Teaching Tip: Mid-Semester Teaching Surveys
Do you wonder how your students are responding to your course this semester?
Consider administering a formative assessment to gather mid-semester feedback that you can use to improve your teaching while your course is underway. Formative assessment can help you recognize when your students are struggling and enable you to address problems in the middle of the semester.
Many instructors choose to create and administer their own customized surveys, student self-assessments, or feedback forms. These questionnaires can be completed in class or through HuskyCT.
To get you started, the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), in conjunction with OIRE, also offers the option to have a mid-semester survey sent directly to your students. You may find an existing survey here that aligns with what you want to know about your course. Please request here
Unlike end-of-semester student evaluations of teaching, mid-semester surveys are optional, and the results are completely confidential. You can use these formative assessments privately, or you may decide to share takeaways along with the resulting course modifications with your students and teaching mentor. To document your teaching progression in your teaching portfolio, rather than the survey itself, include your intentions and strategies in response to the information gathered.
Results of these surveys can provide you with valuable opportunities for reflection and course improvement, and studies show that when students know that you intend to use the results to improve your course immediately, response rates are typically higher and the students’ critiques are thoughtful.
Email cetl@uconn.edu if you would like to learn more about formative assessment options or arrange for teaching consultations or classroom observations.
For more information, contact: CETL at cetl@uconn.edu