Case Study: UC San Diego Extension achieves centralized management of 26,000 course evaluations and data-driven decision-making with Qualtrics Research Suite

UC San Diego - Customer Case Study

UC San Diego Extension, led by Josh Shapiro, needed a better way to manage some 26,000 annual course and instructor evaluations that were handled differently across departments, relied heavily on pen-and-paper, and had no central database or historical trend capability. This fragmented process created large administrative burdens and made cross-department comparisons and long-term analysis impractical.

By rolling out the Qualtrics Research Suite, UC San Diego consolidated evaluations into a single digital survey, stored data centrally, used embedded data to prefill course details, and enabled fast, code-free querying and analysis. The university implemented Qualtrics in four months, cut personnel handling evaluations from around 50 people to roughly half of one full-time role, reduced costs and paper waste, and shifted to data-driven decisions—using insights (e.g., syllabus–instructor rating correlations) to design targeted training and continuous improvement.

UC San Diego

Josh Shapiro

Director of Research and Evaluation