A common practice is for getting student feedback is to simply ask: what to keep doing, what to change, what to do less of. This feedback can be useful, but it is possible that more structured feedback will provide additional insights. It is also possible that the students will take the initiative and provide unsolicited feedback to the instructor at some point during the term. Either individually or as a class. The intentions are probably sincere and the students want to give feedback to the instructor to the course.

Unfortunately, the students probably have not been taught how to solicit feedback from a group about a process or situation. They probably have not been taught how to present the feedback to someone who is being evaluated. Evaluating a process or someone's performance in a process has some characteristics similar to assessing a student's activity or deliverable, but it can be more complex. When an instructor is assessing a student, the instructor is expected to be an expert in the domain and schooled in how to design assessments which are usually based on facts and knowledge, not how the student actually did the assessment. Students usually understand that they are still learning and that the instructor is supposed to speak authoritatively, with baselines for comparison, and with clear expectations about what is good, bad, and ugly.

A student is not an expert in the domain yet. They have not had courses or instruction on pedagogy, nor on survey design. What right do they have to preemptively ask other students about the class and consolidate the student generated feedback? Some think that it is better if the instructor does the survey, asks the questions, and then deals with it. Unfortunately, the three usual questions assume that the students will be able to answer them and that if something is important, it will turn up. Because the instructor gets the feedback, there is no clear way for the class to know how the class feels, if others feel the same way. The lack of sharing can be seen as a lack of transparency, and a way of controlling the process. The students do not know if the instructor is fiddling with the data, reporting what they want to report. Probably very few do this, but if one student in the class has encountered an instructor in the past who is not open and forthright, do not be surprised if this experience is not talked about and creates a mindset in the class. The instructor can and should still ask their questions, but ignoring student initiated feedback or telling students not to do it, will just confirm their suspicions. What is the instructor hiding? The instructor evaluates us, gives us feedback, they can give it, but not take it? The students think they are giving constructive criticism. Can't the instructor handle it?

We see the class initiated course evaluation as a great teaching moment and the instructor can engage the students before the activity takes place. The instructor can work with the students so that the students do a better job and the results are more useful.

Suggestions...

• Work with the students so that they can do a good cause and effect analysis; what is a good course, what is good pedagogy that reflects the course learning outcomes. What are the factors to consider. How to look at a process, taking all things into account; what role each player, stakeholder has in the process, their contributions to 'success'.
• Help the students understand the appropriate scoping; evaluate what the instructor has control over, should be accountable for. Often the instructor has little control over what is taught, or how much is taught.
• Instruct them on how to ask questions using appropriate baselines, comparative examples to ensure that the answers bear some kind of consistency and common ground.
• Inform them about biases that can arise in such tools and the possible problems with respondents when answering with perceptions and emotions. For example, are they part of the problem? Are they accountable in anyway for how they feel about their feedback? Were they behaving as 'good students' in order to get the results a good student would get? Or, are shortcuts being taken while expecting the same results? Expecting the instructor to do the students' work for them?
• Provide them insights about how each course has different learning outcomes, agendas and course to course comparisons are often fraught with errors and result in questionable feedback.
• Discuss with the students about how to focus on questions that will result in actionable feedback.
• Point out how to use the learning outcomes noted in the course outline, how the learning outcomes manifest themselves during the term, perhaps later in the term. They might not be aware of what they have actually learned until a final deliverable in the term.
• Note the usefulness of using the concepts from Bloom's taxonomy when thinking about what learning and value students might be getting. Focus on the improved knowledge base, comprehension, abilities to apply and analyse, and the higher levels of synthesis and evaluation.
• Perhaps even help them understand how to voice feedback. They need to learn (how would they know otherwise) how to avoid sounding negative, e.g., perhaps if you can do more of x, that would help us understand y from another perspective? But, we do understand if that would not fit in with the current timing. That they should also point out what is liked, what is working, the positive. Be wary of assumptions, that the students might not know all of the pedagogical methods being used, why used, that there might be things that they do not understand; not everything is what it appears to be.
• Finally, does not hurt to remind them that instructors are humans too and some like to get feedback, some do not, and that you need to package feedback and evaluations in a way that helps get results; easier to do with honey than vinegar.
• In some cases, the students might need advice or guidance about how to phrase suggestions, criticisms. We should not assume that students know how to provide feedback. For example, see recommendations provided via the website noted below.

Further reading

• https://www.mcgill.ca/mercury/students/feedback#:~:text=Be%20specific%20and%20provide%20examples,situation%20you%20are%20commenting%20on.