Overview

What is the Cascaded Course Evaluation Framework

To ensure that course evaluations provide instructors, academic administrators, and students with

meaningful and relevant feedback, U of T’s Course Evaluation Framework applies a cascaded assessment structure that acknowledges the need for both broad-based and granular assessment across the various levels of the institution.

Specifically, course evaluation forms are comprised of items that reflect core teaching and learning priorities, which apply to all courses at U of T; divisional items that reflect teaching and learning priorities within a specific division (e.g. Faculty of Arts & Science); departmental items that reflect teaching and learning priorities within a specific department (e.g. Computer Science); and finally, individual instructor items that reflect teaching and learning priorities within a specific course (and are selected via the Institutional Item Bank).

Why the University of Toronto does course evaluations

The University of Toronto is committed to ensuring the quality of its academic programs, its teaching, and the learning experiences of its students. An essential component of our commitment to teaching excellence is the regular evaluation of courses by students.

Together with other sources of feedback, course evaluations can be a valuable source of insight into students’ experiences and perspectives in U of T courses, both broadly speaking and within the context of each academic discipline.

Blue – the Course Evaluation Software Platform

The University of Toronto uses the Blue software platform by Explorance, a cloud-based confidential course evaluation system based in Montreal, Canada. It has been widely adopted across many Canadian Higher Education Institutions. Blue also adapts course evaluations for smartphone and tablet use so that course evaluation tasks can be completed on the go!

If the CCEF is not suitable for the structure or pedagogy of a course

We recommend using a survey tool that guarantees the anonymity of respondents. Please note that the survey tool on Quercus does not ensure anonymity (as it can be overridden retroactively). Several licensed tools are available to the U of T community for this purpose, including Microsoft Forms and REDCap. Other tools, such as Qualtrics, are available through subscription. We advise against using survey tools with servers located outside of Canada, such as SurveyMonkey, due to privacy concerns.

For end-of-semester course evaluations, instructors should receive aggregated results only after grades have been submitted.