DeKALB — NIU will switch from Explorance Blue to Anthology Evaluate for course evaluations following the spring 2026 semester.
According to Explorance’s website, Explorance Blue’s platform is fully integrated and helps with the collection, analysis and distribution of feedback. It’s designed to adapt questions in order to adhere to each respondent’s profile.
Alicia Schatteman, vice provost for Academic Affairs and a professor in the Department of Public Administration, spoke about NIU’s history with Explorance Blue and how the cost continued to rise annually.
“We’ve had Explorance Blue for nine years,” Schatteman said. “It’s served us really well. But the cost kept increasing every year. In the most recent year, we were about $127,000 per year for the service.”
The new system, Anthology Evaluate, is said to be similar to Explorance Blue and should not inconvenience students.
“Functionally, they’re very similar. That’s really what we were hoping to do: maintain functionality at a reduced cost,” Schatteman said. “The functionality is still there, meaning that all course evaluations will go out on a particular schedule.”
According to Anthology Evaluate’s help center, Anthology Evaluate is designed to gather, analyze and act on feedback to increase teaching and learning results. It’s designed to make the course evaluation process easier.
Schatteman also discussed how this switch is beneficial since Anthology Evaluate is under the same company as Blackboard.
“Anthology is the same parent company as Blackboard. So it ties together,” Schatteman said. “Because this is the same parent company, we think that that’ll be a little bit smoother, or at least the students will be able to see that a little bit better.”
Course evaluations are conducted for all courses that offer NIU credit, in accordance with the Student Evaluation of Instruction policy.
The policy is intended to support NIU in developing courses and instruction skills, as well as to inform faculty-related decisions through the use of course evaluation data.
Schatteman emphasized the importance of course evaluation participation for students and faculty at NIU.
“I know that it’s extra time, and students have more than one course. Departments and colleges customize their questions, so that if you’re a student and you’re taking courses in multiple departments, your course evaluations will look different,” Schatteman said. “They’re very critical for faculty instructors to get feedback on their teaching and what’s working in the course.”
Faculty and departments will still have access to Explorance Blue until June 30. An implementation team will work on the transition to Anthology Evaluate, starting with the summer 2026 course evaluations.
