Collecting End-of-Semester Feedback from your Students
In order to more deeply understand what aspects of the course are working, need tweaking, or should be phased out, consider soliciting feedback in addition to institution-level course evaluations.
At the close of the semester, many of us find ourselves seeking feedback that goes beyond the institution-level course evaluations. To help you more deeply understand what aspects of the course are working, need tweaking, or should be phased out, consider soliciting feedback in additional ways.
In our individual courses, fostering a culture of feedback throughout the semester positions students to understand the value of sharing their experiences when the course closes. Here are a few ways you can solicit more specific feedback from students.
Think about different aspects of the course and identify your specific priorities for feedback.
Prepare by thinking through exactly what you want feedback on. Taking a targeted approach can result in more actionable responses. For example:
Specific C-I assignments and activities (both high- and low-stakes items)
Your classroom management and communications
The media you used and assigned as prep work for the course
Find the right framing for your feedback.
If you’ve taken the time to set up a culture of feedback, your students will be prepared to focus on the course instead of the teacher, reflect both on what worked well and what did not, and provide suggestions for the future. But it also helps to remind them at this stage.
If you haven’t already, share with them how you’ve made use of feedback shared by students in previous semesters.
If you already know you want to make changes based on earlier feedback or what you observed on your own, let the students know that in advance of sharing feedback so they don’t feel the burden of repeating previous notes or trying to find diplomatic ways to deliver bad news about something you already know you intend to work on.
Use a feedback tactic that fits with your teaching style and class culture.
Before sharing the institution-level course evaluation, help your students understand which aspects of the course you want targeted feedback on when they fill it out.
Put up a slide or write prompts on the board for students to refer to when they complete the institutional evaluation.
Load a note or a video to your LMS. Videos, especially, can help emphasize you’re a real person seeking feedback.
Email the students a note or video in tandem with instructions for completing the institution-level evaluation.
Invite your students to provide feedback by annotating or rewriting your syllabus or assignment sheet. To do this, you can drop a copy of your syllabus or a specific course assignment/assignment criteria into a collaborative document or app so students can annotate it or rewrite it.
If you want to do this via your LMS, check to see if your institution has integrated tools like Hypothesis or Perusall for annotation.
Develop a survey and share it with your students. Check out this survey template for inspiration, or create your own. If you build your own, keep it short and sweet so students aren’t intimidated.
Ask students to submit a self- and class-evaluation, which includes a rubric and a series of prompts fostering metacognition for the student (what steps they took to be successful, what they can work on in future semesters) as well as substantive feedback for the teacher as they develop and implement the course (using the same framing).
Allocate time on the final day of class for students to have a discussion or up-vote/down-vote aspects of the class that you want feedback on. For this, you could use technologies like real-time survey apps (Kahoot, Polleverywhere, Mentimeter, MS Forms, or another tool integrated into your institution’s educational tech tools) for students to respond to via their devices, or go analog with red, yellow and green paper that students hold up in response to prompts. This can also help you keep the tone light, applying a gamified and celebratory element to the feedback experience.
Provide short-term rewards or immediate pay-offs for providing feedback.
Especially in cases where feedback is collected anonymously, it can help to offer incentives that demonstrate to your students that you’re grateful for their feedback—regardless of what it includes. For example, if you are using an annotated document to gather feedback, offer an incentive to the entire class if you get a certain number of annotations with specific and actionable feedback. If you are asking for responses to a survey, consider offering something to the class if a certain percentage gives feedback by a set date. Here is some language:
“If the syllabus has at least X annotations with specific and actionable feedback…”
“If more than X% of the class submits their feedback by Y date, I’ll…”
And here are some ideas for incentives:
…bring in snacks on the last day.
…allow for a 10-minute brain break during the remaining classes with music or funny TikTok videos.
…cancel or drop the lowest small-stakes grade (attendance, daily quiz, etc.).
…add a small quantity of bonus points to the final exam/project (ex: 1-2% grade increase).
There are many ways to solicit student feedback beyond your standard evaluations. These are just a few examples that have worked for other teachers in the past. What are some approaches that have worked for you? What method are you trying out for your course this semester?