Avis clients sur Blue

Robust Product with Excellent Support

Commentaires : We use Blue to manage the course evaluation process across the entire university. I am one of about a dozen users who each manage an individual school within the university. Mine is the largest (comprising about 60% of courses offered and closer to 75% of courses evaluated).
Our university has been using Blue for about three years now. We chose this software after negative experiences with our last vendor, and we were specifically looking for something that could provide all of the below:
1) Automated data feed from our student information system (SIS) to Blue.
2) Customization for each school using the software.
3) Unified email messaging (one email per student per school regardless of number of courses involved).
4) Ability to handle large and complex questionnaires with built in triggering to ask the right questions for each individual course and instructor.
5) Ability to customize opening and closing dates for evaluations down to the course level.
6) Ability to manage both mid-term and end-of-course evaluations.
7) Ability to evaluate multiple instructors for a single course with a seamless experience for students (course and all instructors on a single questionnaire) and automatic distribution of data to separate reports per instructor (all receive course responses but each sees only their instructor responses).
I am the most advanced user on our campus, both based on training and based on the extensiveness with which I use the software. For most users here, the cour

Avantages :

The robust amount of features. Ability to copy setup from one term to the next. Ability to extensively customize evaluation process. Ability to correct an error, add a course, or otherwise update data after evaluations have started. Commitment of Explorance to improving the software based on customer feedback. Variety of training options and levels, including customer and Explorance staff led monthly webinars.

Inconvénients :

High learning curve for new users. Some of the limitations in reporting (less direct control of size/layout of displayed graphics, inability to do certain calculations in export to excel reports).

great product - great company

Commentaires : Blue is a great product - eXplorance is a great company.

Avantages :

Blue has a lot of features and integrates well with our other systems.

Inconvénients :

Blue is somewhat complicated to administer.

Steep learning curve and limited out of box reporting capabilities

Commentaires : Onboarding is fairly difficult. The product is complex, even to set up a basic project. It is easy to make mistakes and not enough safe-guards built in. Training new users is either very time consuming or expensive depending on whether you train in house or purchase training from Blue. The interface is not very aesthetically pleasing and the survey layouts are also difficult to make visually appealing and tend to need a lot of tinkering to make things line up and look nice. The documentation is hit and miss as far as whether it is helpful. Customer service is good with simple issues. Complex problems tend to drag on and require a lot of time commitment on the client-end to sort out.

Avantages :

Projects are highly customizable as far as questionnaire content is concerned.

Inconvénients :

Easy to make mistakes. Error logs usually do not provide useful information. Project set up takes more time than it should. Text export includes residual html characters that need to be converted/cleaned up before text analysis in external software. Reporting is limited and the visuals are very unattractive. Modifying the visuals is labor intensive. Much easier to export data and use an external tool. Data source set up and intermediary relationship tables unnecessarily complicate the process. The product does not take into account that more than one department in an organization may use the product i.e. a default email address that is required by the system but may result in sensitive information being shared from reports if the to/from/cc fields are not filled out properly on a report that is being disseminated via email.

Exceeding expectations and solving business needs

Avantages :

This software allowed us to transition from paper based to electronic reviews. It provided a large community of experienced users from which to learn best practices. It created a safe, reliable platform to maximize our evaluation process.

Inconvénients :

when a subject changes their evaluation dates, they are not reflected in all the related data tables. dynamic dates do update when reminder emails are sent. course questions vs. instructor questions and how to configure in reports.

Higher Ed review of Blue - +10 years and still going!

Commentaires : Overall I've had a positive experience working with Blue. Their support team is fairly knowledgeable and hands-on. Their development team is also fairly responsive to 'feature requests' which is great. My team uses the product almost daily where it satisfies most (if not all) of our survey requirements. I've enjoyed seeing Blue evolve over the past 10+ years and look forward to working with it in the future.

Avantages :

I've been a blue user for 10+ years and work with the product almost daily. We use it primarily for student surveys such as Student Satisfaction, Course Evaluations, and Graduate Outcomes. We also use Blue to collect information from other stakeholders (i.e. Industry, Employees, Employers, Alumni, etc). Creating surveys is easy and intuitive for my small research team. We typically do not have any down-time with this product besides the occasional maintenance shutdown to our onsite hosted environment.

Inconvénients :

Blue is a great product for surveying stakeholders at our institution however the way they deploy features to only certain blue products makes using the software challenging. A feature available in a course evaluation survey for example may not be available in another survey 'product'. I find this challenging as I've often had to recreate complete projects in order to take advantage of certain project/reporting features. The products should be seamless and integrated across all surveys in blue... For example, DRA - Dynamic Report Access is a great feature for dynamically assigning reports to a role (vs. an individual user), however is not available for use with a standard survey.

