Course evaluation for courses at first and second cycle

Implementation of course evaluation

After each course instance, the course responsible department must carry out a final course evaluation. The course evaluation must be conducted as an anonymous, web-based survey in Canvas using the KI Survey tool. The student receives an email notification informing them that a survey is available to answer, and they can respond via the link in the email or in the Canvas course.

The course responsible department is in charge of creating the survey and sending it out to the students. The course evaluation should be sent out when the course has ended but before students receive the examination results. After the first mailing, two additional reminders are sent out, four and eight days after the first mailing. The survey is open for about two weeks after the end of the course.

No questions in the course evaluation survey are mandatory for the student to answer.

Design of the course evaluation

Common questions

The course evaluation must consist of the following four common questions that reflect the target areas:

• Active learning
• Psychological safety
• Overall assessment of the course
• Areas for improvement

1. The course was designed in a way that provided me with opportunities for active learning. For example: seminars with discussions, group work, projects, student presentations, role play, peer learning, practical exercises, laboratory work, workplace-based learning, etc.
2. I felt included and respected during the course. For example: I was comfortable collaborating with other students, speaking in front of the group, answering teachers' questions, and I was listened to (not interrupted, ridiculed, or similar).
3. The course as a whole was good.
4. What could be improved in the course? Please provide as constructive suggestions as possible.

Response options

• Questions 1–3 use the following response scale with two anchors: From 1 (Strongly disagree) to 6 (Strongly agree), as well as the option Don’t know.
• Questions 1–3 also include a comment box where the student can provide free-text comments related to the question.
• Question 4 is an open question to be answered in free text.

The four common questions are only used in the final course evaluation sent out at the end of the course. They are intended to evaluate the course as a whole, not individual components. To avoid students receiving too many surveys, course directors are advised not to send out additional surveys, whether for the entire course or for specific parts. In addition to the final course evaluation survey, smaller formative oral evaluations during the course are recommended, in line with recommendations or specific assignments from the respective committee.

Programme- and course-specific questions

In addition to the four common questions, each programme and course may add questions. However, the course evaluation as a whole should not exceed 20 questions. Programmes and courses should primarily use the validated questions available in the question bank for course evaluations. Unit for teaching and learning (UoL) can provide support in selecting programme- and course-specific questions.

Standard introduction to the course evaluation survey

The following standard introduction must be used in all surveys:

This course evaluation refers to the course (SurveyName), that you have just completed. The responses to this course evaluation will help us improve the course. They will also contribute to the development of education throughout the Karolinska Institutet since the first four questions are used for all courses taught at KI. After analysis of the answers by the course director, a summary of the results will be presented to the students who took part in the course. This summary will, for example, describe developments planned for the course in the future, making it visible for you and your fellow students how you have contributed to an improvement of the course. Your answers to the survey will be anonymous. 

At KI, there is zero tolerance towards discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment and victimisation. Here you can find information about who to contact if you have been subjected to abuse and/or want to report or get support.

Thank you very much for your participation!

Survey templates

Unit for teaching and learning (UoL) creates programme-specific survey templates in KI Survey, which are then linked to Canvas. These contain the four common questions and any programme-specific questions decided by the programme and submitted to UoL.

For freestanding courses, UoL creates a template in Canvas containing the four common questions. The template also includes a distribution schedule that, once activated, ensures that two reminders are sent out four and eight days after the first mailing.

When creating the survey, the course responsible department may add any course-specific questions to the programme-specific template or the freestanding course template. Surveys should not be created by copying a previous survey. They should always be based on the appropriate template. Surveys must be named as follows: Course code_Course name_Term.

For more information on how to create a course evaluation survey in Canvas.

Course evaluation reports

Course evaluation surveys must be anonymous. To ensure student anonymity, results and reports must not be generated in KI Survey if fewer than five students have answered the survey. This is regulated in the template when created.

Two course evaluation reports, one with and one without free-text responses, are automatically created in Canvas when the survey closes. Teachers in the course have access to both reports and can download them as PDFs.

Analysis of results

The course director is responsible for analyzing the results of the course evaluation. A systematic analysis must be conducted for both closed questions (answered on the 1–6 scale) and open questions (answered with free text). If needed, UoL can provide support in interpreting the results. The analysis of the course evaluation results forms part of the course analysis that the course director must complete after each course instance.

Feedback of results

The course evaluation report (without free-text responses), together with the course analysis, must:

• Be published no later than one month after the end of the course on the course webpage.
• Preferably also be communicated in other ways to the students who just completed the course, e.g., during an exam review.
• Be presented to the new students at the start of the next course instance (or during the course if it starts immediately after the previous one).

The course evaluation report (with free-text responses), together with the course analysis, must be submitted to both the course responsible education committee and the programme responsible committee and be discussed in forums where student representatives are present.

KI-wide academic year report

UoL compiles, on behalf of the Committee for Higher Education (KU), an annual academic year report with the results of the common questions from all course evaluations. Comments and free-text responses are excluded from this compilation.

UoL downloads from KI Survey all course evaluations conducted during the academic year and compiles the results. For this to be possible, it is important that surveys are named as follows: Course code_Course name_Term. Course responsible departments do not need to send the survey results to UoL.

UoL sends a summary of the responses to the four common questions (mean score per question and overall mean score across all four questions), as well as response rates for all courses during the academic year within programmes and departments, to programme directors and departmental directors of education, with a copy to the functional addresses of the programme responsible committees and education committees.

Improvement work based on results

The result of the course evaluation forms a basis for improvement work at both course and programme level and must be used as one of the sources in the development of the department’s and programme’s quality plan.

The KI-wide academic year report serves as one of the bases for the Committee for Higher Education (KU’s) annual quality workshop, where results from all surveys and other evaluations are analyzed to identify areas for improvement. These are documented in KU’s committee report to the Faculty Board.

Contact

If you have questions about course evaluations, you can contact Zoe Säflund.