Getting Student Feedback

 As you design your online course, we encourage you to consider how you will go about recruiting and addressing student feedback. Student feedback can be very beneficial, especially the first few times a course is taught as it allows you to evaluate what aspects of your course design and strategies you've implemented that students (1) like (2) dislike, and (3) believe can be improved.  You can then take this information and apply it to make improvements to your course. 

Start Here Student Information Surveys

As already discussed, an effective course design is one in which the unique needs of each learner are addressed. However, instructors rarely have a good understanding of key attributes that will help them address the needs of their students including basic demographic and instructional background. Consequently, it's a good practice to start your course with a short student information survey. Some questions you may ask include:

  • Preferred name and pronouns students would like to be referred to
  • Geographic location/time zones
  • Preferred class work days/times (this may be useful when forming student groups)
  • Existing knowledge or prior experience related to the course
  • Level of familiarity with course tools
  • Anticipated course goals

Tips Mid-Semester Feedback

Asking for feedback mid-semester is a good practice as you still have time to adjust your course if needed. Mid-semester feedback can be simple and informal. Here are the three questions you can ask:

  • What should our class continue doing because it is positively impacting your learning success in this class? 
  • What could our class stop doing because it does not increase your learning success in this class? 
  • What could our class start doing to increase your learning success in this class? 

Try This Examples of Course Evaluation

Check out sample course evaluations available through the Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository (TOPR) which provides real examples from UCF faculty in different disciplines. 

Assessment Evaluation Tool and Note About Student Privacy

A great tool  to create anonymous surveys is Qualtrics, check <Replace - Your LMS> to see if this tool is offered at your institution. 

Please be mindful of the information requested as you create surveys for your course. Be sure to avoid asking questions that would require students to provide personal information. Refer to the FERPA Reference Sheet for <Replace - Institution Name> for more information. Also depending on the nature of your survey, you may consider having students respond anonymously.