Blue Course Evaluation

Commentaires : Our organization is with Explorance since 2009-2010. It has been a long journey and demonstrates the product effectiveness to us. We have been extensively using BLUE for feedback surveys, commonly, for us as well, the most important survey is the course evaluation survey. We have been conveniently deploying the course evaluation survey to the students and then successfully publishing the reports to the relevant faculty accessible online. Our overall experience is extremely satisfactory with this product in terms of what it generally offers, and in particular with its excellent customer support center and people, who are 24/7 ready and available to answer and resolve customers' queries.

Avantages :

It's ease of use. Additionally, it is very handy to publish the course evaluations to the students, which I reckon is the most desirable feature to the Higher Education Institutions. BLUE gives one a robust control over the project even after it is published, it smartly and intelligently allows the users to handle the project subjects (courses) and members (instructors). Apart from the course evaluations one can conveniently execute and publish hundreds of feedback surveys to the intended audience privately or publicly. Report creating features using the survey response data are excellent and are sufficient enough to suffice the institutional reporting features. The most valuable thing is there customer support - no doubt it's one of the best I have ever experienced, staff responsiveness and effectively resolving the queries is unmatchable.

Inconvénients :

There is nothing such as the least one. Instead, I believe that there is always a room for improvement, in this era of Business Intelligence. Explorance understands, knows and has always been continuously endeavouring to optimally improve its product to address the market and customer needs.

So far so good

Commentaires : My overall experience is good, the adoption of Blue has since alerted me that the university needs to rethink its filing systems like linking people to departments and modules that they teaching. This will in turn makes reporting on academic activities easy and enhance alignment with the university's teaching community.

Avantages :

At the University of Johannesburg (UJ) we began using Blue Course Evaluation this year, 2019 after a trial in 2018. Compare to our previous Course Evaluation mechanism, Blue is in a class of its own. Personally, I like the fact that it is simply to manage once it is set up, it organizes the whole evaluation experience. For example, after loading an evaluation, a lecturer can track the progress of his/her evaluation, have an accurate number of students enrolled in the programme, how many have completed the survey, how many in progress and how many still outstanding. With this information one can work towards improving the response rate. Linked with the University's ITS system, the data is very accurate as only registered students can complete the evaluation. Blue does not only provide course feedback, the system can do way more. For example like providing depth analysis as to which browser used, when the evaluation was completed, the channel used. This information is helpful because we get to know what needs to be done for students to respond positively and to improve so to get constructive feedback from these evaluations.

Inconvénients :

Setting up Blue Course Evaluation is not easy. It needs lots of system and information which the university had but not organized in a manner that Blue wanted it. Currently, we do not have a data base that links academic staff to the module that they teach. Without this information there was a little bit of confusion and we ended linking wrong people to modules as we relied on Blackboard information. Perhaps Blue must have a ready made template which institutions can used to sort their data before administration of Blue. This will help as institutions have their own filling systems which are sometimes in conflict with Blue requirements.

BLUE is a great tool for our university.

Commentaires : We are using BLUE for our course and advisor evaluations and could potentially use it for some other surveys down the road. The implementation team did a great job of putting this software into production and it has been very well received by our university community.

Avantages :

The software works well and is very customizable. The interface is well received and out of the several products we reviewed, this one was the faculty favorite. One thing that stands out is their technical support and how prompt and knowledgeable their techs are. I appreciate that they are available by phone and video as well as email. I also like the integration with Blackboard and Active Directory.

Inconvénients :

The software is complex and you can't just sit down and start using it without some training. It's also one of the more expensive products we looked at. I'm not a fan of managed systems where everything is offsite but there weren't any options we reviewed that allowed for an onsite server and software installation.

Excellent reports

Commentaires : If there's a problem, the techs are willing to help, and if it's a missing/removed feature, they're ready to listen. It may not get fixed for 3-5 years, but they're willing to listen. I love the reporting ability, but the fact that we'd have pay over a thousand dollars a year to create simple surveys in addition to what we currently do has my management starting to look farther afield.

Avantages :

Anyone can build a survey, but few have powerful multi-tiered or customizable reporting abilities.

Inconvénients :

It is complex, and if not for Blue Admin training, most of the help guides would be useless since they only cover the 'how to do this', not why or what else it impacts. Customer service varies widely depending on the individual. Some are very knowledgeable, but some... well, my current ticket has been 2 months of back and forth and running in circles. I'm frustrated and about ready to pull in our Blue liaison to get this mess sorted out.

Blue Evaluation software

Commentaires : Actually, The overall experience is very good. In my Organization, we have managed to receive enough feedback from the students and we make changes to the course as well as the teacher based on the feedback received from our students.

Avantages :

I like the way it is quick, and I can easily track the progress of the students who responded to the survey and those who did not respond. I like also the way I can send any information as the email to the group of students assigned to any task.

