Instructor Frequently Asked Questions & Troubleshooting

Help on using the CATME system and common technical difficulties CATME instructors face.
To receive additional video help, visit our CATME Instructor Videos page.

If the CATME terms make you confused, please check the definition on the CATME Terms Instructor Dictionary page.

All Questions

Account Access/Info

Classes & Activities

Team-Maker Surveys

Peer Evaluation Surveys

Rater Practice

Data from Peer Evaluation Surveys

Troubleshooting

Licensing & Charges

Data Protection & Accessibility

Account Access/Info

Instructor Account

How do I request an instructor account?

Can I use an email other than my institution’s to use CATME?

No. For security reasons, CATME only activates accounts with an institution’s email. This is to ensure accountability of the instructor that CATME is being used safely and securely. To request an exception to this policy, please contact licensing@catme.org.

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How can I deactivate my instructor account?

Student Account

How do my students create an account?

Students cannot create their CATME accounts. When you create a CATME survey and load your course CSV file, you, the instructor, create their CATME accounts. If a student has already participated in a previous CATME survey, their account is already created.

For more information on student accounts, watch our video on Student Account Basics.

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How can I update a student’s account information?

Click on the activity the student is in on the Summary page, then click on the name of the student. You will be brought to the Student Editor page where you can update the student’s name, ID, email, and team.

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When will my students be contacted by CATME?

When you create a class and upload your student roster, the CATME system will automatically create the students’ accounts using their email address as their username. The system will automatically send the students an email asking them to create their password.

At midnight of the start date, CATME sends students an email asking them to complete the survey. (If you set the start date for your survey to the current date, this email will be sent immediately.) There is a link in the email that takes them directly to the survey. Two days before the survey end date, CATME sends a reminder email asking all students who have not yet completed the survey to complete it before the due date. To remind students any other time, you can press the “Send Reminder” button next to the open survey. This will send reminder emails to the students who have not completed the survey. All reminder emails contain direct links to the survey.

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Will adding a student to a survey automatically create an account for that student?

Dual Access Account

What is a Dual Access account?

A Dual Access account gives users both student and instructor CATME access. It’s typically reserved for a student using CATME who is also a teaching assistant for a class. You will also be given a Dual Access account if you are upgrading your student account to an instructor account.

To switch between your student and instructor access, go to the top right hand corner of the screen to find the drop down button to choose which access you want.

For more information, watch our video on Dual Access Account.

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How do I change my student account to a Dual Access account?

My students can’t log in.

Have your students go to the main page and click the “Forgot your password” link. They should enter the email you uploaded using the CSV file, and CATME will email them a URL link to reset their account password. If the student still has not received an email from CATME within 24 hours, please verify that their email address is correct in the CSV file you have uploaded. If the problem still persists, these are the most common reasons for not receiving CATME emails.

CATME messages are in the junk or spam folder of your student’s email account.
Your student’s software or email server is blocking the CATME IP addresses. Their ISP has to permit receiving messages from catme.org. This is relevant if they are working from a home computer or an off-campus server. They could try moving to a campus computer and log in from there.

For further help, please contact support@catme.org and include the email address associated with your student’s CATME account in the email. There is also a Student’s FAQs page for login troubleshooting at https://info.catme.org/student/student-help/faq/#acc

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How can I unlock an account locked from too many failed login attempts?

What should I do if I can’t log in/forgot my password?

You can use the “Forgot your Password?” link to get to a form where you’ll enter the email address used for your CATME account. After filling out the form, you will receive an email from CATME containing a special link that will allow you to reset your password. Also, make sure the email address entered was the one you used to create your account. Note that email addresses in the system are not case-sensitive (“bailey.edu” is the same as “BAILEY.EDU”) but passwords are case-sensitive (“password” and “PASSWORD” are different).

If you aren’t receiving any emails after filling out the form, these are the most common reasons:

The CATME messages are in the junk or spam folder of your email account.
Your software or email server is blocking the CATME IP addresses. Your ISP has to permit receiving messages from catme.org. This is relevant if you are working from a home computer or an off-campus server. Try moving to a campus computer and logging in from there.
The email you are using is a different account than the one input into the CATME system.

If you still can’t log in after resetting your password, please email support@catme.org and include the email address for your CATME account in the email.

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What are CATME’s password requirements?

