15 October 2024
While Evalytics has already been used in other University of Amsterdam programmes, this pilot aims to assess how well it integrates with AUC’s specific evaluation process before implementing it across all courses. AUC differs from other UvA programmes in various ways, including the use of DataNose instead of UvANose, differences in academic calendars and team-taught courses. Additionally, AUC's faculty includes lecturers from VU and UMC, requiring careful consideration of how the new system aligns with existing procedures.
To test using Evalytics to evaluate AUC’s courses, the Director of Education has chosen a selection of courses from the 16-week term in semester 1 2024-25, including:
Students and teachers from the selected courses will be contacted in advance to explain the process for evaluating their courses.
Courses not selected for the Evalytics pilot will continue to be evaluated using the current system, Evasys. This process will follow the same timelines and communication methods as before. After reviewing the results of the pilot, a decision will be made about whether all courses from the 4-week term in January 2025 should use Evalytics or if a selection of courses will again be chosen for the system.
Evalytics offers features that could enable a redesign of AUC’s evaluation procedures. Discussions about these potential changes will take place during the 2024-2025 academic year, involving the DoE, the Head of Studies (HoS), participatory governance bodies and other internal stakeholders. Any adjustments to the evaluation process would be implemented in the following academic year. For now, the goal remains a transition to Evalytics with minimal changes to existing processes.
For those participating in the pilot, the main difference will be access to a personalised Evalytics portal, with dfferent access levels for students, faculty and UvA Q administrators. Students will receive an email with a link to the course evaluation survey, similar to the process in Evasys. Clicking the link will direct them to their Evalytics portal.
For instructors, the Evalytics portal provides access to their course evaluation results with options to download reports. Over time, they will be able to compare evaluations across multiple course editions. Instructors will only see evaluation data for the courses they teach, without access to lecturer-specific scores for their colleagues.
Additional details will be provided to students and faculty involved in the pilot as the semester progresses. Anyone with questions about the transition to Evalytics can contact Celestine Leah, AUC's Education Development Officer.