Student Feedback

Gathering Student Feedback

While students are not subject or pedagogy experts, students spend more time with faculty than anyone else and can provide valuable information about instructor behaviors such as whether the instructor was engaging, prepared, organized, and understandable. When used in combination with other components of teaching evaluation, and when interpreted carefully, student feedback is a valuable tool for measuring effective teaching. Each school or department should determine how to gather student feedback on teaching effectiveness.

The Process of Gathering Student Feedback

One way to gather student feedback is to use the Student Instructional Rating Survey (SIRS), a university-wide survey of students for their comments about their experiences in the classroom. The results are used by the individual instructors, departments, schools, and the University for the assessment and improvement of teaching. Faculty members are asked to provide summaries of the student survey statistics for personnel decisions such as tenure, promotion, or merit-based pay. All members of the University have access to the summary statistics from the student surveys at SIRS Results web site.

For more immediate feedback, a midcourse survey can provide insight into how the students are feeling about the course at any point in the semester. Midcourse surveys are generally intended solely for the use of the instructors, but some schools or departments may choose to run a more formalized midcourse survey.

Discussing Feedback with Students

We encourage instructors to discuss student feedback with their students, as closing the loop is crucial for the feedback process. Faculty can discuss midcourse feedback with current students or review past SIRS feedback when teaching a subsequent semester. These discussions not only address student concerns but also educate students on how to provide focused, constructive feedback.

However, instructors should take care to avoid reprimanding or arguing with students about their feedback. Such actions can undermine trust and make students less likely to provide feedback in the future. Faculty should also assure students that survey responses are anonymous and that their feedback will never impact their grades. Before addressing negative feedback with their students, instructors may want to discuss the feedback with a trusted colleague or advisor. 

If an instructor feels a need to respond to student feedback in their teaching materials, the teaching portfolio offers a good place to address it, provide context, and explain their pedagogical approach.

Upcoming Workshops

Visit Workshops and Training to browse a complete selection of our available workshops.

  • Interpreting SIRS and other forms of Student Feedback

    Thursday, February 19, 2026
    9:30 am –  11:00 am

    While students are crucial stakeholders in the university’s teaching enterprise, their feedback should not be mistaken for “evaluation of teaching,” which is a task for instructional colleagues. Student feedback is an indicator which provides evidence that must be interpreted. In this workshop, we explore scholarly research on the limitations and potential biases of student feedback. We present strategies for how department chairs and program directors should review, interpret, and utilize the likert-scale and comment responses from the Student Instructional Ratings Survey (SIRS) to improve course curriculum, support faculty, and evaluate teaching. This workshop is especially beneficial for those who regularly engage with SIRS, but we also encourage anyone from the university community interested in learning about best practices in interpreting student feedback to join us.

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  • Utilizing Generative AI for Analysis of Student Feedback Comments (Virtual Interactive Workshop)

    Monday, February 23, 2026
    10:00 am – 11:30 am

    Comments are often where faculty, departments, and schools find great value in student feedback, including midcourse feedback and SIRS. However, depending on the number of comments, analysis can be difficult, particularly when trying to determine concrete actions in a timely manner to take in response to midcourse feedback or for continuous improvement. This virtual interactive session will discuss strategies and provide space for participants to try using generative AI for qualitative analysis of student feedback comments.

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