All CATME account passwords must:

Contain 1 letter
Contain either 1 number or 1 punctuation mark
Contain at least 4 unique characters
Be at least 8 characters
Be changed every year

If your password is not changed by the deadline, you will be directed to the My Profile page when you log in to your account. You will be unable to go to any other pages until you enter your new password.

Passwords MAY NOT:

Contain your first name
Contain your last name
Contain the word “CATME”
Be any of your previous 3 passwords

For more information, watch our video on Account Password Guidelines.

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Classes & Activities

Creating and modifying a class

How do I create a class?

Click on the “Create Class” button on the summary page. Afterward, you will be given a screen explaining the navigation of the interface. Fill out your class information on the following page.

Note that students are added in each individual activity, and not in the class creator. On this screen, there will be no option to enter the information of students.

For more information, watch our video on How to Add a Class.

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How do I modify class information?

Click on the name of the class you want to edit on the summary page. Then, you will be able to change the class name, term, class type, institution, time zone, and whether extra messages in students’ results are enabled. Make sure to save changes by clicking the “Save” or “Save and Return to Quick Summary” button.

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Why can we not change the student email from the student editor page?

If you are unable to change a student’s incorrect email address, it may be because another instructor already registered that student’s correct email address. In this case, you must delete the student from the survey and add them back in with the correct email address. If any student completed the survey under the incorrect email address, that student and the student’s teammates must redo the surveys.

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How do I delete a class?

You must first archive all the activities for the class, then delete these activities. After you do this, you can select the blue “Delete Class” button found in the bottom right corner of the “Class Editor” page.

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Can CATME be used for people other than students?

Yes. If the CATME account holder is a staff or faculty member at a university, the surveys that they create are not monitored. The staff or faculty member can use the CATME system however they choose. If the survey does not involve higher-education students, we ask that the instructor does not select the “Release to Researchers” option for releasing the survey results.

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Creating an activity

How do I create an activity for a class?

Click on the desired class, then click the “Add Activity” button and go through the multi-screen “wizard”.

For More information, watch our videos on Creating a Team-Maker Survey and Creating a Peer Evaluation Survey.

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How do I assign the activity to students?

When you arrive at the Students page while creating an activity or the Activity Editor, you will have the option to either Import Students from File or Import Students From Activity.

When Importing Students from File, a “Comma-Separated Values” (CSV) file or a tab-delimited text file should be uploaded with all your students and their information. The easiest way to create these files is to get all the student data into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and then select “File…Save As…” to save the worksheet in one of the two accepted formats. When Importing Students from an existing Activity, select the activity from the dropdown where you want to import students from. After completing either method, click on the Import button to assign your students to the activity.

To learn more about how to format your student CSV file, go to the CSV file description page.

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How should I format the CSV file?

The CSV file will need a header row including first and last name, email, ID, and section. For a Peer Evaluation survey, you will also include the student’s team name. For a full description of the file format, see the CSV file description page.

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Can I have multiple activities in one class?

Can I reuse an old activity?

How do I change the survey intro?

Click on the activity you want to edit, then click on the “Edit Activity Intro” button on the “Activity Editor” page.

You may modify the text box in the middle of this screen. The Preview Text button will update the bottom half of the screen and allow you to see how your text will appear to the students.

When you are satisfied with your changes, click the Save button in the upper-right corner. Save and Return will save your changes and return to the previous screen. Cancel returns to the previous screen without saving your changes.

Note that the text should be formatted using standard HTML. Common HTML formatting commands include:

Create paragraph breaks by putting a tag at the end of the paragraph
To make the text Bold type , to end bold type
To make the text Italicized type , to end italics type
To Underline the text type a , to end underline type
To change the font color type , to end the font color type (where color equals red, blue, purple, green, etc.)

You can make the text bold, italicized, underlined, and a different color by putting your commands next to each other (your text). Don’t forget to end your formatting by placing the appropriate < / > for each format that you have added.

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What is a multi-section survey?

Classes with multiple sections can use CATME in two main ways: either making a different class for each section, or creating one class and separating the activities into sections. This latter option is referred to as a multi-section survey.

Special functionalities available to “multi-section” surveys include:

Setting different survey start and end dates for each section
Modifying survey parameters for each section
Different faculty can be delegated for each section

Note that these can all be achieved by having separate classes for each section. Feel free to experiment with both multi-section and basic survey functionality and decide which makes the most sense for your particular application.

To create a multi-section survey, upload a student list that defines the special “Section” field. For more information on the file format, see the CSV File Format page.

