Course/Rotation Evaluations

Curriculum Committee and Executive Faculty Boards have determined that a formal and uniform evaluation by students of all core veterinary didactic and laboratory courses be conducted annually. These evaluations are administered by the Office of Professional Education through Blue® and consist of multiple-choice questions and open-ended questions. Students receive an incomplete course grade if they do not complete an on-line evaluation for the course or rotation.

Blue Course Evaluation System and Procedures

Blue is a confidential online course evaluation system and provides a centralized location for students, faculty, and staff to access course evaluation forms, response rates, and reports.

• Evaluation forms can be accessed through Blue, and students will be reminded to complete evaluations for all courses they have taken.
• The evaluation forms for both courses and rotations include multiple-choice questions and room for comments and answers to more open-ended questions. Each instructor in a course will be evaluated separately. Students are expected to answer the multiple-choice questions for all courses in which they are enrolled and are encouraged to add comments. Students are encouraged to view this as an important learning opportunity in providing feedback in a professional manner and avoid discourteous comments.
• Consistent with the procedures used by the Office of Institutional Research at Tufts University, your individual responses are kept CONFIDENTIAL except for references to discrimination or harassment, as explained here. The Blue system tracks who have or have not filled out the form, but comments or multiple-choice answers are not traced back to a specific student. Blue does not allow students to fill out more than one form for each course or rotation.
• Course evaluation forms are available online for the entire semester in which the course is offered. Completed evaluation forms are compiled, and the results sent to the Course Director, Associate Dean for Professional Education, and the department chair of the Course Director three weeks after the course has ended. Students must complete online evaluations for all courses by no later than twenty-one (21) days after the completion of the course (i.e., after the final examination, or last class session if there is no final examination).
• Completion of online evaluations is required. Students failing to complete an online evaluation form by this deadline may be assigned a grade of Incomplete in the course, which is removed once the online evaluation is completed. The Associate Dean for Professional Education writes to each student who has not completed evaluations formally notifying them of the likelihood of not being able to be promoted to the next academic year. The SPC decides on a course of action when a student fails to complete evaluations.
• Be professional in your comments and offer constructive feedback to improve the course. Any evaluations containing offensive language will be discarded in their entirety and will not be passed along to the course director. Because student feedback is so important, you are required to fill out an evaluation for every course.
• Results from core rotation evaluations are collated every four months and results are presented to rotation personnel in aggregate so that students cannot be identified. The Office of Professional Education does not routinely evaluate elective or selective courses, although some directors of such rotations have requested evaluations to be administered.
• Beginning approximately one month after the completion of the course, the Course Director and department chairs receive a statistical report of the multiple-choice answers as well as a printout that compiles all student comments. The Office of Professional Education does not edit comments made by students, but offensive words may be flagged and evaluations containing these words may be sent to department chairs for faculty and internship or residency directors for house officers. These evaluations are then discussed in person in a redacted form.
• Questions about the online systems used for evaluations should be directed to the Office of Professional Education.