Bay Path University is committed to ensuring the quality of its academic programs, its teaching, and the learning experiences of its students. An important component of this is the regular evaluation of courses by students. End of course evaluations are conducted for the following reasons:

1. To provide formative data used by instructors for the continuous improvement of their teaching
2. To provide members of the University community, including students, with information about teaching and courses at the institution
3. To collect data used in the summative evaluation of teaching for administrative purposes such as promotion review
4. To provide data used by departments and divisions for program and curriculum review.

Course evaluations are part of an overall teaching and program evaluation framework that includes regular peer review, instructor self-assessment, cyclical program review, and other forms of assessment, as appropriate. As part of this framework, course evaluations are a particularly useful tool for providing students with an opportunity to provide feedback on their own learning experiences.

Each undergraduate and graduate course will be evaluated each time it is offered using the procedures outlined below.

Establishing a Schedule

The schedule for the opening and closing of evaluation periods is dictated by the academic calendar as outlined below: 

1. Course evaluations for the traditional program open two weeks prior to the last day of class listed in the portal. The survey remains open for those two weeks and closes at midnight on the final day of classes. Graduate courses that follow the traditional schedule open and close with the same traditional schedule. Evaluation data are released to the faculty two weeks after the last day of classes. 

2. Course evaluations for The American Women’s College open seven days before the course end date listed in the portal. The survey remains open through to the 6th week and at midnight on the final day of classes. Evaluation data are released to the faculty two weeks after the course end date. 

3. Course evaluation for Graduate programs (eight-week cycle) opens during the final week (8th) and are open until the last day of classes listed in the portal. Evaluation data are released to the faculty after grades have been submitted. 

Process for Collecting, Retrieving Information
An email is sent to students to announce that the survey is open and email reminders are sent before the survey closes. Students are instructed to access course evaluations from any Canvas classroom. At the same time, faculty receive a similar email so they can encourage students to participate in the survey. 

Faculty may retrieve evaluation results from their Canvas classrooms after final grades have been posted. Individual faculty can only retrieve their information. Department chairs and program directors can retrieve their department information and deans have access to all faculty evaluations in their schools, as well as the school administrative assistants. The application used for this process is called Course Evaluations and Surveys.