The End of Semester Course Evaluation Requirement
Gathering Feedback from Students
Example forms, suggested questions, and guidelines for course evaluations from University Academic Policy Committee – Course Evaluation (PDF) Subcommittee are included in this resource page.
Questions Not to Ask
- Rate the overall effectiveness of teacher/course.
- What did you like/dislike about the instructor?
- Questions that ask the respondent to compare the course/instructor to other courses/instructors. Research (PDF) shows that women faculty members would be unduly penalized by the inclusion of questions like those above compared to their male counterparts.
Any question (or set of questions) that would jeopardize a student’s anonymity.
- Faculty members may ask for demographic information (e.g. FR, SO, JR, SR status), as long as it does not allow for the possible identification of a student. Faculty members need to be especially aware of this when the number of students in a class is small.
Questions to Ask
Priming Questions: Questions that elicit students’ assessment of their own efforts in the course.
- My own efforts in the course have resulted in greater knowledge of the subject matter (Agree/Disagree scale)
- My own efforts in the course matched or exceeded the professor’s expectation. (Agree/Disagree scale)
- I was well-prepared for class, having met daily reading and other assignment deadlines. (Frequency Scale)
- I participated actively in class. (Frequency Scale)
Additional Questions:
1. Student Information Questions:
- Is this course required for your program? Yes/No
- What grade do you expect for the course? (Grade Scale)
2. Instructor Experience Questions: The subcommittee identified six effective teaching practices that should be practiced by all instructors, regardless of their discipline. Course evaluation forms should have at least one question that elicits student feedback for each practice listed below. The form of the questions is at the faculty member’s discretion.
- Effective Teaching Practice #1: Clearly Articulated Expectations, Goals, Learning Outcomes, and Course Requirements
- Effective Teaching Practice #2: Meaningful & Timely Feedback to Students
- Effective Teaching Practice #3: Students Are Actively Engaged in the Learning Process
- Effective Teaching Practice #4: Promotes a classroom environment of mutual respect
- Effective Teaching Practice #5: Encourages contact between students and faculty
- Effective Teaching Practice #6: Class sessions are well-organized
Faculty members are free to add questions that provide feedback on other aspects of their courses, as long as they are not on the list of questions not to ask.
Sample forms
The following sample forms are available as Word documents (for modifying or customizing). These forms are not meant to be prescriptive.