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Question Bank and Unique Question Selection
Process Overview


The following is an overview of the ClassEval QBank and unique question selection process at NC State.

Terminology:

Question Bank (QBank): An online repository of questions for use on individual ClassEval The QBank is organized according to question type (closed- vs. open-end) and topical category. New questions are added each semester.

Core University Question: A set of 15 questions that appear on all university course evaluations. There are 5 question add lab and distance education courses when the course is or has a lab or is a distance education course.

Unique Question: Optional questions added by college deans, department heads, or individual instructors. Unique questions are specific to the college, department, or course/section.

Closed-end question: Questions having a set response scale from which students must choose their answer.

Open-end question: Questions having no set response scale, for which students are asked to answer in their own words.

Likert scale: Refers to an ordered response scale. All ClassEval closed-end questions are measured on the following 5-point likert scale, "Strongly Agree," "Agree," "Neither Agree nor Disagree," "Disagree," "Strongly Disagree." There is also a "Don't Know/Not Applicable" response option.


ClassEval Process:

All course evaluations include 15 core university questions. In addition to these core questions, college deans, department heads, and individual instructors have the option of adding unique questions to their ClassEval for the Fall and Spring semesters1. There is a limit on the number of unique questions that may be added to a ClassEval. In addition to the core university questions, colleges, departments, and instructors may add no more than seven closed-end questions and six open-end questions, combined. Unique questions must come from the existing QBank, which is updated each semester.

Unique Questions:

Phase One (adding questions to QBank):
During the first week of classes, all deans, heads, and instructors are invited to submit questions in their own words to the QBank. Questions are reviewed by University Planning and Analysis staff for methodological soundness prior to being added to the existing QBank. Once a question is added to the QBank, it will remain in the QBank and is available for use by all deans, heads, and instructors. For more information on the QBank, see the QBank FAQs.

Phase 2 (selecting questions for ClassEval):
Approximately one month after the start of the semester, deans are given the opportunity to select questions from the QBank to be added to the ClassEval for all undergraduate and/or graduate courses taught in their college. Then, department heads are given the opportunity to view college-level questions added by their dean and add department-level questions to the ClassEval for courses taught in their department. Finally, instructors are provided the opportunity to select questions to be added the the ClassEval for courses/sections they are teaching. It is not necessary to have submitted questions to the QBank in order to use questions from the QBank. For more information on the question selection process, see the Question Selection FAQs.




Endnotes:
1. Due to the shortened schedule, the option of adding unique questions to ClassEval is not available during summer sessions. Questions on ClassEval administered during summer sessions are limited to the 15 core university questions and lab or distance education questions when appropriate. (back)


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