Enabling Better Feedback: Del Mar College Improves Response Rates with Explorance Blue

About Del Mar College

Established in 1935, Del Mar College (DMC) is a cornerstone of higher education in South Texas, serving over 21,000 credit and continuing education students annually across its campuses in Corpus Christi. Ranked among the nation’s top 50 institutions, the college is deeply committed to accessibility, diversity, and student success.

The Challenge: Replacing Costly, Time-Intensive Course Evaluation Processes

Del Mar College needed better quality data from its course evaluations than traditional paper-based processes could provide. The existing system was costly, time-consuming, and ineffective at delivering the actionable insights needed to support institutional improvement.

“Paper-based course evaluation forms are very costly, in terms of both physical and human resources,” explained Dr. Larry Lee, Dean of Business, Professional and Technology Education. “And the quality of the data is insufficient. It’s too costly and time-consuming to get the data tabulated and analyzed at a level we’d like.”

To address this, Dr. Lee led an e-Learning task force which was tasked with identifying a more efficient and reliable course evaluation solution as part of a broader mandate to enhance digital learning systems across the college.

The Solution: A Seamless, Flexible Online Evaluation System

The committee selected Explorance Blue as the best solution for their requirements. With Blue, DMC launched a fully integrated online evaluation system connected to its LMS, Canvas, making the surveys easily accessible on any device. Explorance’s professional services supported implementation, training, and rollout, including best practices for boosting response rates through email and SMS reminders.

“It was important to get response rates as high as possible, and making these forms available from the Canvas portal was an essential component,” noted Dr. Lee. The flexibility of Blue also allowed DMC to align evaluations with its unique policy, evaluating all classes for untenured faculty, and only select courses for tenured faculty. “Blue’s flexibility was able to handle this schedule. We just had to go into the faculty table and select the appropriate instructors and class sections ourselves.”

The Outcome: Unlocking the Full Potential of Student Feedback

In less than a year, DMC transitioned from slow, manual evaluations to a responsive, scalable digital system. Reporting time dropped from months to days, and the institution gained deeper, clearer insights into student feedback. “Right now, we have the best picture we’ve ever had. The comments are substantially better. Once we eliminate the outliers, we have a much more accurate picture of our students’ perspectives,” said Dr. Lee.

These insights are now easily accessible in PDF format to department chairs, deans, and the provost. “The Department Chair, the Dean, and the Provost can see results for everyone in their division all in one report, which is great.” By making evaluation forms available through the Canvas portal, email, and on any device or computer, DMC ensured maximum student access and convenience, which contributed to stronger engagement and response rates.

Ultimately, Blue has empowered DMC to transform its evaluation practices and advance continuous improvement. “Blue is a very powerful product that allows us to do more in-depth surveying… It’s going to help us change our processes and work toward improvement.”