Online Feedback
On this page, the following commonly used feedback systems at Stanford -- Canvas, Google Forms, Qualtrics, and Poll Everywhere -- are recommended as self-service options to generate a mid-term evaluation survey.
Anonymous online surveys are effective teaching tools that help provide the opportunity to gather feedback, make modifications, assess prior student knowledge, and perform active learning exercises. There are a variety of tools enable instructors to create and customize surveys and capture detailed anonymous feedback. Four tools to create surveys are listed below with supplemental resources. General recommendations for online surveys are to assure students of anonymity, to write precise questions, keep the survey short, and to quickly review and respond to student feedback after it is captured. For more information, please see the Responding to Online Feedback page.
If you need help with the online survey tools, or with interpreting your results, please contact us at course-evaluations@stanford.edu.
A number of templates are available with commonly used questions you can use for your feedback surveys.
We have also added a short set of questions specific to gathering feedback on remote learning to our list of templates.
Common Tools for Collecting Online Feedback
Canvas
Recommended for: Courses with only one instructor or one TA that are using Canvas.
Import one of the "Midquarter feedback surveys" from Canvas Commons, add custom questions and your name, and then publish it in Canvas for students to complete anonymously.
You can download the results directly to a comma-separated values (.csv) file for your own analysis, and we can also connect you with a consultant who can help you review results and translate insights into action.
Get instructions for your Canvas survey.
Google Forms
Recommended for: Instructors that are accustomed to the Google Suite that want a quick and easy survey with basic reporting capabilities.
Google Forms can be used to design anonymous surveys, providing long-form or multiple choice questions, basic Likert-scale answer keys, and basic statistical data. A number of premade short, long, and end-term evaluation forms are available.
Access Pre-Made Google Evaluation Form Templates
The pre-made forms require some edits and modification.
Users of the Google Form are asked to Copy the Google Form to your own Google Drive so that the form and collected data is owned by you. To do this:
1. Go to the "Stanford Course Evaluation Templates" Google Folder (link below)
2. Right click on the Google Form you’d like to send to your students. Click Make a Copy.
3. Open your copy of the Google Form and review the instructions embedded in the Google Form itself
4. When you have completed your edits, send the link of the Google Form to your students.
Instructors can also make their own Google Forms. More details and information are listed below.
Stanford Course Evaluation Templates Google Folder
How to Send Your Form to Students
Google Forms General Information
Qualtrics
Recommended for: Instructors that have a University account in Qualtrics that want to create a survey with basic to advanced evaluation form set-up and reporting capabilities.
Instructors can use Stanford Qualtrics software to design anonymous surveys and send the survey link to students, or post the link to their Canvas course site. Qualtrics is designed to provide simple or more advanced survey options with a broad range of statistics. A question bank is provided on this page if an instructor chooses to create their own set of questions and have a survey immediately available.
Make your own Stanford Qualtrics survey
Qualtrics Basic Survey Overview
How to Anonymize Your Qualtrics survey
Poll Everywhere
Recommended for: Anyone with a Stanford account can access Poll Everywhere. Poll Everywhere allows instructors to create a survey with basic to advanced evaluation forms and reporting. Poll Everywhere also integrates with PowerPoint, Keynote, and Google Slides.
Instructors can use Stanford Poll Everywhere software to design anonymous surveys and send the survey link to students, incorporate the link in their course slides, or post the link to their Canvas course site. Poll Everywhere is designed to provide simple or more advanced survey options, and is a common tool used in active learning pedagogy.
Access Stanford Poll Everywhere
Key dates for end-term feedback
Check the dates for end-term feedback for the academic year.
Frequently asked questions
Get answers to some common questions.
Key principles of evaluation
Key ideas guiding evaluations and student feedback at Stanford.