UM Online Evaluation System Crashes

Sometimes technology doesn’t work as well as expected.

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, U. of Michigan's Online Teaching-Evaluation System Fails, the University of Michigan’s highly-touted online course-evaluation system, crashed on April 20, at the end of the school's winter term, and has been down since.

Last year, the new system was promoted as a major advance. It would save paper, allow for more customized surveys, and speed up results.

After four days, a University e-mail message apologized for the “immense disappointment” to the community. Just under 40% of possible responses had been received by the time the system failed, the message said, and further collection for this term was impossible.