If you created the survey with multiple sections, then you will see one entry for the survey as a whole, which allows you to administer all sections simultaneously; then one additional entry per section (indicated by the section name in parentheses), which allows you to administer each section as an individual unit.

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Why is CATME creating duplicate surveys?

An apparent duplicate survey is created when you have one class but use the section column. One apparent survey is the master survey for a class with multiple sections and there will also be one survey listed for each section. Unless you have more than one section in your class, DO NOT use the section column. When you delete the section column in your CSV file, only one survey will be created.

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What do students receive when the instructor released the results?

Modifying an activity

How do I modify the survey start and end dates?

Click on the activity you want to edit. Then you can edit the start and end date fields on the left side of the “Activity Editor” page.

Note that you are allowed to adjust the survey start and end date even when the survey is currently “active”. For example, you may want to extend the survey end date to allow more students to complete the survey. If you extend the end date to reopen a survey that has ended, students who have not completed the survey will automatically receive a notice (via email) from the system that the survey has been re-opened. Similarly, they will receive the standard survey close warning 48 hours before the new end date is reached.

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What is the latest you can modify a survey?

How can I allow other faculty to have access to the survey information?

Instructors can be delegated during the survey creation process. It can also be accessed by clicking the “Delegate Instructors” button on the Activity Editor page.

Select the instructor(s) you want to delegate from the list on the page and click the “Delegate” button.

Clicking the “Reset Delegation” button will reset all delegation information back to the default, which means only you will have access to the survey information.

To finish, click the “Next” button if you are currently creating a survey, or the “Finished” button if you’re editing a survey

For a multi-section survey, select each section and then delegate the faculty. Note that if you do not include your own name in a section, you will not have access to that specific section, although as the survey creator you will always have access to the “master” survey view.

For More information, watch our video on CATME Faculty Delegation.

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What data do I get when I click “Export to CSV”?

Deleting or archiving an activity

How do I delete an activity?

To delete an activity in CATME, the activity must first be archived. To archive an activity, select the activity from your Quick Summary page and then select the “Archive Activity” button located on the bottom right corner of the screen. Once you have archived the activity, scroll down on the “Activity Editor” page and select the “Delete” button to delete all the data from the survey permanently.

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What is the difference between archive and delete?

Archiving does not erase the survey data permanently from CATME. However, if you delete an activity, then all the data has been completely erased from the CATME systems. If you provided CATME data for research purposes, deleting the survey will clear out this data.

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How do I view my archived surveys?

How do I unarchive a survey?

Check the box next to “Show Archived Surveys” on the Quick Summary page. Select the archived activity (appears in red) from the Quick Summary page and then select the “Unarchive Activity” button located in the bottom right of the page.

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Students’ answers

Can I reopen a closed survey for a student?

Yes. First, go to the Summary page and click on the activity name so you can access the Activity Editor page. Next, click the “Edit Students” button. Check the checkbox by the student’s name and click the “Allow Student Re-entry” button at the bottom of the page. Remember to tell the student(s) that the survey has been reopened. Please note that survey re-entry will only work when the survey hasn’t expired yet, so if the deadline has passed, you will need to extend it before granting students access.

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Can I allow a student to redo an activity?

Students can redo a Team-Maker survey as long as the survey is still open. If the survey is closed, or if the student needs to redo a Peer Evaluation survey, you will need to reopen the survey for them.

To allow students to redo a survey, click the “Edit Students” button on the Activity Editor page. Select the students and click the “allow re-entry” button. If you made other changes on this screen, don’t forget to click the save button.

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Can I delete a student’s submission?

Yes. Select the activity on the Quick Summary page, then on the “Activity Editor” screen, select the student’s name listed in blue. In the “Student Editor” screen, select the “Purge Survey Answers” option to delete the student’s submission.

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Team-Maker Surveys

General

What are the default questions in a Team-Maker survey?

What is the minimum number of students per team?

How do I create teams after the Team-Maker Survey is finished?

After the survey’s end date, you will see a button labeled “Data and Teams” on the Quick Summary page. Click this to be taken to a page displaying the results of the survey. In the top right corner, click “Make Teams,” then you will see a page giving options for the weight of each question in the survey. Finish by clicking “Make Teams” in the top right corner. The system may take a minute to create the teams. Afterward, if you would like different teams, you can change your parameters by clicking “Change Params”, or remake the teams with the same parameters by clicking “Re-Make Teams.”

For more information, see our video about Making Teams.

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Customize questions

How can I customize the questions in a Team-Maker survey?

