Mid-Semester Student Feedback Sessions

Are you looking for a way to gather meaningful, constructive feedback from your students?  Do you want to know more about specific aspects of student learning, about a new teaching method or approach, or just how the course is going overall?

Mid-semester is a great time to learn how students are experiencing your course.

A Mid-Semester Student Feedback Session (also called Small-Group Instructional Diagnosis or Student Feedback through Consensus) is a process that has been refined over many years to collect detailed feedback from students in a short amount of time. Students are guided through a semi-structured process to discuss the course’s strengths and make suggestions for improvement using forms and small groups. These sessions are best conducted early/mid-way through a course so that students have enough time to experience the course and instructors have enough time to make use of the feedback.

The student feedback sessions described here are designed for live (in-person or synchronous) class sessions. If your course is offered asynchronously, or you want additional ideas for gathering student feedback, please visit these helpful sites.

• Soliciting and using mid-semester student feedback

• Sample questions for mid-semester surveys

“The students truly appreciated being heard and feeling valued. The process was super professional, clear, and directly tied to improving short and long-term instruction. Highly recommend!”

• Justin M. De Senso, Department of English

“I am really satisfied with the process and plan on using it again. It is great to have mid-point feedback and changes were highlighted in my teaching evals as an improvement to the class. The feedback was practical and immediately applicable to my class and improved the students’ perception of the class.”

• Maria Alejandra Quijada, Management Department

“This is a great chance to collect anonymous feedback. This felt so much more timely and useful than the end of term feedback I receive or alternate methods that aren’t anonymous. It’s a great tool to get a one-time pulse of how students perceive the class and places it can be strengthened.”

• G. Hayden Swisher, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

“It was validating to receive the feedback on strengths in the class and how I can take action on the areas for improvement. More faculty should take advantage of this service.”

• Mark Yoss, Advanced Manufacturing Sciences Institute