Midterm Student Feedback (MSF) involves collecting feedback from students near the start or middle of a course in order to give the instructor an opportunity to make adjustments and improvements. Usually an outside consultant collects the feedback and provides guidance for the instructor on translating the feedback into positive changes in the course. However, as a fallback, the instructor can give an anonymous survey to students in Canvas. The entire process should be confidential to the instructor and anonymous for the students.

Midterm Student Feedback has been shown in various studies to increase student learning, enjoyment, and course ratings (Overall & Marsh, 1979). And Midterm Student Feedback has been shown to be preferred more by students and faculty and more effective than other techniques such as class observations or surveys with no consultation (Clark & Redmond, 1982; Finelli et al., 2008; Finelli et al., 2011; Diamond, 2004; Kulik, 2001).

Why not just use the end of course student evaluations? Gormally et al. (2014) summarize some of the problems with end of course evaluations:

“Student evaluations provide few concrete ideas for improving instructional effectiveness or learning outcomes (Cohen and McKeachie, 1980; Abrami et al., 1990) or changing curriculum or course objectives (Neal 1988; Abrami 1989). Instructors find it difficult to reconcile contradictory opinions expressed in student evaluations (Ryan, 1980; Callahan, 1992). Consequently, only a small percentage of faculty members report making changes to their courses as a result of student evaluations (Spencer and Flyr, 1992; Kember et al., 2002; Richardson, 2005). And, as we later discuss in depth, faculty may have little incentive to use the data from student evaluations (Kember et al., 2002; Mervis, 2013).“

Further Resources and References

Midterm Student Feedback Guidebook