Questions can be customized by adding questions created by the CATME team or other members of the community, or by creating your own questions.

To add preset questions, go to the Activity Editor of the Team-Maker survey of your choice. Then, you can check or uncheck the questions you want or don’t want in the survey. Afterward, you can save the changes by clicking on the “Save” or “Save and Return to Quick Summary.” Note that any community question you add or question you create will also become available for selection on this list.

To add community questions, click on the “Question Manager” button on the summary page, and click the “Add Question” button to go to the Community Question Import page. There, check the questions you want to add and click the “Import Selected Questions” button. To preview any question, click on its title.

To create your own questions, click on the “Question Manager” button on the summary page, then click on the “Add Question” button. After reading the welcome page, fill out the fields in the next two pages with the question and answers to your custom question. To access advanced settings, click on the question you want to see advanced settings for on the Question Manager page. Then click on the “Advanced Settings” button on the following page.

For more information, watch our videos on The Question Manager’s Basic Functions, CATME Question Manager Tutorial for Instructors, Advanced Settings in Question Manager.

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Why can’t I edit the question I wrote?

Can I have “other” as an option for gender?

Scheduling tool

What is the Time Zone Scheduling Tool?

The Time Zone Scheduling Tool facilitates team creation when team members are in different time zones from each other or from the instructor, such as in an online course.

The students input their time zones in their profiles. If a Team-Maker survey begins before the student sets the time zone, the times in the survey will appear in the instructor’s time zone instead.

The CATME system includes six time zone groupings:

US: Time zones for continental US, Puerto Rico, Alaska, and Hawaii
North America: Time zones for Canada, the US, Alaska, Hawaii, and Mexico
South America/Caribbean: Time zones for Eastern Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean
Europe/Africa/Middle East: Time zones for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa
Australasia: Time zones for countries from West Asia to New Zealand, including countries such as India, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Central Australia, and Iran where the local time is offset by 30 minutes from surrounding time zones
All World: Contains all 30 time zones, including those on the half hour.

For more information, watch our video on Time Zone Scheduling for Instructors.

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How can I customize the time zones for my class?

Rater Practice

What is Rater Practice?

Rater practice is a game based stimulation with hypothetical team members. Assigning rater practice to students allows them to learn how teammates should be rated using the 5 CATME Teamwork Dimensions

For more information, watch our video Rater Practice Demonstration.

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How can I implement Rater Practice for my class?

You can assign Rater Practice on the “Basic Activity Information” tab while creating a survey/activity. On this screen, you will see a drop-down menu with the options “No Practice”, “Require Once”, or “Open Practice”.

For more information, watch our video How to Assign Rater Practice.

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How does the scoring on Rater Practice work?

Two points are given to students who rate the hypothetical student exactly as they should, and one point is given to students who rate the hypothetical students one level above or below the correct score in each dimension. The highest possible score is 30.

For more information, watch our video Rater Practice Demonstration.

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Can I turn my students’ Rater Practice scores into a homework grade?

Yes. Once your students complete Rater Practice, you will be able to view their results by selecting the “view results’ button on the class editor page. On the raw data page, you can scroll down to view your students’ Rater Practice high scores, average scores, and total attempts in Rater Practice. This data can be used to evaluate and grade your student’s Peer Evaluation skills.

For more information, watch our video How to View Rater Practice Results.

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Why are there different students every time?

Having a new set of hypothetical team members displayed each time ensures that students must carefully consider the ratings they give, instead of simply remembering the correct scores from a previous attempt at Rater Practice.

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Peer Evaluation Surveys

Survey questions

Can I add custom questions to a Peer Evaluation survey?

No, CATME does not allow users to add their own questions to the Peer Evaluation system, as the system has been heavily researched and developed with complex formulas. There are, however, a variety of optional Follow-Up questions and extra questions about team members and teams.

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What other questions can I add to a Peer Evaluation survey?

Extra questions are other team member rating criteria besides the CATME five dimensions. These can be included in Peer Evaluation surveys.

The different sections of Extra questions which can be enabled are as follows. For a complete list of the questions, see our Peer Evaluation Additional Questions page.

