Higher Ed Survey Service Adds Write-In Analysis Option -- Campus Technology

Smart Classroom Technologies

Higher Ed Survey Service Adds Write-In Analysis Option

By Dian Schaffhauser
11/07/13

A Web-based course evaluation service developed specifically for colleges and universities has added a text analytics option that enables users to cull insight from free-form student feedback. EvaluationKIT, from a company of the same name, has introduced EvaluationKIT Text Analytics, which takes write-in responses to survey questions and summarizes them for reports. Results include a summary table of top themes, metrics for each theme, and "sentiment analysis" to measure how negative or positive the comments are for each specific theme.

EvaluationKIT's standard offering provides digital tools for creating surveys, embedding them into learning management systems, handling email invitations to students and follow-up to non-respondents, and reporting.

"Historically, institutions have had to rely on Likert-type items as the basis for survey feedback due to the operational and technical limitations of analyzing large volumes of student text responses," said EvaluationKIT President Kevin Hoffman. "With the release of EvaluationKIT Text Analytics, the richness of student write-in feedback can be efficiently summarized by the system and presented to administrators in clear reporting across thousands of comments. This approach presents a much more complete picture of student feedback." (A Likert item typically asks the respondent to assess level of agreement to a given statement.)

One institutional user said she has found qualitative feedback from students "extremely useful" in identifying "common thoughts and viewpoints" across large numbers of students. "Using EvaluationKIT Text Analytics, our student feedback data has become so much more powerful and meaningful," said Shelley Kinash, associate professor and director of learning and teaching at Bond University in Australia. "The students are the stakeholders who are best placed to evaluate the quality of their education. Through applying qualitatively analyzed feedback, we have made significant improvements to learning, teaching, and the overall student experience."

Annual pricing for the standard survey service starts at $3,000 per year for up to 10,000 survey responses. The text analytics option has an additional charge.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

E-Mail this page

Printable Format

Featured

Report: Hybrid and AI Expansion Outpacing Cloud Security

A new survey from the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and Tenable finds that rapid adoption of hybrid, multi-cloud and AI systems is outpacing the security measures meant to protect them, leaving organizations exposed to preventable breaches and identity-related risks.
Register Now for Tech Tactics in Education: Overcoming Roadblocks to Innovation

Tech Tactics in Education will return on Sept. 25 with the conference theme "Overcoming Roadblocks to Innovation." Registration for the fully virtual event is now open.
Microsoft Makes Windows 365 Cloud Apps Available for Public Preview

Microsoft has announced that Windows 365 Cloud Apps are now available for public preview. This allows IT administrators to stream individual Windows applications from the cloud, removing the need to assign Cloud PCs to every user.
Solving the Talent Crisis Starts in Higher Ed — But Only if We Stop Teaching for the Past

Higher education still holds the potential to combine intellectual depth with career readiness, but traditional approaches to teaching and learning no longer suffice.