Create & Manage Evaluation Plans

Evaluation Plans are for gathering feedback for your submitted sessions by outside evaluators (i.e. committees) using a rating/grading scale.

Create Evaluation Plans

Within the Sessions module, select Evaluation > Evaluation Plans
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To create a plan click the orange "Add Plan" button to the right of the page. Within the pop-up window, you will edit five areas: Configuration, Evaluators, Grading Options, Display Fields, and Session Filters.
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Configuration

  • Name: Evaluation Plan Name.

    • NOTE: This plan name will be visible to your evaluators.

  • Instructions: Instructions can include rich text/HTML formatting such as bulleted lists, bold text, and hyperlinks.

  • Set the plan as open once it has been created: If enabled, you can establish a due date. If this remains disabled/closed, you can open the plan after it has been created and establish a due date. Closed plans are "view-only" to evaluators. 

  • Enable Anonymized Review: The first & last names of session speakers are removed from submission details.

  • Enable Weekly Reminders: Have an automated email be sent to evaluators when there are sessions to review in their plan.

  • Include Uploaded Content: If you have enabled Content, then any content that was submitted by session speaker(s) will be included in the evaluation plan.

Evaluators

For evaluators to be added to an evaluation plan, they must first be added as an Evaluator or Evaluator Session Manager to the event. You can also assign Admin Users to evaluation plans. 

πŸ’‘TIP: Use Tags to easily view segmented users and assign them to your plans.

πŸ‘‰πŸΎ Learn how to create tags & assign tags to users.

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NOTE: An evaluation plan must be closed to add OR remove users from the plan.

Session Filters

Filter your evaluation plan by levels, languages, tracks, tags, format, and status to assign specific submissions to your plan.

  • NOTE: You CAN NOT filter by custom fields. 
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πŸ‘‰πŸΎ Learn more about the Evaluator view within Sessionboard: How To Evaluate Sessions

Display Fields

Choose the session and speakers fields that should be visible to evaluators when grading submissions.


​Additionally, create custom evaluation fields/questions that your Evaluators can view and answer

Example Evaluation Fields:

  • Would you recommend this session for the event? (Dropdown - Yes/No)

  • External Comments (Textbox)

  • Internal Comments (Textbox)

  • Select the core value that this session aligns with. (Dropdown)

Evaluator fields are displayed as Questions to your evaluators. 

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Grading Options

NOTE: Grading Options can not be edited once the evaluation plan has been created.

  • Rating Icon: Select the icon you would like to use to gather feedback from your evaluators.

    • Faces & Number Icons: 1-5

    • Star & Heart Icons: 1-20

  • Enable Rubric: Rubrics allow your evaluators to rate the submission using the criteria you have created within the Rubric. Each criterion is weighted to provide you with an average cumulative score. The character count for each criterion may not exceed 255 characters.
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  • Set Evaluation Limits: This allows admins to set how many times the evaluation team should evaluate each submission. The number of evaluations per session is tied to the number of evaluators assigned to the plan. For example: If four evaluators are assigned to the plan, each submission can be reviewed a maximum of four times. 
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Manage Evaluation Plan Fields

View, create, and manage all evaluation plan fields from the Fields module. This will allow admins to reuse Evaluation Plan fields on multiple plans without having to duplicate the same questions.

All fields that are created in an Evaluation Plan are saved to the event level and can be accessed from any evaluation plan. New fields that are created within the Field module are accessible when creating/editing Evaluation Plans.
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Open Evaluation Plans

If you have chosen to keep the evaluation plan closed during setup, you can open it at a later day by clicking the three ellipse dots to the right of the evaluation plan and selecting "Open".

Opening the plan gives your evaluators access to start grading the submissions. Closed evaluation plans show the submissions in a 'view only' mode.

You will be prompted with two options:

  1. Open and notify evaluators

    1. Evaluators will receive the below email once this button is selected.
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  2. Open and do not send notifications: If you select this option, you will be required to notify your evaluators that they can begin completing their evaluations.

Additional Actions:

  • Review: Preview evaluator progress and session ratings/feedback
  • Edit: Edit your plan configurations
    • Please note the following:
      • Plans must be CLOSED to add or remove evaluators (pg. 2)
      • Filters (Pg. 3) cannot be edited once evaluations are added to the plan
      • Rating, rubric settings, and evaluation limits (Pg. 5) cannot be edited once a plan is created.
  • Export Evaluation Plans: Event admins can export detailed information from graded evaluation plans.
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    Choose which version you want to export:

    • Individual Grades Report - This provides a breakdown of session grading by the evaluator, including their comments and criteria rankings with weighted scores

    • Cumulative Grades Report - This provides a summarized view of grades per session, including data from the session submission and session owner information.

  • Delete Evaluation Plans: Deleting an evaluation plan removes the plan completely from the admin user as well as the evaluators assigned. Deleted plans can not be recovered.

  • Duplicate Evaluation Plans: Duplicating an evaluation plan will create a copy of the plan you duplicated. All plan settings (i.e. name, instructions, evaluators assigned, rubric, rating icons, and filters) will be cloned with the ability to edit them before the cloned plan is saved.

  • Notify New Evaluators To Grade Submissions: Choose to either send an invitation email to all evaluators or newly assigned evaluators informing them that they can log into Sessionboard and grade submissions.

πŸ‘‰πŸΎNEXT STEPS: Notify Accepted & Declined Sessions

Once you have received feedback from your evaluators on sessions, you can update the submission status and send an email notifying the submission speakers.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Do ratings and comments automatically get sent to Speakers?
    1. No, ratings and comments are only accessible to event Admins who have access to plan results. Admin users can choose to send comments and session ratings to Session Speakers through email by copying and pasting the evaluation results within the message body.
  2. Can Evaluators see other comments and ratings provided by Evaluators?
    1. No, only Admin users who have access to Evaluation Plan results can see Evaluator ratings and comments. 
  3. Can Evaluators communicate with Session Speakers?
    1. No, Evaluators have view-only access to submitted sessions through Evaluation Plans assigned to them.