Follow-Up questions: These questions gauge how well the team members get along with one another.
Video explanation of Follow-Up questions
Team Conflict: These questions help find conflict in the teams, which can help the instructor be aware of the situation and help manage the team better.
Video explanation of Team Conflict questions
Team Satisfaction: These questions will notify you if a student feels unwilling to continue to work with the students.
Video explanation of Team Satisfaction questions
Team Interdependence: These questions help to understand how each student works in the group with and without the help of teammates.
Video explanation of Team Interdependence questions
Team Cohesiveness: These questions help to understand how the team works as a unit. Teams with higher cohesiveness have a higher performance.
Video explanation of Team Cohesiveness questions
Peer Influences: This is a large set of questions that delves into how the teammates notice each others’ work, encourage and help one another, and how they discuss one another.
Video explanation of Peer Influences questions
Psychological Safety: These sets of questions will notify you when your students don’t feel safe to create new ideas or take risks with their team.
Video explanation of Psychological Safety questions

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Is there research supporting the use of the Extra questions?

Each of the sets of Extra questions is supported by research. This research can be found via the links below:

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How can I add Extra questions?

When creating a new survey, on the Activity Content screen, you can check the checkboxes next to the Extra Questions sets you want to include in your survey.

The extra questions can be added after the survey starts, but please note that any student who completed the survey beforehand will have blank answers in the added question. These students’ answers will need to be purged.

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Peer-to-Peer Comments

What are Peer-to-Peer Comments?

Is there evidence suggesting that Peer-to-Peer Comments impact team behavior?

There is substantial evidence that peer feedback improves teamwork behavior. One example is discussed in the following article: The Effects of Peer Feedback on Team Member Behavior Peter G. Dominick, Assessment Alternatives, Inc., Richard R. Reilly, Stevens Institute of Technology, and Jack W. McGourty, Assessment Alternatives, Inc. The authors say in their summary: “[Our] Results showed significantly higher [peer] ratings for participants in the [peer] feedback and exposure conditions.” [Article]

Another relevant article asserts that Peer-to-Peer Comments can hold students more accountable for their ratings and [students] who were made to feel accountable by having to justify their ratings … in writing rated their simulated subordinates more accurately. The article is Effects of Rater Accountability on the Accuracy and the Favorability of Performance Ratings, by Neal P. Mero, U.S. Air Force Academy and Stephan J. Motowidlo.

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How do I turn on Peer-to-Peer Comments?

During survey creation, on the page “Peer-to-Peer Comments”, check the “Enable” box. Your students will then be provided an input form when doing the Peer Evaluation survey that will allow them to enter comments about themselves and each team member. They will be asked to explain their ratings.

Peer-to-Peer Comments can also be enabled after a survey begins, but note that any students who completed the survey beforehand will have blank comments.

For more information, see our How to Activate Peer-to-Peer Comments video.

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Can I change the text for the instructions?

Yes. On the Quick Summary page, click on the activity, then click the “Edit Activity Intro” button on the Activity Editor page. On the Edit Instructions Text page, you can edit the instructions text inside the content box and click the “Preview Text” button to preview the instructions. Don’t forget to click the “Save” or “Save and return” button.

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What are different Peer-to-Peer Comments options?

There are three different options for Peer-to-Peer Comments.

Private (default): only the instructor can see the comments.
Release to students (with attribution): Students can see the comments about themselves from each teammate.
Release to students anonymously: Students can see the comments about themselves, but do not know which teammate made each comment.

Note that if the original setting was private, this cannot later be changed, nor can comments be changed from anonymous to attributed. In other words, comments can be made more private, but not less private.

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How can I release the survey ratings to students while keeping the Peer-to-Peer Comments private?

To keep the comments private while still releasing the survey results, leave the default options when adding Peer-to-Peer Comments. By default, survey results will be released, but only the instructor can read the comments.

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Data from Peer Evaluation Surveys

How can I view a summary of the data collected in a Peer Evaluation survey?

Click “View Results” next to the survey on the Quick Summary page to get to the Summary page. For a detailed review of each team, click “Dashboard-Detailed data by team.” For a detailed review of all teams, click “Dashboard-Raw Data detail.”

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Can I export the results for further analysis?

Yes. On the Summary page, click the “Raw Data” Button, then use the “Export” button on the raw data page.

Another option is to simply copy and paste the data from the Summary or Raw Data page. If you elect to copy and paste, the pop-up texts may interfere. Uncheck the “Enable pop-up texts” option and click Re-Display.

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Activity Results page

What is the adjustment factor?

The adjustment factor compares an individual student’s ratings with the average ratings of everyone in the team. This helps to see if the student was harsher than the average, or less harsh. There are two different adjustment factors, “Adj Factor w/Self”, which includes the student’s self-rating in the calculation, and “Adj Factor w/o Self”, which does not. These adjustment factors can be used to “score” the student’s ratings.

