From Authoring Questions to Interpreting Results

Course evaluations present an opportunity to get students’ feedback and solicit their suggestions for further developing your course. However, you need questions that give you good data. The following resources offer guidance for authoring course-specific questions that you can deploy in paper form or through any survey tool, like UVA Qualtrics. Remember that responses to questions you collect this way are visible to you only; you can solicit student input without fear that it will negatively impact your performance review.

1. Review your course goals and objectives and decide what you would like to find out from your students, including their thoughts on:

   • how well they think they achieved those goals

   • the value of particular teaching methods for their perceived success

   • other aspects of your design that you’d like feedback on ideas for future improvement

2. Avoid duplication by reviewing the standard UVA evaluation questions (Go to the FAQs About SETs section, For Instructors, and then What questions will be included in this term's course evaluations?.)

We recommend that you include questions about inclusiveness of the learning environment to gauge what works and doesn’t work for your students with different experiences, backgrounds, and identities. We suggest two possibilities below. Again, the answers to questions you add, including these, are visible to only you and will give you valuable information you can use to make changes if necessary.

• The instructor created an environment that respects differences and diverse perspectives and makes all students feel welcome. [Likert: strongly agree, agree, somewhat disagree, disagree, strongly disagree]

• Please use this space if you would like to make any specific comments about the environment created by the instructor with respect to inclusivity and respect for diversity. [short answer]

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 a way 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.

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

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

For information about when and how to add your questions to UVACollab, see these FAQs. Please note that the deadline for adding questions is typically posted in the site's announcements section each semester.

For inspiration:

• UC Berkeley’s Course Evaluation Question Bank

• Faculty Focus: A New Twist on End-of-Semester Evaluations

Here are steps for maximizing response rates and inviting students to offer constructive feedback:

1. Tell your students that you will make time in class for them to fill out the evaluations.

2. Ask them bring their computer to the last class.

3. Dedicate 15-20 minutes of your class time for them to complete the evaluations.

4. Tell them that you really care about their feedback and will use it to improve the course.

5. Leave the classroom and ask someone to get you when everyone is finished.

Sifting through the noise inherent in student perception data is not always easy, especially since we’re somewhat hardwired to focus (and dwell) on negative comments and lower-than-expected numbers. The following questions can help you overcome your initial reaction to your student evaluation data and uncover the trends that point to meaningful course improvements.

• Ask yourself: What is surprising? What did you already know?

• Look for patterns: What are the themes that emerge across different responses?

• Make choices: What constructive suggestions seem appealing to you?

• Don’t get upset by the few offensive comments from disgruntled students – they happen.

While student perception data can be meaningful and ultimately useful in improving your instruction and future iterations of the course, care must be taken to determine the significance and validity of the data. Here are some general principles and guidelines to help you get the most out of the numerical data and written comments reported on evaluations.

• The numbers (PDF)

• The written comments (PDF)