What can I do to increase response rates?
With additional teacher encouragement, the response rate can be significantly higher.
Tell students directly how much you value their feedback. Let them know how you have incorporated past feedback into your courses. Assure them that all evaluations are anonymous and that instructors do not see results until after final grades have been submitted.
Allow students to bring laptops to class, and provide class time to complete online teaching evaluations.
Add the 'Evaluate This Class' tool to your course site. This new tool allows you to add a direct link to the Evaluations Dashboard, where students fill out their evaluations, from your course site. It also gives you the option to provide a personalized message to students. For more information see the CTools Teaching Questionnaire Online Help.
Use the Response Rate counter function on the CTools Evaluations Dashboard to Find out how many students have provided feedback on your classes by logging on to CTools and navigating to the Evaluations Dashboard:
- Type https://ctools.umich.edu/portal into your web browser.
- Log in to CTools and go to your My Workspace site.
- Click on "Teaching Questionnaires" from the navigation menu on the left.
- Click the name of the appropriate feedback form in the Evaluations Dashboard.
Share the response rates with your students and remind them that you would like to get feedback from everyone. You can do this during class or by sending a message to your class e-mail group.
You can also use the CTools Evaluate This Class feature to provide a personalized message to students and provide a direct link from your course site directly to the Evaluations Dashboard where students fill out their evaluations.
If you have additional ideas or suggestions, please contact us at ro.evaluations@umich.edu.