Improving Response Rates for Online Student Evals

Historically, online student evaluations of courses have yielded fewer responses from students. This lower response rate is problematic, especially when tenure committees and department coordinators pay attention to these data as evidence of teaching effectiveness. 

Guidelines for administering online evaluations

Do not offer credit for evaluation responses. Although there are ethical ways to encourage students to submit their evaluations with the promise of participation points, Instruction Cabinet and the Tenure Review Committee discourage this practice for the following reasons:

  • It can create the impression that instructors will see the evaluations prior to grading.
  • "Pay for participation" may impact the validity of the data.

Enhancing response rates

Certain practices can enhance the return rates for online evaluations:

  1. Shorter time period of availability. It sounds counter-intuitive, but when students have weeks and weeks to finish the evaluations, they will put it off and eventually forget. During the last week of classes, before finals, announce the evaluations on a Monday and put a "deadline" on them for Thursday.
  2. Be upfront and honest about what the information is being used for. Tell students that their participation is important because the information helps you be a better teacher and helps the department improve the class for future students.
  3. Include the evaluation in the list of assignments for the class. If your students are accustomed to working through a list of activities for each unit or week of the class, insert the evaluation as simply another activity for that week.
  4. Provide reminders using numbers of completed evaluations. The faculty administrative assistant can get the numbers of students who have completed the evaluations. Posting an announcement such as "15 of you have still not completed the evaluations" can be helpful.
  5. Train students to respond to evaluations throughout the quarter. Get students in the groove of conducting short, formative evaluations earlier in the quarter, maybe weeks 3 and 6. These can be simple surveys (What works? What doesn’t?) that get students in the groove of doing evaluations. The method is more powerful if the instructor responds to the results. ("I see you all found it hard to tell which chapters you’re supposed to read. I’ve added that information in...").
  6. Offer one "due date" extension. This relates to the impact of the shorter time line. If the deadline is Thursday, make an announcement on Friday that there is one more chance over the weekend to get evaluations in.
  7. Create an Announcement and add the evaluation to the Module for that week. Include the evaluation in the same way you might inform them about an exam, or about grades that are posted, etc. Multiple exposures to the link are helpful.
  8. Post or link to instructions for students to complete the evaluation. The evaluation form is not terribly complex, but it may help students get through the process of logging in and filling out the form.