When you collect useful student feedback on online courses, you can confidently assess and improve the effectiveness of your e-learning programs. However, you need the right type of feedback. Too often, feedback tools elicit useless information because they ask the wrong questions. Good feedback gives you the data you need to improve courses yourself and to make a case for hiring professional instructional designers to develop courses. You can also determine if your existing instructors and learning technology are up to par. You also learn more about your learners and their challenges, preferences, and needs. By repeatedly asking for their perspective, you demonstrate your learner-centric mission: to deliver education that makes a difference in their lives and helps them achieve their career goals.
Don’t wait until the end of a course to send out evaluations—you’ll miss a huge opportunity to improve the course and deepen relationships with students. Also, by the time the course ends, some students will be eager to put it behind them and won’t complete the evaluation. Or, they won’t remember issues that came up earlier in the course. Some students won’t provide feedback because, in their experience, feedback is always ignored. Let students know how seriously your association takes feedback and how you might use it to improve the course. Emphasize the importance of constructive criticism so “people-pleasers” in the group don’t automatically gush about everything or try to “kiss up to” the instructor.
Let students know they’ll have opportunities to voice their opinion throughout the course. At the start, instructors should ask their new group of students these questions:
Give students the opportunity to attach their name to the questionnaire if they want the instructor to follow up with them individually.
Quizzes are an opportunity to assess student progress and, therefore, course effectiveness. You can see if anyone is falling behind and, together, develop a plan to get them back on track. Or, if a majority of students do poorly in a specific area, then you know information isn’t sticking. Halfway through the course, ask students to complete a feedback form or survey that contains a mix of open-ended and multiple choice questions. Use a tool that provides anonymity so students can be frank. Also give students the opportunity to provide feedback directly to the instructor. Questions could include:
York University suggests asking students what they would like the instructor to start, continue, and stop doing. Let students know their feedback is reviewed and acted upon if appropriate. Address common themes in the online discussion forum or in a short video. Talk about what can and cannot be changed now, and how the rest of the actionable information will be used.
Instructors should post a schedule of “office hours” when they’ll be available via phone or web chat to talk to students about course content or challenges. Students could be required to meet once or twice with the instructor during the course, if the number of students makes that viable. During these conversations, instructors have the opportunity to learn more about student needs, provide feedback to students, and elicit feedback from them.
Northeastern University encourages instructors to recruit a Student Feedback Team (SFT): “a group of three to five volunteer students who regularly meet and work collaboratively with their instructor to improve the learning community within a course.” Northeastern recommends that volunteers meet as a team every two weeks with the instructor joining them for every other meeting. “The SFT process provides a continuous feedback loop that is more interactive than the one-way process of end-of-course evaluations.” Consider giving the SFT a deep discount on another educational program if they dedicate many hours to this duty.
In some associations, the same evaluations have been used year after year. What do these evaluations teach you about course effectiveness? Do you ask the right questions? Can you apply what you learn? If you don’t already know of Dr. Will Thalheimer, you'll be glad to "meet" him. He’s the author of Performance-Focused Smile Sheets: A Radical Rethinking of a Dangerous Art Form. The “dangerous art form” is the traditional post-course evaluation (or smile sheet) which falls short, according to Thalheimer, because
Most importantly, you’re not finding out if the course prepared students to apply what they learned to their work. Thalheimer suggests better questions to ask:
On his website, he also suggests answer options for each of these questions. Consider giving students these evaluation questions at the beginning of the course so they are reminded throughout about their goal—to learn and apply new knowledge at work. If they know what you’re interesting in learning, they’re more likely to provide thoughtful and accurate feedback.
After the course, talk with students individually or in a group. Select students who represent the diversity of students in the course, for example, a mix of career stage or age, types of positions, or association engagement. Provide discussion guidelines ahead of time so they think about their experience before the meeting. Let individuals decide if they want to talk on the phone or online, and if they prefer audio only or video too.
When a course ends, students intend to apply what they’ve learned but do they? Does the learning stick? You’ll never know until you ask. Let students know they will be contacted several weeks or months from now to complete a critical evaluation in which you ask questions like:
Besides learning how to improve course design and delivery, post-course evaluations also help you collect testimonials for online course marketing. Student feedback on online courses is a powerful program asset but only if you ask the right questions at the right time.
Would you like to learn how to put this into action in your LMS? Request a demo from one of our experts, and we will show you how to get useful student feedback using TopClass LMS.