Information for Instructors

As instructors you should receive a few automated emails from Blue every semester.

  1. Question Personalization
    • The first email lets you know an evaluation has been ordered for you and you can view the questions on the evaluation and optimally add up to five of your own. View the question catalog.
  2. Response Rates
    • This will allow you to see how many evaluations were sent, how many are completed, and the percentage of complete.
  3. Downloading/Viewing Reports
    • Blue will send an email when reports are available.
    • The Office of the Registrar uses an Interpolated Median for teaching evaluation reports.

If at any point you do not receive any of these emails, please contact your department administrator to verify an evaluation was ordered for you. If you switch sections, you’ll need to notify your department administrator to ensure you are assigned to the correct section (in Blue). Otherwise, you may not receive the correct evaluation or in some cases you may not be evaluated at all.

Increasing Response Rates

Strategies and Resources

The following may help to increase your response rates:

  • Encourage your students to take the evaluation by sending an email or talking about the evaluation during class. If the students know that you will read their feedback and seriously consider changes based on their feedback, they will be more likely to complete the evaluation. Share a story about how you have used feedback in the past to make changes, if applicable.
  • Ask the students to take the evaluation during the first 10-15 minutes of your last class. The evaluation system is mobile-friendly, so students can take it on their phones or laptops.
  • Provide a small incentive for completing evaluations. Examples include making the evaluation an assignment with points attached or offering to give students a bonus point. The easiest way to do this is to set a targeted response rate, such as providing everyone a bonus point if the entire class reaches a 90% response rate. Note the Blue system does not email students a “receipt,” so if you choose to give points to students individually, ask them to submit a picture, PDF, or printout of their confirmation page.
  • Faculty Consultations and Teaching Strategies & Resources from the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) can assist you with interpreting or making use of your results.

Evaluation Reports

Reports are created and generated once all of the evaluations are closed for the term. Please note some evaluations are open through finals. Due to the large volume of reports being processed (especially in the fall and winter terms), they are not available immediately once the grade roster has been posted. Instructors will get an email when they are available.

Student instructors (GSI, TA, etc.) should use an incognito window and select 'Ann Arbor Instructor' in order to see their real-time response rates and reports. You cannot view your instructor information if you are logged in as a student.

Ann Arbor instructor in drop down menu

Reports for any evaluations taken in spring 2018 or later can be found in Blue. These reports are not available in MPathways (MP). The Blue system defaults to 'Current'; for past terms please select 'Archived.'

screenshot of archived reports in blue

Reports from fall 2008 through winter 2018 will be in Faculty Center (MP). If you need a report prior to fall 2008, please contact [email protected] with the course and instructor information. Please note instructor reports are not available in Canvas.