Getting feedback from your students throughout the semester provides you multiple checks on the student experience and helps you determine how to adjust your course to better meet their needs. A two-way communication about what is and is not working can help you connect with your students and create a positive classroom climate. Students feel respected when their instructor cares about their learning.

What is useful to know?

You might ask students to reflect on the structure or content of the course, learning activities, assignments, or strategies to improve their experience. Maybe you are trying something new and want to know if it is working. Or perhaps you have a huge course enrollment or are teaching remotely and do not have much opportunity for interaction. Some questions you might ask:

1. 1. What are three things you have learned in the class so far? What is one thing you have you learned in class that you did not expect to learn?
   2. What is something you want to learn that is not on the syllabus?
   3. In what ways has this course helped you learn? What would help you learn better?
   4. What have you done so far that has helped you learn? What could you do differently for the rest of the term that will help you learn better?
   5. What seems challenging about completing the work for this class?
   6. What worries you about this class? What might help you feel more confident?
   7. What questions do you have about the course that I can answer for you and other students?

What are some ways to get midcourse feedback?

• • Ask students to respond to an anonymous survey. Google Forms is quick, user-friendly, and free to use for collecting responses from students.
  • Create an ungraded survey using the Quizzes tool in Canvas.
  • If you are using Zoom, use the Zoom Poll feature. You can post simple questions with multiple choice responses. Zoom offers several options for engaging students in addition to the Polling feature.
  • Hold small group discussions. Create a set of questions and ask students to choose a scribe who will take notes on the discussion and share them with you. You could also set up an asynchronous discussion using the Discussions tool in Canvas.
  • If it is difficult to get students to provide feedback, you can ask your graduate teaching assistant or learning assistants to share information that they get from students, or ask them to host a feedback session.

Learn teaching strategies from your students!

Students are one of your best sources of information about innovative teaching. They pick up effective strategies from their other instructors and can pass them on. Ask what has worked for them in the past, or something they have liked in other courses.