Early and Mid-Semeseter Student Feedback

A Start-Stop-Keep (or Continue) assignment is a valuable tool for gathering student feedback. It can also be adapted to be a brief out-of-class assignment. For example, six weeks into the semester, former CTE fellow Brad Osborn (Music) asks his students to respond to the following prompts on a 3 x 5 index card: 

• What is one thing that we are not currently doing in this course that you would like us to START doing?
• What is one thing we are doing in this course that you’d like us to STOP doing?
• What is one thing in this course that you appreciate and would like us to CONTINUE?  

The minute paper is a brief, anonymous feedback instrument you can use more than once during the semester. At the end of a class, ask these two questions: “What is the most important thing you learned today in this class?” and “What important question remains unanswered?” Then, allow students 5-10 minutes to respond to those questions in writing.

Vibe Checks are silly questions that have nothing to do with the class (e.g., if you could have any superpower what would it be? More examples shared below) and Free-for-Alls give students 5 minutes to discuss anything that is on their mind before the formal class period begins.

The key to making Vibe Checks work depends on 

1. you going first and modeling for students how you’d respond to the question
2. your ability to quickly make connections with your students before moving on to the next volunteer. If you ask, for example, “What’s a food you hated as a kid but enjoy now” and a student says, “Peas,” you should respond with your own thoughts about peas: “Oh, yes! I hated peas as a kid, too! I still hate them! The texture is just wrong!”

Here is a sample of the Vibe Check question bank Sarah uses in class:

• Why you mad, tho? (This is a prompt that gives students a chance to complain about something that’s bothering them)

• If you knew you were going to be reincarnated and got to choose what you come back as, what would you choose to be?

• What’s bringing you joy?

• What’s one thing you’re really enjoying about college?

• What’s something that’s challenging about college?

• What song do you currently have on repeat?

In addition to Vibe Checks, Ngoh sometimes uses “Free for Alls.”

"Free For Alls happen when I give students space to discuss whatever it is that’s on their mind for the first 5 minutes of class. It’s a good opportunity for students to relieve some stress before jumping into class materials."

These conversations focus on how the course structure, pace, and activities are working for students. Example prompts include:

• How do you feel about how we’ve been doing things so far this semester?
• Is there anything we aren’t doing that you wish we would? 

These discussions can be led by the instructor for immediate dialogue and trust-building, or by an external facilitator (colleague, GTA, student partner, or department visitor) or as a Focus Group when anonymity is preferred or classroom tensions exist. Instructor-led discussions allow for real-time clarification and follow-up questions, while externally facilitated sessions often generate more candid feedback and broader perspectives. Both approaches can provide richer insights than written feedback alone and help instructors make timely course adjustments

Note that any of these could be turned into multiple choice questions if you have specific course components you would like them to respond to. We recommend you keep the survey short, so choose a few questions from below that best get at what you'd like to learn from your students. At a minimum, we recommend you include a question about what is going well, and a question about what could be improved.

Overall Course Experience

• What aspects of this course are working well for you so far?
• What aspects of this course have been most helpful to your learning?
• What aspects of this course could be improved? OR If you could change one thing about how this course is structured or delivered, what would that be?
• How would you rate the pace of this course- too fast, too slow, just right? (this could be multiple choice)
• Are there any barriers that are making it difficult for you to fully engage with (or succeed in) this course? If so, explain.

Resources and Materials

• How would you rate the amount of reading (or pre-class work) in this course- too much, too little, just right (could be multiple choice)
• How useful have the assigned readings/videos/other materials been for your learning?

Engagement and Participation

• How comfortable do you feel participating in class discussions or activities?
• What motivates you most to engage with the course material?

Learning (these items also ask students to reflect on their learning)

• Are there any concepts you're still struggling with that you'd like us to revisit?
• What are you most looking forward to learning in the remainder of the course?
• How confident do you feel about achieving the course learning objectives?
• How clear are the instructions, assignments, and assessments in showing what you are expected to learn?
• Which course learning goals do you feel you understand well, and which ones are unclear or confusing to you?
• How often do you refer to the syllabus to guide your learning? What would make it more useful to you?
• What strategies are you using to make sure you learn all the important topics in this course? What support would help you do this better?

