Course Evaluation FAQ - Harvard Graduate School of Education

Online Course Evaluations at HGSE
Your participation in the course evaluation process at HGSE is very important to the school and
its faculty and to your fellow students. Online course evaluations are required to be completed by
students for all HGSE courses in which they are enrolled. A summary of what you need to know
to complete your course evaluations is presented in Q&A format below.
WHERE DO I GO ONLINE TO FILL OUT MY EVALUATIONS?
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/evaluations/ – This link is posted on myGSE and will be
sent in reminder emails to students.
WHEN DO I NEED TO FILL OUT MY EVALUATIONS?
Typically, the evaluation form for a course will be active online about one week before
the formal end date of instruction in the course; the evaluation window for a course will
then be open for approximately three to four weeks in total. Because courses (especially
modules) begin and end at different times during the semester, the actual timing of when a
course may be evaluated varies. Please consult the Course Evaluations box on the “My
Courses and Program” tab of myGSE for course-specific evaluation-period dates. Because
most full-semester courses end around the same time, a common schedule for course
evaluations for most semester courses will be publicized each term via email and on
myGSE. Throughout the period in which a course is open for evaluation, you may fill
out your evaluation in one sitting, or you may fill it out over multiple sittings. You may
also return to edit saved, partially completed evaluations in progress at any point during
the evaluation window.
The course evaluation application will be available 24 hours a day, except for between
approximately 2:00 am and 5:30 am on Sunday mornings, when all HGSE database
systems undergo weekly maintenance.
In addition, at peak times (such as the first few days and last few days of the end-ofsemester
evaluation period), it is possible that maximum server usage could be reached.
To preserve performance levels, students attempting to access the evaluation system at
exceptionally busy times could be asked to return at a later time. We encourage you, in
particular, to fill out your evaluations before the final two days of the evaluation window,
if at all possible.
ARE COURSE EVALUATIONS REQUIRED? WHAT HAPPENS IF I DON’T FILL OUT ONE OR MORE OF MY
COURSE EVALUATIONS?
Course evaluations are extremely important at HGSE, and we depend on your thoughtful
and full participation in the evaluation process. Accordingly, it is an institutional
requirement that students complete course evaluations for each class in which
they are enrolled. Continuing students who do not fill out all of their course

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evaluations will be prevented from registering for further courses until they fulfill the
course evaluation requirement. Graduating students who do not fill out all course
evaluations will have their diplomas withheld, consistent with other school requirements
for graduation. We greatly appreciate your participation in the evaluation process, and we
give your course feedback significant weight in institutional decision-making.
WHY MUST WE COMPLETE ALL COURSE EVALUATIONS? HOW ARE DATA FROM COURSE
EVALUATIONS USED?
HGSE course evaluations have four primary purposes. The most important of these is to
help instructors improve the design of their courses and strengthen their teaching. Other
purposes served by the course evaluation are to provide information about courses to
students, to encourage student reflection on their own learning, and to be used as part of
the professional review process for faculty members. Course evaluations will be posted on
myGSE, and hard copies will be made available in Gutman Library.
Courses serve a diversity of purposes, and there are many kinds of good courses. The
impact of powerful courses — those that generate imagination, creativity, or personal
transformations — often cannot be measured by specific questions. For this reason, we
encourage you to give full attention to the open-ended questions on the course
evaluation.
HOW DOES THE ONLINE SYSTEM WORK?
At the evaluation website, you will log in using your Harvard ID and PIN for security and
will be able to complete course evaluations for each of your courses. This process is
convenient and flexible, allowing you to complete the course evaluations at your own
pace, across multiple sittings, and when and where you choose. A menu screen will list all
the evaluations you need to complete and the due dates for those evaluations. In addition,
you will see whether you have previously saved or submitted any evaluation responses for
each course. You can view or edit your submitted responses for each course at any time
until the closing date for evaluations.
WHAT TYPE OF INTERNET BROWSER DO I NEED?
The preferred browsers to use when completing online course evaluations are Internet
Explorer 6.0 (or higher), Firefox 1.5 (or higher), and Safari.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO COMPLETE AN EVALUATION?
We estimate that filling out the evaluation will take about 15 minutes per course.
Evaluations for some courses, especially those in which you have interacted with multiple
teaching fellows, may take a little longer.

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HOW LONG CAN I WORK ON AN EVALUATION BEFORE BEING “TIMED OUT” BY THE SYSTEM?
Access to the response form will expire in 120 minutes from the time you begin
completing an evaluation. Please be sure to save your responses before 120 minutes have
elapsed (by clicking the Save/Submit button). You may return to continue to edit a saved
course evaluation any time until the closing date for evaluating a course. Please note that
once you have timed out, any modifications to your evaluation form response will be lost
and you will be prompted to log in again using your Harvard ID and PIN, so be sure to
submit or save your work on each course evaluation form before 120 minutes have
elapsed.
ARE MY RESPONSES CONFIDENTIAL?
All responses will be entirely confidential, and no individual identifying information will ever
be reported or shared. Instructors and teaching fellows will not receive summary reports
of their course evaluations until after all course grades are submitted. Evaluation results are
reported only in the aggregate.
HOW WILL I EVALUATE MY TEACHING FELLOWS? DO I HAVE TO EVALUATE EVERY TEACHING
FELLOW IN COURSES WITH MULTIPLE TEACHING FELLOWS?
Although you will be permitted to evaluate any or all of the teaching fellows (TFs) on the
course evaluation form, we ask that you evaluate only those TFs with whom you have
had meaningful interaction (e.g., as a section leader, as a grader of your work, in office
hours). You are the best judge of whether you have had sufficient interaction with a TF
to offer a substantive evaluation of their instructional work, so please use your discretion.
For any teaching fellows you choose to evaluate, please provide separate responses for each
person using his or her individually designated section of the evaluation. If you choose not
to evaluate a particular TF, simply leave that person’s designated section of the evaluation
form blank.
WHOM CAN I CONTACT IF I HAVE QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?
If you experience technical problems while completing your course evaluations online,
you may contact the Help Desk in the Learning Technology Center at
helpdesk@gse.harvard.edu or (617) 496-0628. Please feel free to contact the Course
Evaluation Team at evaluations@gse.harvard.edu with any questions or comments you
have about the online course evaluation tool.
edited 11-08