Student evaluation by use of questionare

Final evaluation

Using questionnaires for a final evaluation is best suited when the students have completed, or are at the end of, a course. Then the students have enough experience to have opinions on the entire study situation. When it comes to the use of questionnaires to evaluate study programs, it is suitable for students at the end of the second year of study, or at the end of the programme.

Interim evaluation

Using questionnaires for an interim evaluation is best suited midway through the course, at a time when the students have had some time to gain some experience. At the same time, there should be enough time left of the course to follow up on the results and make adjustments so that the students experience the results of the evaluations.

The structure of the questionnaire 

The questionnaire should have one or more sections with questions that are kept stable over time, so that the survey results can be compared from year to year and give the opportunity to demonstrate progress or decline in quality. The questionnaire can contain both boxes to tick on a scale of 1-6, 1-10, or the values small degree, major degree, neither or, etc. It is recommended that the number of questions in the questionnaire is kept to a minimum.

Formulating questions and response alternatives

The person with course responsibility designs the questionnaire according to what they see the need measure in regard to quality of the teaching. You may want to think about whether some questions should be repeated each year so that the answers can be followed over time. The questionnaire can consist of a section with boxes to tick, or a section with open-ended questions, or both.

Good questions and response alternatives are the key to a good questionnaire. Start by mapping and prioritizing what areas you want the students to give feedback on, which you can do in collaboration with the students themselves. Then draft a set of questions that cover these areas. Here are a number of tips and recommendations for how to formulate good questions and response alternatives.

1. Avoid including questions only because something “would it be nice to know”. Only ask about conditions that provide information that serves an intent.
2. Formulate questions that only ask about one thing at the time. For example: “To what extent do you think the lecturer was able to create engagement and discussion in the classroom?” Alternatively: “To what extent do you do you think the lecturer was able to create engagement”.
3. Avoid leading and very loaded questions. Remember that the order of the questions can also be leading. 
4. Vary between simple questions (for example background variables like gender and age) statements (agree/disagree) and assessments (large degree/small degree, important/unimportant, satisfied/dissatisfied). When using statements and assessments think carefully about the use of positive and negative wording respectively.
5. It will often be beneficial to avoid too many questions without response alternatives, i.e., open-ended questions. It requires more effort for the students to formulate their own answers, than it does to pick a response alternative. In many cases it will be more difficult to make predefined response categories, but it can just as often be worth the extra effort to get any feedback at all. In many cases, however, it is more natural not to pre-define response categories, such as: “Do you have specific suggestions for how teaching can be improved?” 
6. Make sure to create response alternatives that are perceived as meaningful to all the students included in the evaluation. It can create unnecessary dissatisfaction if they do not recognize themselves in the predefined categories. It is therefore recommended that the survey, or at least parts of it, be designed in collaboration with the students/student representative.
7. The response alternatives should as far as possible be mutually exclusive. If this is not possible the students should be given the option to tick several boxes – which needs to be specified in the question. For example: “What study methods do you usually use when outside organised teaching? Tick multiple boxes if several answers apply”. 
8. Strive for a logical structure in the questionnaire. It is usually a good idea to group the different questions by theme. For example: Background information, Information, The teaching, study habits. If the questionnaire contains many questions you may consider making the questionnaire accessible and more orderly with the help of headings. Excessive use of questions such as “If you answered no to the previous question, please state why you chose not to participate in these lectures”, can make the form appear complicated. Also put some effort into layout and proofreading. A cluttered and unpolished form is often not taken seriously making the validity suffer and resulting in low response rate. Additionally, one should be aware that the answers given to one question often can be affected by the previous question, so that the order of the questions in many cases have an impact.
9. It can be a good idea to test the questions on an outsider and ask for feedback before sending it out. It is often difficult to see that a term can have several meanings or that there are missing response alternatives or the like. The University of Idaho have made a list of “menu items”, i.e., not direct suggestions for questions, but themes the questions in a student evaluation can be about.

A central common section

Through the measurements of the quality indicators in the quality system, the academic affairs committee can in certain instances place orders on questions that are to be included in student evaluations. If so, these orders will come in an annual template for programme reports. The academic administration can also initiate their own surveys based on the quality indicators.