Beyond the SEI: Collecting Student Feedback on Your Teaching
An instructor reflects upon finding surprising negative feedback on their end-of-term SEIs:
“I’ll never forget reading through my SEIs after my first semester teaching. Some comments were positive and some helpful, but quite a few really stung... I had no clue so many students were struggling in my class.
"A colleague reassured me: ‘Don’t let a few bee stings ruin your time in the garden. And, don’t wait till the end of term to find out what they think. Ask the first week. Ask in the middle of the term. You’ll figure out how to meet them where they are.’
“Now I always start collecting feedback early in the course, and there are fewer surprises on my SEIs. I’ve been in touch with students all along about how they’re learning and feeling in my class. Keeping that feedback loop going helps me stay self-aware, adapt to support my students, and expand how I’m thinking about my teaching.”
During your own career, you may wonder if your teaching strategies are effective. How are your course materials and assignments working for students? Do they feel they are learning in your course? Are they inspired to learn more?
Ask your students questions. Record and review their responses. Adjust your teaching as you can.
This guide will explore the value of formative and summative feedback, when and how to collect feedback from students, and how to interpret and respond to that feedback so you can improve your course for all involved.
Summative vs. Formative Feedback
Ohio State requires instructors to obtain student evaluations of teaching for faculty performance reviews, using an assessment tool approved by the department (see the Office of Academic Affair's Policies and Procedures Handbook, section 2.8.1). The university provides the Student Evaluation of Instruction (SEI) for this purpose, though some departments use their own assessment tool instead of or in addition to the SEI. As instructors have no ability to alter the SEI, they may be left with lingering questions about their teaching.
Summative feedback like the SEI is obtained at the end of a course. It reflects a near-finished learning journey. Summative feedback can benefit you by providing insights into how you can improve your future teaching. It can also benefit future students in your course, if you adapt in response to it—but it will not benefit the students who provided the feedback.
Formative feedback, on the other hand, benefits you and your students while you’re in class together. Collected during the term, it offers real-time insight into their experience of your course and teaching. You can receive targeted, actionable suggestions about what is helping or hindering learning for all students—not just the vocal ones—and adapt your course as needed. Integrating opportunities for formative feedback, in addition to summative, enables you to address issues when they matter most to students—during their course experience.
Soliciting feedback from students may benefit them in other ways as well. When learners are invited to share their input early and often, and feel that their concerns are important to you, their motivation and satisfaction in your course may improve. Prompting them to provide feedback on your course also spurs them to self-assess and reflect on their own learning, promoting metacognition.
UX Tip
University Policies and Procedures
Did you know University Faculty Rules [3335-3-35(C)14] stipulate that all students have the opportunity to evaluate your course and teaching, and encourage courses to be reviewed by fellow faculty as well? The following is included among the outlined duties of department chairs and directors of schools:
“To promote improvement of instruction by providing for the evaluation of each course when offered, including written evaluation by students of the course and instructors, and periodic course review by the faculty."
Soliciting feedback early and throughout the term shows students you take their experiences and input seriously. This increases the likelihood they will give meaningful feedback when you ask for it, including at the end of term.
The timing of feedback collection during the term can significantly affect the quality of input you receive. Students need to have had sufficient experience in your class to offer constructive feedback on course materials and your teaching. And you need to have sufficient time left to incorporate changes into your course in response to that feedback.
Consider collecting feedback from students:
After the first week. Soliciting feedback early encourages students to reflect on their initial impressions of the course and your teaching, enabling you to address concerns, clear up misunderstandings, or redirect an approach before too much time has passed. This also sets the tone for a collaborative learning environment between students and the instructor, helping students feel ownership in the ongoing success of the course.
After the first exam or major assignment. Collecting feedback after a major assessment allows students to reflect on their learning experience up to that point. It also allows you to adjust your course content or teaching methods based on student performance on that assessment. Note, however, that student feedback solicited near a major deadline may reflect more upon that assignment (and students’ performance on it) than on your course as a whole (Marx, 2019). If you want to solicit broader information about your teaching and students’ experience in your course, word your questions with this in mind.
At the midterm point. By the middle of the term, students have had ample time to experience your course material and teaching style. They have also had opportunities to reflect upon and assess their own learning. Soliciting feedback at midterm enables you to gather robust and meaningful feedback while you still have some time to make helpful changes to the course to support student learning.
