Utah Tech University

Student Surveys

Faculty Guide to Student Surveys

Blue
Student Tips
FAQs

Why Student Surveys?

University student surveys are crucial tools for enhancing the overall quality of education and academic experiences. This feedback is instrumental in helping educators and university administrators assess the effectiveness of their programs and identify areas for improvement. By understanding students’ perspectives, universities can make informed decisions to refine curriculum, update teaching approaches, and address any concerns raised by students. Furthermore, student surveys contribute to fostering a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring that educational institutions adapt to the evolving needs and expectations of their diverse student body. Ultimately, these surveys play a pivotal role in maintaining and elevating the standards of higher education.

Message to Faculty

Student feedback is crucial to the success of our institution.  Students are learning how to evaluate properly, but you can still gather valuable insight from the information they provide. Below are some reasons their input can improve the quality of education at Utah Tech.

Continuous Improvement: Student feedback through course surveys provides faculty with valuable insights into their teaching methods, course content, and overall effectiveness. This feedback can help them identify areas where improvements can be made, ultimately leading to better teaching, and learning experiences.

Enhanced Communication: Encouraging students to provide feedback fosters open communication between faculty and students. It demonstrates that faculty are interested in hearing students’ thoughts and are willing to adjust based on their input, which can improve the overall learning environment.

Accountability: Student surveys help faculty remain accountable for their teaching quality. They serve as a form of evaluation that ensures instructors are meeting the expectations of their students and the institution.

Professional Development: Constructive feedback from students can guide faculty in their professional development. It allows them to identify areas where they can grow as educators, develop new teaching strategies, and stay current with best practices in their field. In addition, these surveys are part of the RPT process.

Student-Centered Approach: Encouraging student surveys reflect a commitment to a student-centered approach to education. It demonstrates that faculty prioritize the needs and perspectives of their students, making it more likely that students will have a positive learning experience.

Institutional Improvement: Aggregate survey data can be used by institutions to assess the overall quality of education and identify trends or areas where systemic changes may be needed. Faculty participation in this process contributes to the institution’s continuous improvement efforts.

Recognition and Rewards: Positive feedback from students can also contribute to faculty members’ professional recognition and advancement. It can serve as evidence of their effective teaching practices.

In summary, faculty should want students to take student surveys because it benefits both the faculty and the students. It leads to improved teaching quality, fosters a positive learning environment, and supports the overall mission of delivering high-quality education.

The 4 Tasks of Student Surveys:

With the current student survey software “Blue,” there are 4 standard phases or tasks.

Task 1 - Personal Questions

This phase allows faculty members to add specific questions to the standard survey provided to students. These custom questions can address unique aspects of the course or areas where the instructor seeks more detailed feedback.

  • This task runs for one week before surveys open for students to respond.
    • Examples of the type of questions you can enter:
    • Course-Specific Content: “How effective were the case studies used in this course?”
    • Teaching Methods: “How did the flipped classroom approach impact your learning?”
    • Course Structure: “Were the weekly discussion forums helpful in understanding the material?”
  • This is a great opportunity for you to:
  • Gather tailored insights that go beyond the standard survey questions.
  • Collect feedback on specific elements of the course the instructor is interested in.
  • Enable a more comprehensive understanding of student experiences and needs.

Task 2: Student Fill-Out

Purpose: This phase involves students providing their feedback on various aspects of the course, including both standard and custom questions. It includes quantitative ratings and qualitative comments.

  • This task runs for two weeks and ends on the last day of classes. Per policy, the surveys do not run during finals.

Task 3: Subject Management

  • Subject Management (SM) opens the same day as the Student Fill-Out task begins. The SM task allows you to view the student response rate for your courses. This task is open for the same time period as student surveys.
  • Knowing the percentage of students responding ensures that the feedback accurately represents the views of the entire class. A higher response rate increases confidence that the feedback reflects the majority’s experience.
  • Validity of Data: A high response rate helps validate the data collected, making it more reliable for analysis and decision-making.
  • Communicate with students as the response rate increases, thereby increasing the desire for students to complete the survey. To see more on increasing student response rates, see “How to Increase Student Response.”

