At a Glance
In this guide for faculty and teaching teams, you’ll learn about technology tools you can use to collect student feedback. A well-designed poll or survey can help you collect feedback and get to better teaching and learning outcomes.
Student feedback can help you make your teaching more engaging (Faust & Paulson, 1998) and more timely (Gormally et al., 2014). Students are often happy to share their thoughts, especially when they can provide feedback anonymously (Jasieński, 2014). When you ask students to share their perspective, you empower them to be active participants in their own learning. Feedback can also help you shape your course in real-time to better suit your students’ needs (Laici & Pentucci, 2019). Consider collecting student feedback at regular intervals throughout the term.
Tools to Collect Student Feedback
Sloan Technology Services recommends these tools for collecting student feedback:
Deliver a poll during a class session or between classes using Poll Everywhere. There are various question types to choose from including open-ended Q&As, multiple choice, and word clouds. Fun fact: Poll Everywhere was co-founded by a Sloan student (now alum). Learn how to create a poll in Poll Everywhere.
References
Faust, J. L., & Paulson, D. R. (1998). Active learning in the college classroom. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 9(2), 3–24. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ595306
Gormally, C., Evans, M., & Brickman, P. (2014). Feedback about teaching in Higher Ed: Neglected opportunities to promote change. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 13(2), 187–199. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.13-12-0235
Laici, C., & Pentucci, M. (n.d.). Feedback with technologies in higher education: a systematic review. Form@Re, 19(3), 6–25. https://doi.org/10.13128/form-7698
Jasieński, M. (2014). Features of an e-learning environment which promote critical and creative thinking: Choice, feedback, anonymity, and assessment. International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning, 24(3/4), 237–251. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijceell.2014.063097
