We have been hearing some chatter from both students and faculty on the benefits of collecting feedback students in the middle of the term. Students appreciate the opportunity to give faculty feedback on how the course is going, and faculty appreciate the opportunity to get this feedback while there is still time to adjust! The Morgan Center has some great resources on the research outlining these benefits as well as some tips for creating and using an instrument for your needs.
So now you’ve decided that you’re on board and would like to administer a mid-term course evaluation. What is the best way for you to collect this feedback? Here are some tools that you might consider:
1. Paper. The Morgan Center’s site includes MS Word documents that you can download, modify and print for in-class surveys.
2. myWPI Surveys: Jes has posted about the myWPI Quiz Tool, which is fantastic for student assessment. The Survey Tool, on the other hand, allows students to submit feedback anonymously. You as the instructor are not able to link individual responses with students enrolled in your course. You can use the same question types that you have access to in the Quiz tool, which allows for both multiple choice and open-ended responses. It’s a great option!
3. SurveyMonkey: Even though the myWPI Survey tool is not linked with students, occasionally faculty want to use a third-party tool so that students feel more secure in their anonymity. SurveyMonkey can be great for this purpose! Just be aware that you can only collect 100 responses with their free account, and they cannot be downloaded unless you upgrade.
4. Google Forms: Maybe the easiest survey tool of them all, Google Drive’s Form option creates one link for you to send your students and a spreadsheet for you to view your aggregated feedback. It doesn’t have a ton of options (question branching, etc) but the trade-off in time for setup may be worth it!
3. Clickers: Many faculty are using Student Response Systems in their classes, collecting student input on content-based questions. Clickers can be great for mid-term course feedback as well! When you ask for this type of feedback while your students are still in class, your response rate typically goes way up. If you have questions about asking Clicker questions anonymously, let me know.