Edtech, Virginia Tech	Developer	Tool/Reporting
~~Rui Feng~~	Edtech, Virginia Tech	Developer	Tool/Template
~~Shaun Fleming~~	University of Maryland, College Park	Developer	AJAX

Note: ~~Name~~ = No longer on the project or inactive

System Development Info and Links

Sakai collab site (Contrib: Evaluation System)
- Collab mailing list: evaluation@collab.sakaiproject.org
  - How to sign up
    - Create account on Sakai Collab and login
    - Click Membership link on left
    - Click Joinable Sites link at top
    - Click Join link for Contrib: Evaluation System
Subversion repository: https://source.sakaiproject.org/contrib/evaluation/
JIRA: http://bugs.sakaiproject.org/jira/browse/EVALSYS (usage guidelines)
Technologies used:
- Presentation: HTTP, CSS, RSF
- Business Logic: Java, Sakai Framework
- Data Access: Hibernate
Development Practices
Meeting Minutes:

Evaluation Development

Documents

Name	Size	Creator (Last Modifier)	Creation Date	Last Mod Date	Comment
EvaluationMOU.doc	29 kB	Aaron Zeckoski	Dec 02, 2006	Dec 02, 2006	Example memorandum of understanding
Evaluation-Sakai-Handout.pdf	134 kB	Tony Atkins	Dec 07, 2006	Dec 07, 2006	added attribution for Columbia
Evaluation-Sakai-Handout.doc	108 kB	Will Humphries	Dec 07, 2006	Dec 07, 2006
ConferencePoster.ppt	240 kB	Aaron Zeckoski	Nov 22, 2006	Nov 22, 2006	conference poster
Educause-Poster-final.jpg	385 kB	Ellen Yu Borkowski	Oct 17, 2007	Oct 17, 2007	Final version of Educause 200 poster
educause 07 poster.doc	60 kB	Ellen Yu Borkowski	Oct 15, 2007	Oct 15, 2007	Educause 2007 poster contents
Educause-Poster.jpg	268 kB	Ellen Yu Borkowski	Oct 16, 2007	Oct 16, 2007	Educause 2007 poster image

History

The VT Online Rating System (VTORS) was developed from code received from Columbia University in mid 2004. The system was previewed in early 2005. The system was piloted in Fall 2005. The system is currently being redesigned and rebuilt as a Sakai tool. This work was started at Virginia Tech.