At the end of the term. As noted above, the drawback of summative feedback is that it cannot be integrated into the current course, so it’s ideal to collect feedback at one or more of the above suggested times as well. That said, end-of-term feedback can provide a comprehensive overview of how students experienced your entire course. It allows them to reflect on their learning experience and provide constructive criticism that you can use to improve future offerings of the course.
Articulating Goals and Expectations
Having clear goals for collecting feedback—and communicating them to students—will help you establish realistic expectations, set a positive tone, and foster a culture geared toward continual improvement.
Before you develop surveys or any other kind of evaluation, consider your purpose and process for collecting feedback. Before you administer them, explain that purpose and process to your students.
Articulate your goals. Think about your reasons for gathering student feedback. What do you want to learn? Articulate clear aims that you can communicate to students. When students have a solid understanding of the purpose of the feedback you collect, they will be more likely to provide thoughtful, constructive, and specific responses you can use to improve your course.
Get buy-in. Share why you value students’ feedback, emphasizing that you can use their ideas to improve the course and adapt your teaching. Showing students that you are genuinely interested in their experience—and that you will take steps to address their suggestions and concerns—builds trust and fosters a more positive and collaborative learning environment.
Set clear expectations. What tools and processes will you use to collect feedback?Be open about that process with students, including how feedback will be collected, reviewed and analyzed, and used to improve the course. Let students know you will share formative feedback results as soon as possible after you review and interpret them. Setting these expectations will reduce any confusion or frustration students may feel if they do not see immediate changes to the course to address their concerns.
Encourage ongoing improvement. Acknowledge the role of feedback in ongoing improvement—not just for student learning, but for your teaching as well. Highlight that feedback is not a one-time occurrence, but ideally a continuous loop that supports iterative growth throughout the course. This will foster a culture of continuous improvement, where all are committed to making the learning experience as effective and enjoyable as possible.
We explore best practices for Sharing Feedback Results with Students below.
UX Tip
Shaping a Positive Learning Environment
Establishing a culture of open communication where students are comfortable sharing their thoughts and opinions early on will build trust between peers and with the instructor. Actively listen to students, take their input seriously, and respond to their feedback in a constructive and respectful manner throughout your entire course, not simply when you administer and discuss evaluations.
When building your evaluations, there are a range of possibilities for what you can collect feedback on, and a range of question types you might use. You can find many examples and templates online, but you will likely want to tailor the questions specifically to your course and what you hope to find out about your teaching.
Below we will explore some considerations and recommendations for crafting survey questions.
Anonymity
First, you might want to consider whether the feedback you collect from students will be anonymous. Some pros of anonymity are that students may feel more comfortable sharing raw and honest feedback when there is no fear of retribution. This could potentially offer a more accurate picture of students’ experience in your course.
On the flip side, when students’ names are attached to the feedback they give, they may be more inclined to take the task seriously and provide kind yet constructive input. If you know who provided you with specific feedback, you have the option of following up with them later to discuss their concerns. Finally, it’s worth noting that you cannot have students earn participation points for completing surveys if they are anonymous.
Closed and Open-Ended Questions
Surveys often include closed questions—a prompt followed by a list of possible responses. These can be useful when you are seeking targeted information or have limited time to review responses. If you are teaching a large enrollment class or need to collect brief, at-a-glance feedback, you might develop more closed, quantitative question types, such as multiple-choice.
Open-ended questions, on the other hand, allow students to articulate specific elements of your course that benefit their learning, highlight individualized areas of concern, and offer actionable suggestions for improvements. With open-ended, qualitative questions, you can encourage students to imagine they are speaking directly to you and to include concrete examples from the course.
Weighing the pros and cons? Your evaluations can include a mixture of closed and open-ended questions.
Keep / Start / Stop Questions
The "Keep / Start / Stop" method is a helpful framework for gathering formative feedback on how your teaching strategies, course materials, and learning activities or assignments are working for students. It involves asking them three main types of questions to identify what they think you should keep doing, start doing, or stop doing in the course.
Explore the examples of Keep / Start / Stop questions below.
Keep
“Keep” questions focus on what students think the instructor should continue doing. For example:
What do you think is working well in the course?
What aspects of the course do you enjoy the most?
