Project Description

Updated for 2022: Mid-term student feedback survey template

By Chris Fulton, Centre for Teaching and Learning Enhancement

  • Improved survey template for instructors on UMMoodle
  • Administer early to allow for meaningful changes
  • Add survey questions to relate to your practices
  • Student feedback can help increase teaching effectiveness scores
  • Mid-term student feedback surveys are voluntary and conducted by an instructor of a course

To help teachers collect valuable student feedback on teaching early in the semester, we have created a new template on UMMoodle that colleagues can use and adapt. The new bilingual template, which was revised with input from CTLE Academic Staff Advisors, should save instructors time as now an online survey can be created with a few clicks.

“Getting feedback from students allows you to gain insight around what’s working and what’s not, and it allows you to adjust your teaching practices, where necessary.”

(Centre for Teaching Excellence, 2021)

The steps for creating a feedback survey in UMMoodle from a template are described below.

  1. On a UMMoodle course site, click “turn editing on”.
  2. Add an activity or resource.
  3. Select the Feedback activity.
  4. Type a relevant name for the activity. Click Save and display.
  5. Click the tab Templates, and select the Mid-Term Student Feedback Survey (EN/TC).
  6. Confirm by selecting “Delete old items”, which will overwrite any existing questions, then Save changes. Your survey has been created.
  7. Add or revise questions under the tab Edit questions. To create open-ended questions, select a longer text answer. For multiple-choice questions, select Multiple choice.
  8. Each choice for a multiple-choice question should be written on a new line.
  9. Preview the survey. Click overview, then ? (Preview).
  10. Consider giving students time to take the survey in class and explaining that their feedback matters and will be used to make changes to the course. Alternatively, a link can be sent as an announcement or in a message.

Lastly, collecting and acting on early term feedback on teaching from students in a course has the potential to improving end of term evaluations of teaching, according to educators and researchers (Donlan & Byrne, 2020; Faculty Innovation Center, 2020). The following select resources provide more information on the importance of collecting student feedback on teaching.

Resources

ACUE. (2019). Using student achievement and feedback to improve your teaching. https://acue.org/courses/modules/using-student-achievement-and-feedback-to-improve-your-teaching

Centre for Teaching Excellence. (2021). Early Engagement Quick Tips (EEQT); Week 5. https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/inclusive-instructional-practices/early-engagement-quick-tips-eeqt

Donlan, A. E., & Byrne, V. L. (2020). Confirming the Factor Structure of a Research-Based Mid-Semester Evaluation of College Teaching. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 38(7), 866–881. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282920903165

Faculty Innovation Center. (2020). Mid-semester feedback. https://facultyinnovate.utexas.edu/mid-semester-feedback

Flodén, J. (2017). The impact of student feedback on teaching in higher education, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 42:7, 1054-1068, DOI: 10.1080/02602938.2016.1224997

Mandouit, L. (2018). Using student feedback to improve teaching, Educational Action Research, 26:5, 755-769, DOI: 10.1080/09650792.2018.1426470