Services

Course feedback questions

Here you´ll find information about the content of course feedback surveys: Aalto questions common to all courses at Aalto University, the school-specific questions and recommended questions included in Aalto question library. You´ll also get tips for feedback questions during the course and for formulation own course feedback questions.
-
Learning Centre study hall

Aalto questions

Aalto questions are common to all courses at Aalto University. They are automatically included in all feedback surveys.

School-specific questions

On top of Aalto questions, each school has their own school-specific questions. These questions cover topics that this school sees important for the development of teaching. You´ll find the school-specific questions under your own school below. These questions will also appear automatically in the feedback survey. 

Course-specific questions 

Apart from collecting feedback during the course with separate tools, the teacher has the possibility to add their own questions to the feedback survey at the end of the course. Below you can find a list of ready-to-use questions, as well as support for formulating own questions.

Question library

Aalto´s question library consists of commonly used, well-grounded questions in three languages. 

How to formulate own feedback questions?

  1. In one question, ask only one thing.
    Questions like “What worked well and what should be improved?” will result in confusing responses where it is difficult to define with certainty which category the student meant. So ask only about one thing in one question.  
  2. Define whether your question is quantitative or qualitative. 

    Are you looking for qualitative data or quantitative data as a result? If you are out for a number, it is good to offer pre-defined response options. If you use an open field in a quantitative question, you´ll end up with responses including noth numeric responses and verbal definitions. It is time consuming to go through this kind of data. 

    How much time did you use for this assignment? 
    Possible responses: a lot, about three hours, relatively ok, a bit too little, 1,5h 

    How much time did you use for this assignment? 
    Options:
    Less than an hour 
    1-2h 
    2-3h 
    Over 3h 

  3. Concider the ethical perspective. 
    We don´t collect delicate information (e.g. concerning a person´s health or convictions), or information that puts students anonymity at risk.

    The feedback survey is shared between all teachers of a course. It is good to coordinate the content of the survey together and make sure that all teachers are aware of the content. Questions concerning any single person should be avoided. We collect feedback about actions and circumstances, not persons and their personal qualities.  

  4. Keep the amount of questions moderate. 

    Ask only about things that you can´t get information on otherwise. If you can get the same information through analytics tools in MyCourses, it is most probably better to use that information channel. This saves your students´time for the most central contents in the feedback survey. 

    What information will you actually use and how? According to Principles of feedback in education at Aalto University feedback should have an impact. It is best to focus on themes you´re developing now or planning to develop soon, and leave other themes for later.  It is good to pau attention to workload  when developing your courses and yourself as a teacher. Small concrete development steps will take you in the right direction in a more sustainable and predictable way than big and fast changes.  

Feedback during the course vs. Feedback at the end of the course 

During the course it makes sense to collect feedback about topics that can still be improved during the same course. In practice this can mean instruction the students better, adding support material or choosing another tool or group work approach. Here are some ideas for feedback during the course: 

  • The rythm of the teaching session, amount of content 

  • Course practicalities and arrangements 

  • Preferred working methods 

  • Re-capping needs before the final exam or handing in a course work 

  • New teaching methods used or experimented on the course 

  • Digital platforms or tools used  

Even if you´d give students a chance to ask during the lectures and by email, it is recommended to offer an anonymous channel for giving feedback, too. We come from different backgrounds, and for some students approaching the teacher is out of the question or giving feedback can involve a fear of losing face. 

Questions requiring a more holistic development approach are best left in the end-of-the-course feedback survey. This kind of topics are might be difficult to change during the same course implementation. It may also be easier for the students to assess them at the end of the course. 

Updating Aalto and school-specific questions 

The process, instructions and support – this content is being developed together with schools during 2022-23. Welcome back later to see the results of the joint development work!

Course feedback in Aalto University

Course feedback is a unique part of the feedback portfolio in Aalto University and it reaches students in all phases of their studies and is collected systematically throughout Aalto. Hearing the voice of students is vital for the development of teaching and education as well as for quality assurance and for improving study-related services. Feedback is used on multiple levels in many ways and its utilisation is a special focus area at Aalto.

student, learning center, library

Course feedback as a course element 

Course feedback is a unique part of the feedback portfolio at Aalto university and it reaches students in all phases of their studies and is collected systematically throughout Aalto. Hearing the voice of students is vital for the development of teaching and education as well as for quality assurance and for improving study-related services. Feedback is used on multiple levels in many ways and its utilisation is a special focus area at Aalto.

Aalto University students doing group work, sitting at a table with their laptops and notebooks / photo by Aalto University, Aino Huovio
This service is provided by:

Learning Services

Did you find what you were looking for? If not, please contact us.
  • Published:
  • Updated:
Share
URL copied!