What teaching methods do you find most effective in helping you learn?
By asking keep questions, you can gain insight into elements of the course that are working well and that students appreciate, which can help reinforce those practices in the future.
Start
“Start” questions focus on what students think you should start doing. For example:
What teaching methods would you like to see more of in the course?
Are there any topics or concepts that you feel have not been adequately covered?
What could I do to better facilitate class discussions?
By asking start questions, you can identify areas where students feel the course can be improved and gather specific suggestions for how to implement those changes.
Stop
“Stop” questions focus on what students think you should stop doing. For example:
Are there any teaching methods that you find ineffective or unhelpful?
Are there any course policies or procedures that you feel are hindering your learning?
Is there anything I do that distracts from the learning experience?
By asking stop questions, you can identify potential barriers to student engagement and learning, and then make changes to the course to address those issues.
Choosing Feedback Tools
Below are a few suggestions of supported tools and processes for gathering formative feedback from students at Ohio State. You can find additional suggestions in "Using feedback to improve teaching" on the Drake Institute website.
Top Hat
Top Hat is a web-based student response system that can be used in a variety of ways, including assessing student understanding of course content, taking attendance, and polling. You can use Top Hat to collect formative feedback during, at the end, or outside of class sessions. This tool is easy to integrate into your course—students can use the join code to respond to Top Hat questions you present during class on their phones or tablets, or you can embed Top Hat activities in your Carmen course.
When you create a new “Question” in Top Hat, you can select from a menu of various question types. These include Multiple Choice, Fill in the Blank, Long Answer, Matching, Sorting, and more. You are also able to set whether or not the responses are anonymous.
Below we explore a few examples of how Top Hat question types could be used to collect student feedback.
Multiple Choice
Use a Multiple Choice question to get an at-a-glance look at how students are feeling about your teaching, or about their learning, in your course. You might survey students about course content, level of difficulty, grading, specific learning activities, and more.
Multiple Choice questions work well when you want students to select a preference from a clear set of options. They also work well with a likert scale (e.g., strongly disagree, disagree, neither agree nor disagree, agree, strongly agree) to help you gauge students’ attitudes about specific elements of your course.
In the example below, the instructor wants to know how well a specific assignment worked for students.
Use a Sorting question to have students rank-order their preferences regarding an element of your course. You might pose questions that will help you decide the course topics and themes, teaching strategies, or learning activities to prioritize moving forward.
Below, an instructor asks students for mid-semester feedback on the course materials that are most helpful to their learning.
Use a Long Answer question to gather open-ended feedback from students about a specific lesson or assignment, or about your course as a whole. In contrast to the at-a-glance results you’d get from the question types above, Top Hat’s Long Answer questions enable paragraph- to essay-length responses. This means you can get more nuanced qualitative feedback from students.
For example, you could create a Long Answer question to collect “minute papers” or “exit slips” at the end of a class session. Exit slip questions can poll students about the content covered or about their experience of specific learning activities that took place during the class session.
Long Answer questions can also be used to survey students more generally about your teaching and how the course is going. Open-ended comments highlight individual students’ concerns more specifically, helping you to identify and tailor improvements to your course around student needs.
The size of your class might dictate how often you can solicit lengthy, open-ended feedback, as it does take time to sift through and make sense of students’ responses. We cover how to review qualitative feedback in the Interpreting Feedback Results section below.
Note that the Click on Target question type in Top Hat is the only one that is not accessible to screen readers. It should be avoided unless you present accessible alternatives.
This example Microsoft Forms survey includes both closed and open-ended questions about how things are going in the first few weeks of a Chemistry course. Access a transcript of this graphic.
Microsoft Forms
Microsoft Forms is a tool in the Microsoft 365 suite of desktop and mobile apps that is available to all faculty, staff, and students at Ohio State. You can create forms to solicit real-time feedback from students, with the freedom to select a theme, vary your question types, and view and share the feedback in visually appealing ways.
Forms is easy-to-use and adapt to your needs. You can build an evaluation form from scratch by selecting the “New Form” button or browse a range of pre-existing templates. All templates can be customized, including changing the question type, question text, and the background and theme. You can allow multiple responses, make responses required, shuffle your questions, and even add branching questions.
The Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID) is a midterm feedback tool that can help any instructor reflect upon and develop their teaching. In contrast to the tools above, which you can use to create and customize your own evaluations, the SGID is an established method administered by an external facilitator—here at Ohio State, SGIDs are facilitated by consultants from the Drake Institute for Teaching and Learning. SGIDs are essentially student focus groups conducted during class time, but with the instructor absent. This enables the collection of written and verbal student feedback that is anonymous, detailed, and actionable so that the consultant can support you in making meaningful changes to your course.
During a SGID, the consultant walks students through a simple but structured interview process. They put your students into small groups and asks them to talk about—and write down—their answers to three questions:
What about the course/instructor is helping you learn?
What about the course/instructor is not helping you learn?
What specific suggestions do you have for improvement?
After the responses are transcribed, the consultant will meet with you to discuss the feedback and identify constructive ways to respond. You will receive a document, printed on Drake Institute letterhead, that provides a short description of the process as well as your transcribed student responses. Though this document is shared only with you, it can be a great source of data to include in your teaching portfolio.
Once you have collected feedback on your teaching, whether formative or summative, you need to set aside time to digest and analyze it.
Interpreting and Responding to Student Evaluations of Teaching, a guide from the University of Georgia’s Center for Teaching and Learning, recommends the following process for reviewing student evaluations of your instruction. While this process is suggested specifically for end-of-term SEIs, it can be applied when processing any other lengthy feedback you solicit, whether at midterm or other times during the semester.
Reflect. Before you look at your student evaluation scores and comments, think about what you are expecting. What went well in your course? What are some areas for growth/development/change?
Read and React. Look at your collected scores and student comments, then allow yourself to have an emotional reaction – good or bad – in response to the data.
Relax. Take a break. Process your emotions and prepare yourself to come back to the data with a fresh, more objective approach.
Revisit. Return to your evaluations and process them with a view to understanding your students’ perceptions and experiences in your class.
Respond. Make decisions about what you will and will not change in your course(s) and your teaching, based on the feedback your students have given you. Make some notes for yourself alongside your course materials, so that you can remember what you would like to incorporate and/or change next time.
Making Sense of Qualitative Feedback
In terms of reviewing qualitative feedback, such as long answers on midterm surveys and SEIs, the University of Georgia Center for Teaching and Learning says, “the goal is to focus on the useful information, and identify trends or theme that appear.” You might also try to understand the alignment between open-ended comments and any quantitative ratings on your evaluation.
Look for patterns across student feedback. Start to organize comments around common themes, and then get a sense of how many students align with each theme. You might encounter areas of agreement and disagreement among students—noting the frequency of shared themes across your class will help you determine where the greatest student needs are.
Pay special attention to actionable suggestions. For example, are several students commenting that the pace of the class is too fast? You might consider integrating more pauses into your teaching or giving students more opportunities to ask questions. If many students say they are struggling to comprehend course material, you might consider providing supplementary readings, study guides, and review exercises or integrating more active learning activities during class time.
Consider what to do with nonactionable feedback. As you sort through student feedback, you may find comments that are vague or unrelated to teaching and learning—put these aside. If some suggestions address things beyond your control that still affect students’ experience, be prepared to acknowledge them so students feel heard. For example, regarding complaints about a drab, windowless classroom, you might consider an appropriate response: "I agree the classroom is ugly and windowless, but unfortunately I have no control over our assigned classroom." If students comment on items you cannot change as the course instructor, such as core topics covered in a required general education curriculum, consider whether there are others who could use that feedback, such as a department head or curriculum chair.
Discard these comments, as they do not contribute to your assessment efforts.
Positive
These comments tell you what (students think) is working in your class. Enjoy these comments and compare the themes with less positive comments. Look for areas of agreement and disagreement among students.
Actionable Suggestions
These comments offer suggestions or shed light on pain points in the class that you can do something about. Look for themes, compare with positive comments, and identify areas of agreement and disagreement among students. Consider the trade-offs associated with making each suggested change (e.g., effort required to make the change and impact on student learning), as well as ways in which you can give students additional information to help them understand why things are set up the way they are.
Nonactionable Suggestions
These comments offer suggestions or shed light on pain points in the class, but are items you cannot address in the context of your course. Sort these comments into themes and consider passing them along to individuals who can make use of the information (e.g., department head and/or curriculum committee; facilities management, etc.).
