Want to know how your class is going? Ask your students!

Getting feedback from your students throughout the semester provides you multiple checks on the student experience and helps you determine how to adjust your course to better meet their needs. A two-way communication channel about what is and is not working can help you connect with your students and create a positive classroom climate.

The mid-point of the semester is a critical time for continued student success. While聽聽have shown that聽student ratings may not correlate with learning and success in future courses,聽Midterm Student Feedback (MSF) overcomes many challenges and offers several benefits:

  • Valuable feedback from students while there is still time to make changes
  • Improved student learning, enjoyment, course ratings
  • Students see you as a human being who cares about their learning
  • Students get a voice in your course and a chance to reflect on their own learning

Below are some聽best practices on conducting an MSF Session:

  • Keep the questionnaire simple to about 3-5 questions.
  • The questionnaire can be administered online or in class (if in class, make sure you leave the room while they complete the questionnaire).
  • Emphasize you are looking for suggestions for improving the course and that student feedback is valued.

So, what is useful to know?

You might ask students to reflect on the structure or content of the course, learning activities, assignments, or strategies to improve their experience. Maybe you are trying something new and want to know if it is working. Or perhaps you have a huge course enrollment or are teaching remotely and do not have much opportunity for interaction. Some questions you might ask:

  1. What are three things you have learned in the class so far? What is one thing you have you learned in class that you did not expect to learn?
  2. What is something you want to learn that is not on the syllabus?
  3. In what ways has this course helped you learn? What would help you learn better?
  4. What have you done so far that has helped you learn? What could you do differently for the rest of the term that will help you learn better?
  5. What seems challenging about completing the work for this class?
  6. What worries you about this class? What might help you feel more confident?
  7. What questions do you have about the course that I can answer for you and other students?

What are some ways to get midcourse feedback?

  • Use the聽聽feature. You can post simple questions with multiple choice responses. Zoom offers聽several options for engaging students聽in addition to the Polling feature.
  • Ask students to respond to an anonymous survey.聽聽is quick, user-friendly, and free to use for collecting responses from students.
  • Create an ungraded survey using the聽.
  • Hold small group discussions. Create a set of questions and ask students to choose a scribe who will take notes on the discussion and share them with you. You could also set up an asynchronous discussion using the聽.
  • If it is difficult to get students to provide feedback, you can ask your graduate teaching assistant or learning assistants to share information that they get from students, or ask them to host a feedback session.聽

Here are a few suggestions on moving from simple data collection to transformative teaching/learning experiences:

  • Focus on solutions聽鈥� attainable within timeframe
  • Recommend alternatives聽for important concerns beyond the scope of the MSF
  • Reinforce that students are responsible for learning
  • Use reflective listening聽to clarify students鈥� comments and to bring them back to learning issues.
  • Encourage students to continue dialogue聽with you as their instructor

Additionally, how might you include聽feedback questions specific to inclusion and identifying any blind spots聽you may have? The Colorado Department of Higher Education provides a checklist for reflecting on your practice-use portions of the聽聽to tailor your own questionnaire.