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Which adjustment factor should I use?

Why are some boxes highlighted and colored?

The adjustment factor box may be highlighted if the system recognizes an exceptional condition. These conditions help give more insight to the team’s dynamics. For more information, see our Exceptional Conditions Video.

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How to use adjustment factor as a grading tool?

First of all, adjustment factors will let you know the relative performance of all members of the team when comparing the scores of all team members (you could see the score to see if anyone over-performs or under-performs compared to other teammates). While the absolute rating score will give you the absolute information of the performance level for each individual based self- and peer- impression. Secondly, if in your class, you care more about the overall teamwork competency, then you might want to calculate the adjustment factors across all dimensions. However, if you care more about certain dimensions of the CATME teamwork competency, you could just calculate the adjustment factor scores for the corresponding dimensions. Again, your calculation and interpretation of the scores should really be based on your needs.

Translating CATME peer evaluation rating into standardized scores. If you have a chance to look over some academic papers related to CATME, you will notice that different people will have different rating patterns and we highly recommend using CATME peer evaluations as the ways to facilitate students’ development of teamwork competency. We typically would use CATME peer evaluation results as formative assessment – which means the major purpose of the assessment is to provide an instrument for students to reflect on their past behavior and get feedback from their peers so that they could use the information to further improve.

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Dashboard--Raw Data Report

What is the Raw Data Report?

What does “enable extra messages” do?

The CATME Peer Evaluation instrument uses the data it collects from students to recognize certain “exceptional conditions”– dysfunctional teams, over- or under-performing students, etc. When the system recognizes one of these conditions, the system normally provides the affected students with an additional informational message at the top of their survey results. You may choose to have the system NOT display these messages by unchecking this box.

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Dashboard--Detail By Team

What is dashboard detail by team?

Dashboard–detail by team shows the results of the survey for one specific team. It shows the data and ratings for each of the five CATME teamwork dimensions as well as for any additional categories added to the survey. To view it, click “Dashboard-Detailed Data By Team” on the Activity Results page, choose the results you would like to view using the checkboxes, and then click “Display Report.”

For more information, see our Dashboard Detail By Team video.

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What else can I include in dashboard detail by team?

What does “same rating across dimensions” mean?

Same Rating across Dimensions means that a student gave the same rating to a teammate across all of the CATME dimensions. This could be a sign that the student did not think about their answers, and instead just clicked the same box for every dimension. The numbers will be highlighted in red.

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What does “same rating across team members” mean?

Same Rating across Team Members means that a student gave the same rating to every teammate. This could be a sign that the student did not think about their answers, and instead just clicked the same box for every teammate. The numbers will be highlighted in red.

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What do the different notes mean?

Releasing results

How do I release the results from a Peer Evaluation survey?

On the Activity Results page, there is a button that says “Release” in the bottom left corner (you may have to scroll down to see it). Above the button is a drop-down menu indicating the different options to release the results to students, to researchers, or to no one. Make sure to select the desired option, then click the “Release” button.

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What results do students see when the data is released?

The students will receive an email inviting them to log into the system to see their feedback. This includes a display of each of the five CATME Peer Evaluation behaviorally anchored rating scales (or just the ones you assigned if you didn’t assign all five dimensions), which includes:

The student’s self-rating – indicated by an arrow in the first column labeled “How You Rated Yourself”
The average rating assigned to the student by the team – indicated by an arrow in the second column labeled “How Your Teammates Rated You”
The average rating on the team – indicated by an arrow in the third column labeled “Average Rating For You and Your Team”
The complete behaviorally anchored rating scale on which the Peer Evaluation ratings were made.
(optional) If you checked the box on the Class Editor page to include extra messages to students, they will see research—based suggestions to improve their performance on each dimension that you surveyed.

You can see the specific feedback results that any particular student will receive by going to the Summary Report Page for the Peer Evaluation. Look for the text that says “Preview results page for student.” (Only available after the survey is released) Click on the drop-down menu to find the particular student whose feedback you wish to preview, and click the “Preview” button.

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Do students see Peer-to-Peer Comments when the data is released?

Students will see Peer-to-Peer Comments as long as the “Enable Peer-to-Peer Comments” box is checked. If you do not wish to share the Peer-to-Peer Comments with students, uncheck this box before releasing the survey results.