Sharing Feedback Results
If formative feedback is solicited but never addressed, students will be left wondering why they gave feedback in the first place. Share the results of evaluations as soon as possible after you review and analyze them, especially after collecting robust midterm feedback. Timely discussions show students that you take their input seriously and allow you to speak to issues before they become bigger problems. Even if there are no concerning comments, it’s important to talk through feedback results so students feel heard.
Transparent discussions about feedback enable you to address specific changes you can make to your course, acknowledge the changes you cannot make, and reiterate or clarify your goals for student learning. As you share key takeaways and common themes, students experiences are validated and they can see where their perspectives align with those of their peers. These conversations also send the message that students are active participants in the success of the course. You can underscore the notion of joint responsibility by encouraging students to also reflect upon their own efforts in your class (amount of study time, attendance, participation, and so on).
Once you have had time to sort through and digest feedback, use the steps below to discuss key takeaways with students.
Share positive comments.
Identify things that are working in the course, including strategies, materials, or learning activities that students find effective. Beyond thanking students for the positive feedback, this is a chance to explain the rationale for the choices that you make as a teacher, and to express gratitude that those choices are working for them.
Address negative comments.
Address negative comments. Here it is helpful to categorize themes into things that you can do something about and things you cannot (because they are out of your control or unrelated to teaching). For example, a comment about the time of day that class sessions are scheduled would be worth acknowledging as irritating but beyond your control.
Discuss your response and next steps.
Remind students their feedback is meaningful and will help you make the course better for them, and for future students as well. When discussing specific changes you will incorporate, be sure to articulate what you can accomplish in the current term and what must wait for a future term.
Identify places feedback CAN be incorporated: You may have received valuable actionable suggestions about things you should “keep,” “start,” or “stop” doing in your course. Address feedback on what students found most and least beneficial for their learning and share the specific changes you plan to make for the remainder of the term.
Identify places feedback CANNOT be incorporated: It may not be feasible for you to make every change your students desire. Nonactionable suggestions might include changes that would prevent students from meeting course learning goals and outcomes, result in too heavy an instructional time commitment, or require a course redesign to implement well. Take this opportunity to share your rationale for important aspects of your course design. Call out ways you may be able to act on students’ feedback for future iterations of your course.
Encourage ongoing conversation.
Invite students to seek you out and continue the conversation. They may have further questions about feedback results, additional input to offer, or worries that coming changes to the course will not be effective for them. To ensure students truly feel heard, you must make it clear that you are open to ongoing feedback.
Summary
Collecting feedback from students can help you gain valuable insight into how your teaching strategies, course materials, and assignments are working for them.
Go beyond the SEI. It is best to collect formative feedback from your studentsearly and throughout the semester (in addition to your end-of-term SEI). While summative feedback will only benefit future students, formative feedback provides real-time insight from current students so you can address issues and adapt your teaching when it matters most—during their course experience.
Decide when to collect feedback. Consider collecting feedback after the first week, after the first major exam or assignment, and/or at the midterm point, in addition to the end of the term.
Articulate goals and expectations. Identify and communicate your goals for collecting feedback. To get student buy-in, be sure to explain both your purpose and process for feedback collection so they know what to expect.
Decide what to ask. There are a number of considerations and options when drafting feedback questions. Will your survey be anonymous? Will you use closed or open-ended questions (or both)? The Keep / Start / Stop method is one helpful framework you can use to formulate questions.
Choose feedback tools. A range of tools and services for collecting feedback are supported at Ohio State. You might create questions in Top Hat or Microsoft Forms. The Small-Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID),facilitated by Drake Institute consultants, is a good approach to collecting robust midterm feedback.
Review feedback. Take ample time to digest and analyze the feedback you collect, whether quantitative or qualitative. Look for patterns and trends, note actionable suggestions, and consider how to respond to nonactionable suggestions.
Respond to feedback. Share the results of any formative feedback you collect with students in a timely manner. Highlight both positive and negative comments, discuss the steps you will take or changes you will make in response to concerns, and encourage ongoing conversation.
Encouraging an ongoing feedback loop throughout your course will foster a culture of continuous improvement—for your students and for yourself. The feedback you collect can inform meaningful improvements to your course, open doors to new teaching strategies, and help you shape a more supportive and positive learning environment.
