Collecting, Interpreting, and Responding to Early Student Feedback

Receive one-on-one support from an education specialist.

An education specialist can provide consultation on survey questions, collecting and summarizing student feedback, and guidance on interpreting and responding effectively to the feedback.

Create your own tool to ask students what’s working well for them in the course, and what they might be finding challenging.

• Aim for questions that focus on student agency in monitoring their learning environment, such as: What is contributing to their learning? What is a concrete action that the instructor could take that would enhance their learning? What is one thing they (as the student) could do to improve their learning? You might also include a question about a specific policy or assignment that you would like the chance to adjust or clarify to the students. 
• Create a survey in your preferred platform – click here for a copy-ready Google form populated with example questions or bring questions into an anonymous Canvas survey (potentially awarding points for completion).

Interpreting student feedback can present some challenges – for example, receiving contradictory feedback from students about the pace being too fast and too slow, or students might suggest changes that are out of your control. Below we share a few brief guidelines for interpreting student feedback. Education specialists are also available to assist in interpreting student feedback, both informal mid-quarter feedback and Student Evaluation of Teachings (SETs; formerly CAPEs). 

Look for trends; consider outliers

Are there suggestions that many students agree on? It makes sense to focus on addressing concerns that many students share. It is also important to use your judgment in considering single comments. If only one or two students suggest a simple fix; for example, captioning videos, or sharing the main topic of the lecture at the beginning of each class, these are also worth implementing. Similarly, if a small number of students share concerning information; for example, feeling like the class is an unfriendly environment, these are issues to address. 

Integrate student feedback with your own sense of the class

Students may make suggestions that you are not able or willing to implement. Collecting student feedback does not obligate you to make the exact changes students suggest, but it can be worth thinking about what lies at the root of their feedback and how you could address their concerns. For example, if they want you to podcast your lecture but your room does not support that feature, is it because they are struggling to keep up with note-taking? Is there another support, such as providing skeleton notes, slides that they can annotate, or doing more verbal signposting of concepts that are most important that you could implement instead? 

Resolving contradictory feedback might also require some further interpretation or information. For example, are there students from different majors, or do students take the course at different stages in the curriculum? Are there ways you can support students who might not be majors in your field by diversifying examples you use to illustrate concepts in lecture, or directing students to supplementary videos?

Make a list for now and a list for later

It is not always possible to alter fundamental aspects of a course mid-stream; for example, choosing a new textbook. Make a list of ideas you want to implement now, and keep track of other suggestions for your next offering of the same course.

Collecting student feedback provides you with important information about student learning in your course(s). Communicating with students about how you will be responding to that feedback demonstrates your concern and interest for student learning, and brings students into the course as partners in creating a productive educational environment. 

You might opt to respond via email, such as the example email below, or by taking a few minutes at the start of class to voice your appreciation and share some of the themes that came up in the feedback.

Sample Response Email Template