Resources:

***Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., & Norman, M. K. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. John Wiley & Sons.

***Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE bulletin, 3, 7.

Ravi Shanmugam in business has had considerable success with this approach. Multiple times a semester he gives students time in class to fill out a brief survey about such things as engagement in the class, use of course material, and effectiveness of class activities. He has also experimented with an approach of asking smaller groups of students to provide more substantial feedback, rotating this among all students during a semester. The frequent student feedback has allowed him to tweak elements of a class or to revisit material students were unsure of.

Here’s an example from Doug Ward (journalism and mass communications), that asks students to set learning goals early in the semester and then reflect on their progress towards those goals in the middle of the semester and end of the semester.

Ward starts by having students set learning goals early in the semester. He talks with students about course learning goals in the first week, explaining that individuals come to the class with different backgrounds and different aspirations. Reflecting on their goals and their learning can help them better understand what they need to accomplish in the class but also what they need to accomplish later on in college and in their careers. Students reflect on their learning goals at midterm and at the end of the semester. Combined, the three assignments (setting goals and reflecting at midterm and at the end of a course) usually count for 10% of the course grade. Students get full credit for each reflection unless it is clear they put in little or no effort. Here’s an excerpt from a syllabus explaining the work to students.

Learning goals

Create your learning goals in a separate electronic journal entry. Your learning goals should contain a reflection on why you are taking the course and what you hope to gain from it. Here’s a format you can follow to help you get started. This isn’t a required format. Rather, it is intended to give you a sense of some things that lead to good learning goals.

• Start with your interests. What facets of the major are you most interested in? What would you like to learn more about?
• Discuss your strengths and weaknesses in relation to those goals. What areas are you most comfortable with? What areas you need to work in and why?
• Consider what you would like to learn from this class. How might this class help you bolster your strengths and shore up your weaknesses? What class topics are you most interested in? What topics would you like to pursue beyond those listed?
• Create a rough plan. How will achieve your learning goals? How will your individual project fit into that? How will you prepare yourself to learn?

Midterm reflection

This is due in the week before spring break (or fall break). Revisit the learning goals you set at the beginning of class. Then reflect on your goals, your work in the class, and the structure of the class. Here’s a general format, but you are free to add anything you think is important.

• Are your original learning goals still valid? Do you need to revise any of them? Why or why not?
• Explain how you worked toward those goals.Where have you succeeded?  Where could you have done better?
• What aspects of the course have been most helpful in your learning?
• What aspects of the course could be improved in the final weeks of the semester?

This is an extra set of questions that accompanies an exam and asks them to reflect on their preparation and learning. It often asks students how they studied for the exam, how much time they spent preparing for the exam, and how confident they are about doing well on the exam. This approach can help instructors gather feedback about student study habits, allowing them to help students prepare more effectively for future exams. It also helps students recognize how much they have (or haven’t) prepared for an exam.

Like exam wrappers, assignment reflections often ask students to think about how they went about preparing and creating an assignment. 

• Laura Kirk in theatre and dance uses a modified version of this approach, asking students to reflect weekly on their work and on learning goals in her classes. She usually has five short questions and gives students the option of leaving video feedback through Canvas. This approach has the added benefit of allowing her to get to know students better. She provides feedback on each response, redirecting students if needed or helping them catch up on concepts they may have missed.
• Andrea Follmer Greenhoot (CTE and Psychology) uses reflection assignments after students have received grades and feedback on a key assignments, as a way of prompting students to review the feedback they have received and use it to inform their approach to the next assignment. Questions include:
  • Approximately how much time did you spend working on the assignment?
  • What percentage of your time spent on the assignment involved the following (provide list of activities relevant for the course, such as  reading the textbook, reviewing class notes, revising your response, and students rate time on each)?
  • Look over your graded assignment, including any feedback provided by the instructor. Which aspects of the assignment do you feel were strengths for you, and which are areas in which you could improve? (this can be open ended or could provide a list of the assignment dimensions with the ability to rate each one)
  • Based on your responses to the questions above, are there things you will do differently for the next assignment (e.g., participate more in the team activities, review the book more carefully, sharpen your skill in using research to support your points)?