Overview

IASystem supports online and paper-based course evaluations in a single system. Administrators can configure forms for the institution, individual colleges, or departments, while instructors can add scaled or open-ended questions for their own courses. This gives campuses a way to standardize evaluation practices without locking every course into an identical form.

Students can access evaluations through Canvas, Blackboard, and other LMS applications via LTI. A web API also supports campus-specific connections, such as showing evaluation links in a student portal. These integration options make IASystem a stronger fit for institutions that want evaluations within existing student workflows than for teams looking for a standalone survey tool.

Key features

Reporting covers course and combined-course summaries, administrative high/low and ratings summaries, survey lists, and data exports. Institution-specific reliability estimates, item-level deciles, and regression analyses add depth for assessment teams interpreting results. That analytical range is useful when a campus needs more than response collection, though it may be more than a team seeking only basic survey summaries requires.

IASystem uses HTTPS, role-based permissions, and server-side processing for calculations, validations, and reports. Reports and data extracts omit student names, IDs, and login information, a practical privacy measure for confidential instructor evaluations. Phone and email support is available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Pacific Time.

Pricing

A one-term pilot license is free, giving a campus a way to pilot IASystem for one term before committing to an annual license. The paid plans provide institution-wide access with no course limit, and charge per enrolled student annually:

Enrollment Category 1: 1.90 USD per year for institutions under 2,000 FTE students.
Enrollment Category 2: 1.85 USD per year for 2,000–4,999 FTE students.
Enrollment Category 3: 1.79 USD per year for 5,000–9,999 FTE students.
Enrollment Category 4: 1.74 USD per year for 10,000–14,999 FTE students.
Enrollment Category 5: 1.64 USD per year for 15,000–19,999 FTE students.
Enrollment Category 6: 1.59 USD per year for institutions with 20,000 or more FTE students.

Every paid category has a $5,404 one-time setup fee. The per-student rate falls as enrollment rises, so the lowest listed rate applies only to the largest institutions; smaller campuses pay more per student. Paper forms and scanning cost extra according to usage, which makes paper-heavy deployments harder to budget from the annual rate alone.

Platforms

IASystem is available through web and API platforms. LTI access for Canvas, Blackboard, and other LMS applications complements the API for campus-specific integrations.

Who it's for

IASystem is aimed at colleges and universities assessing teaching and learning, and is backed by the University of Washington’s Institutional Assessment & Evaluation team. It fits institutions seeking configurable instructor evaluations, LMS access, and advanced reporting under a campus-wide program. Schools that need anonymous feedback should look elsewhere: IASystem does not offer it.

Pros and cons

Pro: Administrators and instructors can tailor evaluation forms at different levels, balancing campus consistency with course-specific questions.
Pro: LTI, a web API, and data exports support LMS access and campus workflows.
Pro: Reliability estimates, deciles, and regression analyses support deeper institutional interpretation.
Con: The $5,404 setup fee applies to every paid enrollment category, on top of annual per-student charges.
Con: Paper forms and scanning are billed separately based on usage.
Con: It does not support anonymous feedback, a significant constraint where that is a requirement.

Alternatives

Consider Qualtrics if an individual needs a free survey option: its free plan is limited to one user, three active surveys, and 500 total responses. QuestionPro is another free-plan option, with Essentials allowing one user, 200 responses per survey, and 30 question types; its Advanced plan is 99.00 USD per month, billed annually, for one user and 25K responses per survey.

Choose evasys if self-hosting is important; it supports API, self-hosted, and web platforms, with pricing tailored to products, project scope, integrations, hosting, and support. HelioCampus Course Evaluations & Surveys is a paid alternative available on Android, API, iOS, and web.

IOTA360 Evaluations is a paid alternative with customized pricing based mostly on annual faculty and student users, and possible added charges for custom reports. Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys is a paid API and web option with pricing provided through a demo.

EduAdmin is another paid alternative with a free trial. SmartEvals offers a free Lite version for schools currently using paper, described as an on-the-go version. Browse the course evaluation software directory for more options.

Verdict

IASystem is a strong choice for colleges and universities that want configurable instructor evaluations, LMS access, and analytical reporting across a campus. Its broad reporting and no-course-limit institution-wide plans are the main reasons to choose it; the setup fee, usage-based paper costs, and lack of anonymous feedback are the clearest reasons to look elsewhere.

	Explorance Blue	IASystem
Free plan	No	No
Free trial	No	Yes
Paid from	—	$0.13/mo
Open source	No	No
Platforms	Web	api, Web
Instructor evaluations	Yes	Yes
LMS integrations	Yes	Yes
Benchmarking	Yes	Yes
Reporting depth	advanced	advanced
Data export	Yes	Yes
Free plan	—	No
Anonymous feedback	—	No

Explorance Blue vs IASystem

Explorance Blue

IASystem