User Guide

Information

The Evaluation System is a tool that runs under Sakai version 2.2 or higher. The Evaluation System is used to conduct formative and summative (end of term) evaluations and review the results. An evaluation consists of a series of scaled and/or free text questions, which are delivered to students over a fixed time period (typically a few days).  This guide will explain how to create questions, templates, and evaluations, deliver the evaluation and view the results. Please see the administrator's guide for permissions setting and creating scales.

Overview of Evaluation Process

The process of using the Evaluation Tool involves the following general steps:

1. Create your items (this is optional as you can also create items while creating a template)
2. Create a template
3. Add items to your template
4. Create an evaluation
   1. Set the parameters for the evaluation
5. Run the evaluation
6. View the results

Each of these steps are explained in the following sections.

Evaluations Dashboard

The Evaluations dashboard provides a summary of group information and the current status of your evaluations.  You'll see a box on the left labeled Site/Group Listing which displays the groups that will list the groups you can be evaluated in and the groups you can evaluate.  The box on the right labeled Evaluations I am creating or administering displays the title, status and date of your evaluations.  Clicking on the Title of the evaluation will bring up a preview of the evaluation.  The Status column will indicate whether an evaluation is active or if results are viewable.  You can click on the View Report link to gain direct access to the report for that particular evaluation.  The Date column will indicate the due date of the evaluation or the date of when results became viewable.

Creating items

1. Click My Items.  You'll see both the items you've created and the expert items that come with the tool or have been added by others.
2. Select the type of item you'd like to add (Scaled/Survey, Short Answer/Essay, Text Header) and click the Add item button.
3. For Scaled/Survey items
   1. Enter the Item Text (this is the question or statement that the evaluator will respond to)
   2. Select the Scale
   3. Select the Sharing level (private or public)
   4. Indicate if this is an Expert item
      1. If this is an expert item, enter the Expert Description (describes the appropriate usage of this item for template authors)
   5. Set Display Settings Hints (these optional settings allow the item author to provide hints as to how this item should be displayed)
      1. Select the Scale Display Setting
      2. Indicate if N/A will be an option
      3. Select Item Category
   6. Click the Save item button
4. For Short Answer/Essay items
   1. Enter the Item Text (this is the question or statement that the evaluator will respond to)
   2. Select the Sharing level (private or public)
   3. Indicate if this is an Expert item
      1. If this is an expert item, enter the Expert Description (describes the appropriate usage of this item for template authors)
   4. Set Display Settings Hints (these optional settings allow the item author to provide hints as to how this item should be displayed)
      1. Select the Response size
      2. Indicate if N/A will be an option
      3. Select Item Category
   5. Click the Save item button
5. For Text Header items
   1. Enter the Item Text (this is the question or statement that the evaluator will respond to)
   2. Select the Sharing level (private or public)
   3. Indicate if this is an Expert item
      1. If this is an expert item, enter the Expert Description (describes the appropriate usage of this item for template authors)
   4. Set Display Settings Hints (these optional settings allow the item author to provide hints as to how this item should be displayed)
      1. Indicate if N/A will be an option
      2. Select Item Category
   5. Click the Save item button

1. explain basic usage (create template, start eval, take evals, view results), details about setting up the permissions correctly in Sakai would be helpful, explanation of the summary (dahsboard) view
2. how to create a template with details about various things like inserting expert items, reusing existing items, block items, etc.
3. how to start evaluations with details about the start dates and the various options (rwellis)
4. explanation of the email reminders and how they work (rwellis)
5. ways to access an evaluation to take it (email links, summary page, category view, direct links)
6. Viewing reports options with details on how to download csvs and view text responses