How do I add personalized questions in Blue?

The Personalized Questions feature in Blue allows instructors to add custom questions to the bottom of a standard course evaluation form. You may not change the existing questions, but you may add new ones that are personalized to your own course.

To access this feature you must:

  • Be associated with a Tufts school which has activated the 'personalized questions' feature in Blue
  • Be an officially designated instructor or staff member who has been granted rights to personalize questions in Blue

You will receive an email at your school email address from Tufts Course Evaluations ([email protected]) inviting you to personalize the evaluation. You can click the link in the email to access your forms. If you do not receive the email, please check your spam folder.

You can also access Blue via the 'Course Evaluations' link in the left side navigation of any Canvas course. Alternatively, you can access your forms via your Blue home page at https://tufts.bluera.com/tufts. For AS&E, there will also be a Canvas announcement with a link to Blue.

If there are multiple instructors on a single course, they may each add their own personalized questions, and will view only their own responses on their evaluation report.

Note:  You are NOT required to personalize questions. It is an option that is available to you.

Note: This feature is available for Spring and Fall semesters only.

Note:  Some schools allow you to personalize ratings questions, and some schools allow you to personalize comment questions. Some schools allow both. If you wish to personalize more comment questions than are available, consider combining them into multi-part comment questions.

Note: Some schools require a response threshold to be met in order for evaluation reports to be published in Blue. In the BioMedical Sciences school, if fewer than 3 students respond, or in AS&E if fewer than 4 respond, the report will not be generated. Please keep this in mind if you are teaching a course with a small number of students and you are considering adding personalized questions.

Note: The questions must be submitted (not just saved) in order to be included on the form.

Note: Any personalization must be completed before the personalization period ends.

 

Typing in new personalized questions

You will receive an email notification inviting you to personalize questions in Blue. Click on the link in the invite to be routed to your Blue task list. Once there, click on 'Choose the personalized questions for...' task for the desired course. The personalization page will open for you.

Click 'Preview' to preview the standard form questions before you customize, and then click 'Customize' to open the question editor.

Type over the 'Please personalize this question...' prompt to customize as you wish.

While the questions are customizable, the format is not. If you are looking for more of a certain type of question, you can always combine them. For example, if you wish to ask six comment questions, but only have three available, you can combine two prompts into each comment question. This would allow the students to provide feedback for more than one prompt in each comment box.

When you are finished, click the 'x' in the top right hand corner to close the question editor box. Your new question(s) are now included in the list. Click 'Preview' again to preview the form - which now includes your personalized questions at the end.

You also have the option to 'Include' or 'Exclude' questions. Make sure that the questions you wish to include on the form are marked as 'Included'. When you are ready, click 'Submit' to submit the questions (or 'Update' if you have returned to update the questions).

Note: The questions must be submitted (not just saved) in order to be included on the form.

Note: Any personalization must be completed before the personalization period ends.

 

 

Copying personalized questions

Personalized questions are not automatically copied forward from term to term. If you have already personalized questions for another course in the current term, you can copy those questions over to another course. Click on the 'copy' icon to open the copy window.

Click in the search box to reveal the courses that are available for copy.

You can choose from current courses.

You may (not always) also be able to choose from previous courses.

Click on the desired course to select it, and then click 'Copy' to copy the questions. Click 'No - Cancel' or 'Yes - I'm sure' when the prompt is displayed.

The copied question(s) will be displayed. Click 'Preview' again to preview the  form - which now includes your personalized questions at the end. You also have the option to 'Include' or 'Exclude' questions. Make sure that the questions you wish to include on the form are marked as 'Included'. When you are ready, click 'Submit' to submit the questions (or 'Update' if you have returned to update the questions).

Once you have added, selected, and submitted personalized questions, they will appear at the bottom of the instructor section of the course evaluation. These questions will only be seen by your own students and the results will only be displayed on your own report.

Once the personalization period has ended, instructors cannot access the forms to add new questions. A few days after the personalization period ends, the forms will open for the students. Students will receive invitations to complete their forms, and instructors will receive invitations to monitor their response rates. A few weeks after the course evaluation period has ended, instructors will receive invitations to view their reports.

Note: The questions must be submitted (not just saved) in order to be included on the form.

Note: Any personalization must be completed before the personalization period ends.