Posted 9:33 p.m. Monday, Oct. 16, 2023
The why and how
By Marjorie Bazluki, Senior Instructional Designer in CATL
We are close to the mid-semester mark and although students provide summative insight on their learning experience in their end-of-semester course surveys, seeking mid-semester feedback from students can provide important information that is well documented to positively impact learning outcomes at the end of the semester. Unlike the feedback on final course surveys, collecting mid-semester student feedback not only allows you to build upon the strengths of your course and address potential areas for improvement but reminds the students that you are interested in what and how they are learning.
Gathering mid-semester feedback provides an opportunity to gather structured feedback from your students regarding the design and delivery of a class. The feedback should attempt to address what is going well in the course, what may need improvement, what changes would benefit student learning, and identify what is happening now that could impact end of course learning.
The key is to do it early enough to make sure the feedback is useful for you and the students. One simple approach is to ask students these questions:
- What components of this course are most helpful for your learning?
- What components of this course hinder your learning?
- What suggestions do you have for improving the format of this course for this semester or for future students?
- What are you doing in the course that’s helping you to be successful?
- What could you start doing that might help you to be more successful?
After you receive the feedback, make time to process it, respond, and stick to your plan. Acknowledging your students’ feedback and making changes when necessary are two key factors in making mid-course evaluations impactful for your students.
A Mid-Semester Survey You Can Use
If you are interested in collecting feedback from your students at mid-semester, CATL created a survey you can easily import into your Canvas course. Simply search Canvas Commons for “University of Wisconsin La Crosse Sample Mid-Semester Feedback” then select Import/Download, selected the class/es where you want the survey. This mid-semester survey uses the quiz feature in Canvas and can be set for an ungraded survey. Note: Canvas surveys are not anonymous.
The survey has been updated to include the questions above plus some Likert scale questions that align with the facets of effective teaching that are asked about in the upcoming Learning Environment Survey (LENS). Collecting mid-semester feedback that aligns with the end-of-semester LENS instrument may help you gather valuable insights for reflection and improvement purposes.