What is CoursEval?
- The course evaluation system is designed to protect your confidentiality. Your names are never associated with your responses, and instructors do not see any results of the anonymous course evaluations until after final grades are posted.
- At that time, instructors see compiled results, and open-ended written comments are provided exactly as you wrote them. They never see names and are unable to see which students filled out the surveys.
- Student feedback on course evaluations is read thoroughly by instructors, department chairpersons, associate deans, Dean, and university administrators and is included in annual reviews of faculty. When most or all students complete the surveys, this information is more reliable.
- Your feedback helps your instructors know how their teaching methods connected with you and your learning in positive and negative ways. Your feedback helps them make decisions about how they’ll run the course in the future (both what they should keep doing and where they might consider revision.)
What kind of feedback is helpful?
Instructors often find students’ written comments the most valuable element of course evaluations. To help your teachers get the most out of your end-of-semester feedback, keep the following in mind:
- Remember that you are writing to your instructor. Your feedback can influence the ways they teach this course in the future.
- Specific, constructive suggestions that focus on your learning are far more useful than general critiques. See below for examples you can phrase your feedback to help your instructors understand how their instructional choices helped or hindered your learning. Both positive and negative feedback is more helpful when you are specific.
- Comments that are not related to your learning diminish the value of your feedback. For example, it is not helpful to comment on your instructor’s appearance, personality, gender, race/ethnicity
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Less helpful: Vague critique or praise |
More helpful: Specific suggestions that could improve your learning or explanations of why the course helped you learn Consider these additions to help your instructors better understand what you mean. |
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"I was overwhelmed" or |
"I was bored..." Consider rephrasing as... ...The class meetings were full of so much information which is great but I'm lost in all the details. I would benefit from help organizing what I'm learning in each class in some way. ...Nearly all classes included lectures without any pauses, but I need more time for thinking or practice solving problems during lectures. I would learn more if I got more hands-on practice or if I had time to think about questions the instructor asks me. ...I'm not sure why I'm learning this material. Maybe the instructor can explain to me why these topics are important or matter to us to learn about? It could be helpful to encourage us to try to make connections about what we're learning with other classes we have to take or with our career goals. |
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"The readings were redundant." |
"The readings were redundant." Consider rephrasing as... ...I didn't understand why we read so many different articles on the same topic. ...Could you offer more guidance on what we're supposed to look for in the readings? I think I'm paying attention to the wrong things because what I focused on wasn't on the exam, and I missed some of the main points. |
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"Discussions were awesome!" |
"Discussions were awesome!" Even positive comments aren't as helpful without being specific. Consider rephrasing as... ...I loved how you created an environment where students were willing to share perspectives and disagree. ...It was really helpful that you kept notes on the board during our discussions. ...I really liked the variety of ways we had class discussions. |
Image by UMSL student Autumn House, developed through her work in the Triton's as Partners program.
CoursEval Resources
To access MyCoursEval, be sure you follow the UMSL link and use your SSOID to sign into MyCoursEval. Here, students can take surveys, retake closed surveys, and see open/completed surveys.
Course evaluations will open and close on the following schedule, and faculty will have access to results three days after the official grade submission due date:
16 Week Courses:
Fall 2022
Open Monday, November 28th, 2022
Close Sunday, December 11th, 2022
Spring 2023
Open Monday, April 24th, 2023
Close Sunday, May 7th, 2023
8 Week 1 Courses:
Fall 2022
Open Monday, October 3rd, 2022
Close Sunday, October 16th, 2022
Spring 2023
Open Monday, February 27th, 2023
Close Sunday, March 12th, 2023
8 Week 2 Courses:
Fall 2022
Open Monday, November 28th, 2022
Close Sunday, December 11th, 2022
Spring 2023
Open Monday, April 24th, 2023
Close Sunday, May 7th, 2023
Winter intercession:
Open Tuesday, January 10th, 2023
Close Saturday, January 15th, 2023
Summer Session 1
Open Tuesday, June 6th, 2023
Close Saturday, June 10th, 2023
Summer Session 2
Open Tuesday, July 4th, 2023
Close Saturday, July 8th, 2023
Summer Session 3
Open Tuesday, August 1st, 2023
Close Saturday, August 5th, 2023
Summer Session 4
Open Tuesday, July 4th, 2023
Close Saturday, July 8th, 2023
Summer Session 5
Open Tuesday, August 1st, 2023
Close Saturday, August 5th, 2023
Summer Session 6
Open Tuesday, August 1st, 2023
Close Saturday, August 5th, 2023
All other 4-week courses should schedule course evaluations in the last five days of the course.
The following document contains all the different features that can be accessed through MyCoursEval. Some features are not accessible to you based on your role as a student.
After a student logs into MyCoursEval, if they have surveys to take, they will be placed on the My Surveys landing page. Students will be able to see surveys available to them. By clicking on a survey they have not completed, they will be able to take that survey for that course. Under the Surveys tab, students can also see available surveys, surveys they completed, and surveys they missed. They will not be able to retake previously completed surveys nor will they be able to take surveys that they missed.