Inconvénients :

Sometimes it is challenging to wait for the system to be synchronized. This is a serious issue when it comes to the time I may choose to block the course of the students who do not respond to the evaluations, and when some of them see the course blocked and they respond the survey, I takes me again to be informed and synchronize manually, which I think it could be automated, because in case I am busy in other tasks, It can be a challenge for the students who filled the evaluations to get access on the Canvas page (for my case as we use Canvas).

Blue - 1st Rate Survey Software!

Commentaires : The University of Louisville (UofL) has used Blue Enterprise Surveys since February 2008. It is a pleasure to work with eXplorance. The customer support team is outstanding and support staff members are truly interested in helping the customer get the most benefit from their product. The survey software is easy to use. The overall quality of application is 1st rate and a welcome improvement over products used previously. The reports are easily customized with many options from which to select. Blue Surveys has all of the features UofL needs to send hundreds of surveys each year. UofL uses Blue Surveys to gauge campus climate, assess student satisfaction, request feedback regarding events on campus, gather information from faculty and staff who exit the university, and much, much more. With all of the features in Blue, the surveying possibilities are endless. Blue Surveys completely integrates with other platforms (such as Blackboard, PeopleSoft, Canvas, Moodle, Banner, etc.) to provide a seamless integration with existing business practices, allowing users to leverage data stored in other databases. Mobile device compatibility makes providing feedback easier and more convenient than ever before. Blue Surveys is definitely a great value.

Avantages :

The product is easy to use, has many great features, and integrates with existing platforms. eXplorance as a company listens to the needs of their customers. The ability to customize the "look and feel" of the interface by using our own logos allows us to customize the experience for each user. The response rate monitor allows users the ability to track the day of the week and hour of the day that responses are received so marketing efforts and automatic reminders can be scheduled for maximum impact. The "drag and drop" user interface allows for quick survey creation and administration.

Administered course evals for many programs, including low-literacy and immigrant populations.

Commentaires : Transitioning from paper scanning and online survey providers to a professional outfit specifically intended for course evaluations was an overall positive experience. While there are some pain points, without question the implementation of Blue was a time saver for our team.

Avantages :

UI improvements were prioritized by eXplorance. The interface improved dramatically in my time using the software, becoming more intuitive over time. Though a lot of the complex functionality may only be easily navigable by power users, the support staff typically did a fine job of providing walkthroughs, phone support, and email instructions as needed. Customer support was also invaluable for working through all the "ifs" and "buts" of our student population. Working with a range of literacy levels and familiarity with English language - as well as different course types like labs, practicums, continuing education, etc. - we needed frequent support and check-ins and were always able to reach a successful outcome.

Inconvénients :

I get they are an 'online first' company and a software above all else, but I was disappointed by Blue's inability to reliably process and integrate data from paper forms. They used a third party software (ABBYY) to generate forms, and no matter how meticulously our printer was calibrated, there were always problems in the scanning and upload into Blue. Because it was third party, Blue did not provide support for this process and could not refer us to someone at ABBYY. We ended up processing our (thankfully limited number of) paper forms manually.

Exemplary Customer Service Supporting Impressive Software

Commentaires : The Customer Service and Support are extraordinary and have taken a novice user to advanced with their comprehensive training, knowledge base, as well as ongoing engagement with the product and community of users. It is a solid company with exceptional products.

Avantages :

The Blue Course Evaluation tool is mobile friendly and multi-platform, as well as very intuitive for end-users. The surveys can be executed and accessed in multiple ways, and those being asked to respond report very few access issues. It works! The Customer Service and Support are extraordinary.

Inconvénients :

The admin. side can be clunky, with essential safeguards restricting auto-updates and often multi-step changes if project needs modification after publishing. These are avoidable if you do the work before you publish, but this is often not feasible.

Using Blue: From paper-based survey to online survey

Commentaires : We used Blue to transition the paper-based survey to a fully online survey. We had a great collaborative interaction and discussion with our PS Consultant to implement the solution in our University. Mots of the requirement in our online survey (i.e. Questionnaire Framework, customization of FO tasks, customization of report distribution, etc.) were addressed by Blue.

Avantages :

The software is very flexible and all of its features (questionnaire, reporting, etc.) can be customized to the University's needs. It is also a plus that it was easily integrated to our SIS and LMS.

Inconvénients :

The look of the questionnaire interface for the students can be improved. I also would've liked if the links for QP and SVM can be piped separately in the email notification instead of together.

Continuously Improving

Avantages :

Specifically with the Blue 8 version a lot has shifted my views to a more positive outlook. The user interface is drastically improved and quite a lot of quality of life enhancements were made for Blue administrators such as re-organizing project options. Another feature of the Blue software I appreciate is the ability to view the status' of the responders of a project and being able to identify if a survey email was successfully sent or not to a responder.

