Tip: End-of-semester surveys

At the end of the semester, I hope to use the feedback to improve the course for next semester, helping me to think about what I should change and what I should keep (more or less) the same.

In general, course evaluations are deeply flawed, for many reasons. There are many big-picture, philosophical reasons why course evaluations are problematic (evidence of gender bias and racial/ethnic bias, evidence that that students will give worse ratings to professors who benefit their learning in the long term and that students are not able to discern what actually makes good teaching, among other criticism). None of these criticisms are new, or are a surprise to the faculty who have to use evaluations each semester. And yet, we are (mostly) stuck with them. Even for a faculty member whose evaluations are largely positive - and we know that the very happy and very unhappy students are more likely to respond - they simply are not useful. They don’t ask the right questions, and don’t get the results to us in time to make a real difference for the next semester.

“Content” students are not generally inspired to fill out course evaluations / Image by XKCD

Earlier this semester, I shared my midterm feedback survey I use to get a quick snapshot of how students are feeling. With the midterm survey, I have two main goals: to better understand my students and ask for feedback that I can realistically implement.

At the end of the semester, I hope to use the feedback to improve the course for next semester, helping me to think about what should I change and what should I keep (more or less) the same? I use my end-of-semester course survey to help me gather this information (link will prompt you to make a copy). Each semester I tailor the survey to the materials, assignments, and course activities that are specific to each course. They survey offers multiple answer, short response, and longer response prompts, and I always learn so much from my students who complete the survey.

With my own survey I can ask specifically about the materials, asking whether students had a print copy of the texts, or only an e-book copy, and whether they used the supplemental online publisher resources or not. I can narrow in on what I want to know about course activities - particularly helpful in semesters where I’m piloting a new major assignment and want to get feedback on how it worked. This semester students found discussion boards less helpful than in past semesters (third set of bars below, red bar), which is interesting given that these were remote synchronous classes and their discussion boards were all content-focused rather than community-building focused.

Students were able to tell me what online resources they used or didn’t use, and whether the resources were helpful or not. Blue bars are good!

I always end by inviting the student to share optional open-ended responses to questions like:

What do you wish that I knew about you and your performance this semester that might have made the semester more successful for you?

What else do you think I should know?

Very often the most revealing thoughts show up here, and provide space for self-reflection before I turn to preparing for the next semester.

For more reading…

• Even ‘Valid’ Student Evaluations Are ‘Unfair' (InsideHigherEd article) and Unbiased, reliable, and valid student evaluations can still be unfair (journal article in Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education)

• How to Make the Best of Bad Course Evaluations (Chronicle of Higher Ed article)

• An Evaluation of Course Evaluations (article published in ScienceOpen)

• Student Course Evaluations: Research, Models and Trends (white paper published by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario)

• The truth behind course evaluations

• The Next Lawsuits to Hit Higher Education (Chronicle article)

• Rethinking the Student Course Evaluation: How a Customized Approach Can Improve Teaching and Learning (journal article in AAC&U’s Liberal Education)

• Interesting - and honest! - analysis of one faculty member’s own course evaluation ratings over time