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How do I get rid of ‘release survey’ reminder emails?

Troubleshooting

Instructor Troubleshooting

I encountered a blank screen when using Mozilla Firefox. Why?

While a few problems with versions of Mozilla Firefox have been reported, the design team has not been able to replicate them. If you have an issue when using Mozilla Firefox, please use a different browser, such as Chrome or Internet Explorer.

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Why can’t I receive messages from CATME?

If you don’t receive email messages from CATME, these are the most common reasons.

CATME messages are in the junk or spam folder of your email account.
Your software or email server is blocking the CATME IP addresses. Your ISP has to permit catme.org. This is relevant if you are working from a home computer or an off-campus server. Try moving to a campus computer and logging in from there.

For further help, please contact support@catme.org.

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Why can’t I see the “View Results” or “Data and Teams” buttons?

The “View Results” button for Peer Evaluation and the “Data and Teams” button for Team-Maker only become available once the survey period has started, otherwise there would be no results to view.

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Why am I seeing a blank Quick Summary page?

Student Troubleshooting

Why are my students not rating their teammates?

If Rater Practice is enabled on your survey, there is a good chance that some students did Rater Practice thinking it is the required Peer Evaluation survey . Make sure the students know how to access the survey to rate their real teammates.

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My student believes they completed the activity, but CATME shows that they did not.

If Rater Practice is enabled on your survey, there is a good chance that some students did Rater Practice thinking it is the required Peer Evaluation. It would be a good idea to send an extra reminder out to your students or follow up with them to ensure that they’ve completed the required survey.

For further help, please contact support@catme.org.

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My students believe the people in their teams are wrong.

If Rater Practice is enabled on your survey, there is a good chance that some students did Rater Practice thinking it is the required Peer Evaluation. If so, the student will see the names of hypothetical students instead of their real teammates.

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My student cannot access the survey, but other students can access it.

Please verify that the email you uploaded for the student is correct and that is the same email address the student is using to log in. To correct any problems related to incorrect student email addresses, go to your CATME faculty account class page (click the class on the Quick Summary Page) and edit the student’s email address.

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Can I change the language on a student’s CATME account?

CATME does not have the capability to be operated in a language other than English. Try using Google Translate on the web page. Please keep that in mind that the specific wording of the questions in Peer Evaluations are supported with research, and translating Peer Evaluation surveys may affect the validity of the results.

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Licensing & Charges

How much does CATME cost?

CATME uses a tiered pricing structure for our licenses that is based on a unique student count for the license.

Rates effective July 1, 2022

Unique Student Count Range	Fixed License Fee
1 - 150	$268.00
151 - 300	$603.00
301 - 500	$1,073.00
501 - 1,000	$2,012.00
1,001 - 2,000	$4,023.00
2,001 - 4,000	$8,046.00
4,001 - 6,000	$13,411.00
6,001 - 10,000	$21,457.00
10,000+	$26,821.00

Note: There is a one-time fee scaled to your unique student usage for the following.

1. CATME Canada: Moving your license to our CATME Canada servers, minimum of $500.
2. CATME/Canvas Integration: Enabling your CATME license to work with your Canvas LMS, minimum of $1,500.

PLEASE NOTE: New rates effective July 1, 2024 (fiscal year 2025)

Unique Student Count Range	Fixed License Fee
1 - 150	$272.00
151 - 300	$611.00
301 - 500	$1,087.00
501 - 1,000	$2,038.00
1,001 - 2,000	$4,075.00
2,001 - 4,000	$8,150.00
4,001 - 6,000	$13,584.00
6,001 - 10,000	$21,734.00
10,000+	$27,167.00

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What is a unique student?

A unique student is determined by the student’s email ID. These ID’s are counted in different ways for the different license types. For example, if two instructors request separate instructor licenses, it is possible that one or more students will be in both classes. The unique student count for each instructor requesting a license will include these shared students, and therefore the unique student ID will be counted towards a licence fee twice. If, however, both instructors decided to purchase a departmental license, their shared students would only be counted towards their unique student count once.

For more information, see our Finding Your Unique Student Count video.

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What data does CATME base their charges on?

The invoice charges are based on either an estimate given by the user that requested the license, or the previous year’s historical use from the instructor, department, or institution.

For more information, see our Finding Your Unique Student Count video.

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Can I get a quote based on my estimated unique student count?

How will I be informed of the charge?

Are there charges for creating an instructor account or student account?

