Encouraging Students to Complete End-of-Course Surveys: Practical Strategies for Any Modality

Author: Dr. Sarah Learman – Teaching and Learning Consultant, Office of Curriculum and Instructional Support

You’ve anticipated this all semester. After weeks and weeks of course planning and execution, you nervously open the survey results file(s), and you are disappointed to see that only a small fraction of your students have actually offered feedback. Once again, too few students have completed the end-of-course survey, and you’re left wondering how to interpret the results.

What’s the problem?

End-of-course surveys (EOCs) remain one of the most widely used tools for improving teaching and learning in higher education. When response rates are strong and representative (~70%), student feedback can provide meaningful insight into course design, instructional clarity, and the overall student experience (Benton & Cashin, 2014). While such a high response rate would be ideal, it is rarely the case. On average, 40% of students complete the EOC for undergraduate courses (Layne et al., 1999). Such a low percentage of our students contributing feedback at the end of the term yields a disproportionate, potentially biased set of results; it’s challenging to see the full picture of the student experience with so few students leaving feedback. As tough as they can sometimes be to navigate, student feedback surveys are a key mechanism for improving teaching quality and student learning experiences. In addition to being disappointing, low response rates undermine the survey's representativeness and usefulness.

Why don’t students complete EOCs?

There are many reasons why students opt not to complete EOCs. Some of these include:

• Students don’t see the value in completing the survey.
• Students don’t have time to complete the survey.
• Students don’t think that what they have to say matters.
• Students worry about confidentiality and don’t know if their professor can tell their identity from their responses.
• Students experience survey fatigue, leading to apathy.

What’s the solution?

There are several steps one can take to encourage greater compliance with EOC questionnaires. Consider the following:

• Communicate with students the importance of the survey results to your teaching approach. Emphasize the role of student voice in shaping teaching and learning in your classes. Students are more likely to complete surveys when they understand how feedback is used. Tell them you value their feedback and that you genuinely want to hear what they have to say. Reinforce that honest feedback—positive and critical—is valued (Ambrose et al., 2010). Share concrete examples of past course changes made because of student feedback or discuss one change made this term because of past student feedback. Don’t want to spend class time on this? That’s ok, post a short LMS announcement or 60-second video titled “How Your Feedback Shapes This Course.”
• Take time. Allocate 15 minutes of regular class time for students to complete their EOCs. Make sure to let students know in advance that they should bring a laptop, tablet, or smartphone with them to class that day. Additionally, step out of the room while students complete the survey to reinforce anonymity and encourage honest responses.  If you cannot reserve in-class time for students to complete the course evaluation, reserve 2-3 minutes of live class time to explain where to find it.
• Ask your students to do the survey (pretty please). Faculty members play a pivotal, albeit indirect, role in attaining a high EOC response rate. Simply communicating to students the need to complete this survey can be enough. Personally endorse the survey rather than relying only on automated emails. Early and repeated messaging throughout the course has also been shown to improve participation. Additionally, you’ll want to send targeted reminders before the survey closes. Consider countdown messaging (“Survey closes Friday”). Or, add a checklist item in the task lists for your weekly module. Such structured reminders significantly increase response rates (Porter, 2004).
• Clear the air. Instructor encouragement is one of the strongest predictors of participation (Adams & Umbach, 2012). Talk about the EOCs with your students. Address low response rates openly; acknowledge “survey fatigue” and express appreciation for their time and effort. Express appreciation for students’ time and input through a short announcement, video message, or LMS post. You might also address common student concerns about anonymity and consequences. Clearly explain who sees results and when. Trust in confidentiality is a major predictor of response behavior (Nulty, 2008). If you don’t feel comfortable explaining the anonymity process verbally, add a brief FAQ in the LMS (“Are my responses anonymous?”). You might also consider having a brief, frank discussion about what you expect from students in their EOC responses. Show them an example of helpful feedback alongside an example of unhelpful feedback to give them an idea of what will help you move forward with the course for future students, and what won’t (Elfenbein, 2015).
• Maintain a supportive classroom climate from day 1. Students are more likely to respond to surveys when they feel psychologically safe. Build a warm, supportive teaching atmosphere through classroom community, open dialogue with students, and authentic demonstrations that show you care about students and their learning throughout the semester. Further, the literature has demonstrated that EOC completion rates vary by age, gender, and ethnicity, so ensuring that we are leading an inclusive, equitable classroom is vital (Hatfield & Coyle, 2013).

It is important to remember that improving response rates is less about reminders alone and more about cultivating a culture of feedback. Regardless of which methods you choose to encourage participation, start early, communicate often, and demonstrate impact. Don’t wait until the last week of class to bring this conversation up with your students. Talk with them about the importance of EOC results during class early and often throughout the semester.

To learn more about the End-of-Course Survey process at CMU, visit Course Evaluation & Survey Resources for Faculty and Administrators. 

References:

Adams, M. J. D., & Umbach, P. D. (2012). Nonresponse and online student evaluations of teaching. Research in Higher Education, 53(5), 576–591. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11162-011-9240-5

Ambrose, S. A., et al. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. Jossey-Bass.

Benton, S. L., & Cashin, W. E. (2014). Student ratings of instruction in college and university courses. IDEA Paper No. 50. https://www.rit.edu/ntid/sites/rit.edu.ntid/files/acadaffairs/50_Benton_2012.pdf

Elfenbein, Madeleine. “Teaching Students to Evaluate US Better.” Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs, 2015, www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/teaching-students-evaluate-us-better.

Hatfield, C. & Coyle, E. Factors That Influence Student Completion of Course and Faculty Evaluations. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 77(2), 27. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3602851/pdf/ajpe77227.pdf

Layne, B.H., DeCristoforo, J.R., & McGinty, D. (1999) Electronic versus Traditional Student Ratings of Instruction. Research in Higher Education, 40(2), 224, 226. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40196340?seq=1

Nulty, D. D. (2008). The adequacy of response rates to online and paper surveys. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 33(3), 301–314. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02602930701293231

Porter, S. R. (2004). Raising response rates. New Directions for Institutional Research, 2004(121), 5–21. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ir.97