Inconvénients :

There are a fair amount of limitations that this software is restricted. The way filters are approached within Blue are very lacking and tedious when attempting to add multiple filters in the same project. The datasource import functionality is a little bit lacking in that it does not stop importing if a different datasource is already in that process.

Customer support is very responsive. Coming from a technical background, I found it easy to use.

Avantages :

I like the updates CS/Support implements in a quick manner. Responsive to bugs in updates. System can easily handle thousands of requests. Responsive and easy to use for end user.

Inconvénients :

Wish it had more transparency in the timing of emails (export .csv showing when task emails would be sent, since likely stored in a DB somewhere). Can be tricky at times to implement changes during a published project (manual changes do not impact the DB, wish manual changes could override the DB but I understand why it is not coded that way). Wish some text fields could be modifiable (e.g. "Please select datasource", other technical/vague terms displayed to end users). Would love IE to be better supported (do not recommend this browser, but unfortunately users still use it)

Blue is a multi-dimensional course evaluation tool that can be scaled to work for any institution.

Commentaires : Ability to schedule automatic report openings and closings based on dynamic date rules--like open at 60% of the semester and close reports at 90% of semester.

Avantages :

The customizable solution will adapt to any institution's need... even to different scenarios within the same institution. The automatic report generation at the end of the survey was a must-have for us.

Inconvénients :

Difficult to set up for the first time... even with the help of the trainers. It takes a lot of time. The additional company trainings are expensive, and after two years, our team doesn't feel like we are capable of building new reports on our own.

Excellent survey tool

Commentaires : Great product and great employees! The support team always answers questions very fast and efficient.

Avantages :

Dynamic report acces helps us making sure that the management team always have the information they need. The LMS integration is helping us increase response rates Multiple schedules is making the complex survey structure easier to manage.

Inconvénients :

End users benefit for the multiple language option, but when you have multiple language, all projects is more difficult to manage, from a Blue administrator perspective.

My Blue Review

Commentaires : We have used Blue for several years, it has enabled us to assist our clients to gain a greater understanding of their departments.

Avantages :

I like the ease of use and the features that can enhance my ability to present the data to our clients. I use it quite frequently in my job, and really like the support center when I need a quick how to.

Inconvénients :

I do find that there is not enough time to adjust to changes before a new upgrade is released. Sometimes these changes cause issues with parts of Blue that worked fine previously.

With eXplorances support we have been able to integrate Blue with BB and Banner successfully.

Commentaires : The ability to have a completely integrated course evaluation process for the entire university including credit and non-credit courses.

Avantages :

eXplorance listens to our institutions needs and requirements and is continuously modifying and updating their products to be more useful. The software is evolving and has kept base with the changes in the market.

Inconvénients :

The learning curve at the beginning is very steep. The software is not as intuitive as other products on the market. Having said that, it also can do more complicated survey design than the competitors.

General features

Commentaires : In general, the experience has been very good, we are an institute of higher education and it has solved us very well the subject of evaluations of courses and teachers.

Avantages :

The use of predesigned templates to generate evaluations, the use of question banks and data bases in an agile way, the generation of questionnaires in a simple way, the good quality of the generated reports, non complex administration.

Inconvénients :

Sometimes it is a little complicated to navigate between the options of the application, also sometimes it is not very intuitive.

Blue Explorance Product

Avantages :

The integration process between our college and the software was easily streamlined systematically. The course evaluations really do make a huge difference on how courses get improved upon and further better the educational experience for our learners.

Inconvénients :

The product is not intuitive. It definitely takes time to understand and grasp the computer language and format that is being used.

Blue Course Evaluations

Commentaires : Blue has assisted our PSI to reduce the number of survey platforms and move closer to automated survey processes.

Avantages :

I like the feautures that allow instructors to change survey dates and add their custom questions. As well, having the widget in the LMS for both students and instructors seems well used when reviewing the analytics in the response management tab.

Inconvénients :

Not having a test environment when integrating and installing the Data Sync Tool. The naming conventions take quite a bit of time and effort to bwecome familair with and that lengthened the learning curve for administrators and end users.

Blue Review

Commentaires : This product has been a great asset to our university for student evaluations, student surveys, etc.

Avantages :

What I like most about the software is that it is very easy to set up a project, as well as make a report from each project.

Inconvénients :

I'm not great with making Excel spreadsheets or .csv files to upload information into the program.

Explorance Blue is robust

Commentaires : Very happy with Blue

Avantages :

There is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to Blue but it's fast and effective software that makes surveys and evaluations easier to conduct. Customer service is always attentive and eager to help.

Inconvénients :

There is a steep learning curve and importing questions and responses could be easier