Are instructors charged every time a student uses CATME?

Licensing

What are the types of licensing?

The four licenses that CATME offers are listed below. You will receive a pending license on your CATME account until a license is purchased or applied to your account. Unless there is an existing license for your department, school/college, or institution, a CATME license will need to be purchased. All licenses allow for unlimited CATME use. The minimum fee for all licenses is $100. The determination of unique student counts varies across the four license types.

Individual license–available for any instructor who is interested in using CATME for creating teams or using peer feedback tools.
Departmental license–covers all instructors within a given department at an institution. Each unique student across the department is only counted once. If multiple departments have departmental licenses at the same institution, each student list will only be unique within the departments.
Institutional license–covers all instructors within an entire institution. All students will only be counted once across the institution.

For more information, see our CATME Licensing video.

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Can students pay to use CATME?

You can inquire more into student pay by reaching out to licensing@catme.org. There are specific requirements, such as a reliable vendor for license keys, that must be met to be approved for student pay.

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How long is my license valid?

When will my license be activated?

My Teaching Assistants have dual access accounts, do they need to purchase a CATME license?

Invoice

When will I receive my invoice?

If you have used CATME in the past, you will receive your license renewal invoice annually after July 1st. If you are a new user to CATME and your institution/department does not have a license yet, you will receive your invoice shortly following the first survey creation. If you have not received an invoice yet or wish to receive it earlier, please email licensing@catme.org.

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What information should I provide to ensure I receive an invoice?

Please include in your profile:

A Billing Contact Person
Email Address
Mailing Address
Postal/Zip Code

For individual instructors, make sure your institution and department information is correctly entered into CATME’s system to confirm that we have a proper count of departments in your institution. This can be checked by going to ‘My Profile’ on the Quick Summary page and reviewing the information presented there.

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How can I pay my invoice?

You can pay with a check, credit card, or ACH/Wire Transfer. Information to mail a check is included on your invoice copy. Checks can be mailed to:

Purdue University

24025 Network Place

Chicago, IL 60673-1240

Credit card payments can be made over the phone by calling Purdue’s AR office at (765) 494-9459 or through Purdue’s Online Biller Direct Payment System at https://www.purdue.edu/billerdirectpayments

If you have questions regarding payment, you can contact Purdue’s AR office through email at ar@purdue.edu

For more information, see our CATME Invoicing video.

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Will I be able to use CATME while waiting for my invoice to process?

Can I pay my invoice early?

How do I pay by check?

Payment

How do I pay with a credit card?

For more information, see our CATME Invoicing video.

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Where can I find Purdue’s current W9?

Data Protection and Accessibility

How does CATME protect the confidentiality of student data?

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) guidelines require the protection of confidential student data. If instructors release their data for research purposes, all of the identifying information about students (their names, e-mail addresses, and ID numbers) are stripped from the data and replaced with codes that cannot be traced to specific students. Read more about our data protection policies.

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What is CATME’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) policy?

Many countries like Canada and Australia have data privacy laws that say that data cannot leave the country. To ensure the privacy of data, CATME uses servers from Amazon Web Services, which are found all over the world. Using these servers, all the instructor information is stored in a server inside the respective countries, hence complying with their laws. To find out more, read our GDPR Policy.

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How does the CATME system accommodate individuals with disabilities?

CATME complies with WCAG 2.0 standards at level A. We are constantly striving for improvement in this area. To learn more about how we meet these and other standards, you can view our current Voluntary Product Accessibility Form (VPAT).

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Instructor Frequently Asked Questions & Troubleshooting

All Questions

Account Access/Info

Classes & Activities

Team-Maker Surveys

Peer Evaluation Surveys

Rater Practice

Data from Peer Evaluation Surveys

Troubleshooting

Licensing & Charges

Data Protection & Accessibility

Account Access/Info

Instructor Account

Student Account

Dual Access Account

Login Troubleshooting

Classes & Activities

Creating and modifying a class

Creating an activity

Modifying an activity

Deleting or archiving an activity

Students’ answers

Team-Maker Surveys

General

Customize questions

Scheduling tool

Rater Practice

Peer Evaluation Surveys

Survey questions

Peer-to-Peer Comments

Data from Peer Evaluation Surveys

Activity Results page

Dashboard--Raw Data Report

Dashboard--Detail By Team

Releasing results

Troubleshooting

Instructor Troubleshooting

Student Troubleshooting

Licensing & Charges

Licensing

Invoice

Payment