By design, end-of-semester evaluations are intended to give you insight into your students’ experience with the course. It is important to consider: What are the questions that only students can answer? How can they be framed in ways that they solicit concrete, constructive, nuanced feedback? As you write the questions, consider:

1. Less is more: 3-8 questions will be enough depending on the number already in the evaluation.

2. Prioritize: What is most helpful for you to know at this point? What will help inform your teaching?

3. Use “short answer” questions sparingly: While they often give you the most valuable insights, too many will be overwhelming for students (and you).

4. Make it about learning not liking: Phrase the questions accordingly.

5. When using Likert-scale questions, make the values and order consistent.

Strategies for reading evaluations vary considerably. One strategy involves going through all the student responses in one sitting and then rereading them a week or so later, allowing you time to process the feedback and see the comments more objectively. It can be hard to overcome those few negative, and often contradictory comments—one student said they loved the course, while another hated it. Try not to focus on overly critical comments. Instead, home in on the trends; that is where opportunities for improvement can be found.

To motivate students to complete end-of-course evaluations and to provide useful feedback through those evaluations, the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching recommends instructors talk with their students about the importance of course evaluations and how those evaluations are used.

• Designate time in class for students to complete evaluations, and let your students know why and when. (See below for more on this advice.)

• Tell your students that you value their honest and constructive feedback, and that you use student feedback to make improvements to your courses. If possible, share examples of how you have changed your courses as a result of student feedback.

• Let your students know that you are interested in both positive and negative feedback on the course. What aspects of the course and/or instruction helped them learn? What aspects might be changed to help future students learn more effectively?

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[T]he study finds that factors including an instructor’s gender, race, ethnicity, accent, sexual orientation or disability status affect impact student ratings. Compared to women, male instructors are perceived as more accurate in their teaching, more educated, less sexist, more enthusiastic, competent, organized, easier to understand, prompt in providing feedback, and they are less penalized for being tough graders, according to the study.