Mid-quarter feedback templates
The Office of Instructional Consultation has created two editable, mid-quarter feedback templates that you can add to your GauchoSpace course site to help you make real-time course adjustments based on student feedback.
- “Mid-quarter feedback survey (brief)” has three open-ended questions that help assess what is working and what could be improved, as well as asking students to reflect on their effort.
- “Mid-quarter feedback survey” has eleven rated multiple-choice questions for instructors to choose from, and the three open-ended questions from the “brief” survey. See a Screenshot of mid-quarter feedback survey.
For this longer survey, you will want to delete questions that don’t apply to your course or that you are not interested in obtaining feedback on.
For more information, use the buttons below:
Add Feedback activity, configure settings, add template questions
Add Feedback activity
- Log in to GauchoSpace and enter your course site. Click Turn editing on.
- Select the week/section block in which you would like the mid-quarter feedback template and click Add an activity or resource.
- Select Feedback and click Add.
Configure Settings
Give the Feedback activity a name (e.g. “Mid-quarter survey”) and description, explaining the purpose of the survey.
Sample Description (feel free to copy/paste/edit):
I'm interested in knowing how well this course is meeting your learning needs so far. Please give me feedback that is actionable and specific so that I can thoughtfully alter things, if needed. For example, instead of "class is boring" or "homework is too hard", write something like, "Class could be more interesting if _." or "The homework is harder than the examples from class." I’d also like to read about what is working well for you, and why.
Key settings:
- Availability: By default, the survey will remain open. Click Enable to set open and close dates for the survey.
- Question and submission settings (Anonymity): The survey defaults to be anonymous and will not record students’ names, or log their access, unless this setting is changed by clicking the Record user names drop-down menu.
- After Submission: add a message that the students will see when they complete the feedback activity.
- Click Save and display. This will take you into the interface where you can add the template questions.
Add template questions
- Click the Template tab.
- Choose “Mid-quarter feedback survey” (longer survey) or “Mid-quarter feedback survey (brief)”
- You will be asked “Are you sure you want to use this template?” Click save changes OR if you have already added survey questions, choose “Append new items” then save changes.
Review and edit questions
It is important to delete questions that don’t apply to your course or that you are not interested in feedback about.
- Click the Edit questions tab.
- Click on Edit for any question that you would like to customize or delete. Make changes and click Save question.
- To add additional questions, select them from the Add question dropdown at the top of the page
- When you are finished editing questions, you may simply leave the module and return to your course.
Implementing a mid-quarter feedback survey
Getting students to take the survey
To get higher response rates and high-quality feedback, consider:
- Providing 5-10 minutes of class time for students to take the survey on their computers or cell phones; ideally at the beginning of class, while you step out of the room.
- E-mailing students to explain why you’d like their feedback (with a link to the survey).
- Offer a small amount of extra credit to all students. For example, if at least 80% of students complete the survey, all students get 1 point extra credit.
Responding to student feedback
Once students have spent time providing their feedback, it is important to respond to what they’ve said. You might follow-up by taking five minutes during class and/or sending an email message to discuss:
- Common themes that you saw in the feedback (rather than trying to address all comments)
- Changes you plan to make and, perhaps
- What you cannot or will not change, and why (for example, if half of your students find the pace too fast, and half find it too slow, you can report this back to students to explain why you will keep the current pace)
- Instructors sometimes remember and respond to extreme (often negative) comments. To focus your attention, consider tracking the frequency of different types of comments. Comments that represent less than 10% of respondents’ feedback are unlikely to represent most students’ experience in your course.
- The Office of Instructional Consultation can help you interpret your mid-quarter feedback responses.
Screenshot of Mid-quarter Feedback Survey
