teacher in mask giving lecture to students

Student Feedback

Resources and Guidance for Collecting and Using Student Feedback

Want quick and useful student feedback about your course, but not sure what or how to ask? Get started with templates from CIRCLE and the Center for Teaching and Learning. To preview the templates in Canvas Commons and import them into your courses, log into Canvas and then follow the links below. If the links don’t work, please see instructions further down the page for accessing surveys via search.

We recommend consulting Resources and Guidance for Collecting and Using Student Feedback for more detailed instructions on accessing, importing, and editing templates as well as general recommendations related to collecting and using student feedback. Consider each template as a jumping-off point. You can use them as-is, or you can update them to better fit your needs by changing settings or editing, adding, or deleting questions.

In particular, you might consider the costs and benefits of including vs. deleting open-ended questions from your survey:

Advantages:

  • Provides a low-barrier opportunity for students to share concerns and suggestions
  • Can help you interpret and respond to results of the closed questions without additional follow-up

Challenges:

  • Reviewing open responses can be time-consuming, especially for a large course.
  • Receiving suggestions that you can’t accommodate can cause undue stress.

Some form of open-ended feedback is crucial to pinpoint problems and identify potential improvements. One way to get this feedback while minimizing the above disadvantages is to follow-up with students (via class discussion, email, or a follow-up survey) to get open-ended feedback focusing only on specific areas of improvement as identified by the initial survey. This can help you control the amount and type of feedback you receive, but be aware of potential drawbacks such as the extra logistical step and potential survey fatigue.

Pre-Built Templates Available in Canvas Commons

Sign into Canvas to view templates in the following links

Quick Course Pulse

Get a snapshot of student experiences related to important aspects of your overall course (Search terms: CIRCLE, CTL, Course Pulse)

view Quick course pulse template

Quick Activity Feedback - General

Get immediate student perceptions about the effectiveness of a course activity (Search terms: CIRCLE, CTL, Activity Feedback)

view Quick Activity Feedback - General template

Quick Activity Feedback - Group Work

Get immediate student feedback about a small group activity (Search terms: CIRCLE, CTL, Course Pulse)

view Quick Activity Feedback - Group Work template

Quick Lecture Feedback

Get immediate student feedback about the effectiveness of a lecture and the content students find most difficult (Search terms: CIRCLE, CTL, Course Pulse)

view Quick Lecture Feedback template

How to Build and Customize your Pre-Built Template

How to Build and Customize your Pre-Built Template

Step by step guidance on how to import and customize your pre-built template

Template Instructions

Recommendations for Obtaining Useful Survey Feedback

The aim of this guide is to help you effectively and efficiently collect student feedback to use in assessing and improving your course. We begin with general guidance followed by instructions for accessing and using pre-built survey templates for collecting student feedback about your overall course and specific course activities.

  • Collect Something: Don’t get overwhelmed with possibility. Even a single piece of feedback can help you improve your course. Think about what you most want to know about your students’ experience in your course. You can also access pre-built templates (see below) if you’re unsure where to start.
  • Don’t reinvent the wheel: Use one of our ready-made templates to get started. You can always customize the questions to meet your specific needs, but there’s no need to start from scratch.
  • Wait a bit: Refrain from collecting feedback during the first two weeks of class - this will help you avoid investing effort into fixing issues that will naturally improve as students settle into the course.
  • Explain: Tell students what types of feedback you plan to collect and why.
  • Keep it brief: Try to use surveys that students can complete in a minute or two.
  • Make it convenient: Embed surveys into Canvas modules to streamline the process for students.
  • Be strategic: Don’t overwhelm your students or yourself by collecting feedback on every activity. Focus your efforts on activities you suspect are not working well or those you’ve had to alter significantly.
  • Provide clear response options: Aim for response options with clear practical meanings (e.g., Needs Improvement/Meets Expectations vs. a 1-5 scale). This approach may help you view, interpret, and respond to feedback more quickly.
  • Give credit: If possible, consider tying surveys to a small amount of points (i.e., completion credit) to encourage participation. For example, this can be easily done on Canvas with a graded survey.
  • Keep it anonymous: Students may be more comfortable and honest if surveys are anonymous (and you can still easily provide credit for completion). Anonymity helps prevent bias – and importantly, the perception of bias – for or against students who give positive or critical feedback, respectively.
  • Acknowledge: Thank students for their feedback and emphasize its importance for improving the course.
  • Follow-Up: If necessary, make changes and assess their effect with a follow-up survey. For changes to specific activities this can be the next time students complete the activity, but for more general course-level changes allow at least 3-4 weeks for the changes to take hold before reassessing.

Additional Evaluation Resources