High-Resolution Course Feedback vs SmartEvals

High-Resolution Course Feedback (HRCF) is a free web service that gives instructors weekly anonymous student feedback about class mood. Each week it randomly selects students to provide feedback, with the aim of gathering representative responses while reducing survey fatigue. Students receive survey requests in their inboxes through unique links. Four default questions ask what students liked, what remains confusing, what the teaching team should know, and for a course experience rating on a five-point scale. Instructors can add questions for topics they want to address that week. Surveys open Monday at noon PT, reminders go out Thursday at noon PT, and the instructor digest arrives Sunday at 4pm PT. The digest includes participation rates, responses grouped by question with visualizations, and a graph showing class mood over time. HRCF says it does not track which student submitted which feedback. To get started, users create an account with an institutional email, submit a course survey form, and send a school profile page and generated course ID for review. A roster, custom questions, and admin list can be prepared while approval is pending.

SmartEvals is web-based course evaluation software for colleges and universities. It automates evaluation management and reporting with administrative dashboards, ERP or SIS data synchronization, preloaded question banks, and automatic report distribution. Institutions can run summative and formative course evaluations, general surveys, and educational assessments. Email, text, and voice reminders, mobile access, and live response-rate reporting support evaluation participation. Reporting includes institutional and nationwide benchmarking, aggregate comparisons, longitudinal trends, text analytics, and demographic analysis. SmartEvals lists integrations with Blackboard Learn and Ultra, Canvas, Moodle, Brightspace, and other LMSs, plus LTI tools; it can also share data with ERP, SIS, or homegrown databases. Institutions can configure role-based permissions and customize reminders, survey forms, and reports. The maker says the hosted application uses US-based primary and failover data facilities meeting SSAE 16 SOC 2 standards, and that institutions retain ownership and control of their data. A free Lite plan is listed for schools currently using paper; other pricing is on request.