Task 4: Reports

  • Reports are provided 2 days after final grades are submitted. These detailed reports give you the opportunity to review student responses and to create customized action plans to improve your course.
  • Helps in identifying strengths and areas for improvement in the course.
  • Guides the development of actionable plans to enhance the learning experience.

Each task begins with a notification by email to the appropriate party. This email comes from a Utah Tech email titled “Survey Manager.” If you are using the “Other” inbox feature with Outlook, you can right-click, then click “Move to Focus” to ensure emails from this address always go to your “Focus” inbox.

How to access your student surveys.

  • You will receive an email when the surveys open. This email will provide you with a link to your “Tasks” Your tasks are the different courses you have taken that semester that have open surveys.
  • You can also access the surveys, using the course menu “Student Survey” this will take you directly to that course’s survey.
  • Finally, you can use the following link, it will take you to the Utah Tech Blue Survey site and your different tasks. (https://utahtech.bluera.com/utahtech/ )This link will take you to the university’s single sign out.
Utah Tech Blue Survey site

Faculty FAQs

What are personal questions and when are they open for input?

As the instructor of your course, you have the opportunity to add two additional questions to the student surveys. You can either select from a pre-existing question bank or create your own questions. One week before the surveys open for students, you will receive an email notification informing you that the Personal Question task is now available. If you do not receive this email, you can still access your task by visiting the Utah Tech Blue website.

What is the Subject Management task I am getting emails about?

To help you monitor the student response rate in your class, Task is created for you called “Subject Management.” This task is designed to open and close concurrently with the student surveys, allowing you to monitor the response from your students.

Are the student surveys anonymous?

Student surveys are confidential but not anonymous. Only Blue administrators can view individual question responses. Faculty members can see the percentage of respondents and receive a summarized report of the responses in a report, but not individual answers. Also, faculty do not receive a report unless at least three students respond. This is why it is crucial for all students to take the time to complete the survey.

How long are surveys open?

Student surveys are open for two weeks, closing on the last day of classes. For full-semester courses, this means that surveys are completed before finals begin, in accordance with policy.

Do block classes get surveys?

Yes, student surveys for both 1st and 2nd block courses open two weeks before the last day of classes. The last day of block courses is considered finals day. Per policy, surveys close on the last day of the course and to not run during finals.

My class has a different schedule than most, can I have my surveys at a different time?

If your class schedule is reflected in Banner, your surveys can be adapted to your course.

Where can I find the "Blue" student survey URL?

https://utahtech.bluera.com/utahtech/

How can I find the response rates for my student surveys?

Response rates can be monitored using the Subject Management task. You can find the link to this task in your email notifications from “Survey Manager,” or you can go directly to the Blue website and click on the Subject Management Task tile.

Can I see if an individual student has taken the survey?

No, you can only see the percentage of the student response rate.

Who will see my individual instructor reports?

The individual instructor report is available to you as the instructor and your supervisors, generally the chair and dean.

When do reports come out for the student surveys?

Reports become available two days after final grades are due. Generally, this is Thursday morning after final grades are submitted on Tuesday at 5 PM.

Will my class get a mid-course student survey?

Yes, student mid-term surveys run for two weeks, mid-semester. Personal questions can be input the week before the surveys open.

How do I get the reports to move automatically to Interfolio?

You do not need to upload your reports, this happens automatically approximately two weeks after you receive your report.

When will the reports appear in Interfolio?

Course surveys show in Interfolio two weeks after you receive your report, in the student activity in Section 2: Attachments.

I am getting “Access Denied” when I tried to access my course student surveys

A common cause of receiving error messages is a full browser cache. To resolve this, you can try the following steps:

  1.  Wait a few minutes and attempt the process again.
  2. Use a different browser to see if the issue persists.
  3. Open an incognito window in Chrome or a similar private browsing mode in other browsers.
  4. Clear your browser’s cache.

Detailed instructions for clearing the cache can be found under “FAQs” at https://advisement.utahtech.edu/navigate/

If these steps do not resolve the issue, please access the link provided in the notification email. https://utahtech.bluera.com/utahtech/

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