Providing helpful course feedback

As courses approach their ends, students have an opportunity to share their learning experiences with their instructors. Even if you may not benefit directly from your own feedback, this is a great way to help those who will follow in your footsteps.

Most courses use our main feedback system, SLEQ, which is typically open for submissions the last couple weeks of each Fall and Winter term (1 week in Spring and Summer). Links to each and more information about them can be found in the Course Feedback PAWS channel. If your course does not use these systems, ask your instructor for more information about how feedback will be collected in your course.

The most helpful comments are ones that make observations, and then explain how those observations impacted your learning experience. When comments are too general, they are inherently less helpful. When comments are too emotionally charged, the key messages can be lost in the emotion.

In SLEQ, comments are shared directly with instructors. Just as you likely appreciate respectful, thoughtful feedback on your assignments, so too will your instructors.

In this example situation, let’s say you struggled to grasp the theories at the beginning of your course, but the final assignment helped you understand those theories and how they apply to later content.

Less Helpful Comment: The beginning of this course was way too hard! I got it by the end, but it felt like it was already too late.

The less helpful comment leaves us a few unanswered questions. What part of the beginning was challenging? Why? In what way? What changed toward the end of the course?

Helpful Comment: The first couple theories we looked at in this course felt quite abstract to me, so I had difficulties understanding them. Without this basic understanding, it was tough to understand the more complex content later. Fortunately, the final project filled this gap for me, as it naturally led me through situations where I could see those early theories in action.

Here’s what made the helpful comment better:

• Specificity: I point directly to the abstract nature of the theories and the final assessment as the key aspects of the course that impacted my learning experience.
• Explains why: To the best of my ability, I shared how I thought those aspects of the course contributed to my experience as a learner, either positively or negatively.

If you are not sure what to comment on, these questions are intended to get you thinking about different aspects of the course:

• Did the course feel like it matched its description? Did you learn what you expected to learn?
• How was the pace of the course? Were there points that felt too sparse, or perhaps overwhelmingly dense?
• Did your tests, assignments, etc. help you learn the content better?
• What was the most helpful learning experience in the course?
• Is it clear to you how the content you learned applies beyond the course itself?

The questions above are not intended to be complete but should hopefully get you thinking about the types of items you could consider when writing your feedback.