Is participation required?

No, participation in the Mid-Semester Feedback Program (MSFP) is voluntary.

Who can participate in MSFP?

Professors and lecturers teaching during the current semester are free to participate in this program, with the below exceptions. 

For College of Engineering and Cornell Bowers CIS faculty: The College of Engineering offers its own Mid-Semester Feedback Survey program to faculty in the College of Engineering and Computing and Information Science. Faculty from those schools should use the College of Engineering program. View program information on their main page.

When can you register? 

The registration period for instructors interested in participating in MSFP is always the first two weeks of the semester, Fall and Spring. Visit Mid-Semester Feedback Program for a link to register during the registration window.

How is MSFP implemented?

Feedback for MSFP is gathered anonymously from students via a Qualtrics questionnaire. CTI will email the questionnaire to you (the instructor) early in the semester, and you are free to share it with your students in whatever way works best for your course. 

CTI then monitors the questionnaire for completion. As the midway point of the semester approaches, you will begin to receive weekly emails with updates on your course’s student response rate. Note: If you know exactly when you plan to share the questionnaire with students – e.g., the week after the mid-term exams – please let us know, so we can adjust the weekly emails accordingly.  

The questionnaire will be closed either when the response rate reaches 70% or by the deadline specified in the email you received.

After the survey closes, a teaching consultant from CTI will meet with you, typically over Zoom, to share your students’ feedback via a report and discuss the results. This is also an opportunity for you to share any concerns or questions you may have about the feedback you received, or any ideas you have for adjusting the course.

How do I share the questionnaire with students?

CTI will email you a link to the Qualtrics questionnaire, which you can then share with your students via email, an assignment in Canvas, during class, or all three.

Ideally, the questionnaire will be distributed during the fourth or fifth week of the semester, to allow for adequate time to make changes to the course based on the students’ feedback. Note: CTI can accommodate questionnaires administered later for courses with later start dates.

How can I encourage my students to respond to the Qualtrics survey?

Here are a few strategies for encouraging higher student response rates that have been effective in the past:

• Provide five minutes of class time for students to take the online questionnaire on their own laptops or mobile devices, ideally sometime in the middle of class when students are less likely to be distracted by preparing for the lesson or packing up to leave.
• Explain to students why their feedback is important and how you will share your findings with them.
• Describe the type of feedback that is most useful to you.
• Offer an incentive for participation (e.g., if we reach a 90% response rate, I’ll add 2 points to your next prelim).

What happens during the consultation with CTI staff?

This conversational meeting is often held over Zoom, but can be in-person if both parties desire to do so. During this brief meeting, the CTI consultant will present your students’ feedback in a report and address any questions you might have. This is also an opportunity to brainstorm ideas and receive additional information about related technological or pedagogical strategies, or other CTI programs.

How do I respond to my students?

Responding to student feedback in some way is critical, regardless of whether you plan to make changes based on that feedback. We typically suggest thanking students for their input, noting any suggestions you will act upon, and/or explaining the reasoning behind course characteristics that elicited concerns. Suggesting strategies in which students can contribute can also be helpful. For example, if students report that they are often confused, pause your lecture and invite them to ask questions more often. You can also keep index cards available for students to write down what's still not clear to them at the end of each class.