Feedback is an essential aspect of an online course. Not just in terms of how great it feels when people say good things about you, but also as a source of information and analysis as to how people are responding to your course. Besides, a student’s views on a course can provide valuable information and help you better understand their needs.
Getting feedback for your online courses is an integral part of the learning process. Not just for your students, but for you too. An instructor or teacher can get lost in a course, falling prey to all sorts of distractions. There’s no better way to know if you’re on the right track than to get honest feedback.
In this article, you will learn how to ask for feedback from students about your online course and make the most of those precious evaluation comments.
1. Tell your Students That the Feedback Is Anonymous
Students are the backbone of a successful online course, and making sure they’re giving honest feedback is essential. But when students log in to an open panel at the end of a course and type in their responses using the teacher’s screen name, it can be hard to know if they’re sharing what they think.
A great way to get honest feedback is to ask your students to leave it anonymously. No one will know who you are or what you look like, so your students are more likely to return their feedback.
2. Give Students Something to Evaluate
Determine what the learning goal of your course is and ask the students to evaluate it. This can be a well-thought-out document, video, or piece of content you want them to consider. As we all know, people like what they like, even if it doesn’t accomplish their learning objectives.
Ensure that this is not the case by asking them to evaluate what they like. Ask them what isn’t working. How can it be improved? Additionally, ask them if they have any questions or concerns about the learning goal as they evaluate it.
This will allow you to understand where the students are with their understanding. Students who take your online course can give you insightful, constructive feedback at the end of each session. This feedback becomes part of the course evaluation, your only authentic assessment as a teacher.
3. Send Out Polls and Surveys
Want to gather feedback from your students and get honest input on social studies content? Create a survey, poll, or quiz and see what happens. This is great for creating individualized learning experiences and project-based learning groups.
This is a significant part of any course, so you must take the time to set up a system for getting feedback. This will make your job of creating the course much easier and keep your students accountable too.
4. Ask for Feedback On Social Media
Getting honest feedback from real people is vital if you are looking to recruit a sponsor for your online course.
One of the best ways to get honest feedback on social media is by asking your followers to rate and review your course. They will post a positive review on their social media channels if they like it.
A social media revolution is sweeping the nation but hasn’t completely caught on with all teachers.
Did you know you can create a community around your online course and get honest, free feedback from the other educators who participate? Social media has worked wonders for many of us.
It allows us to stay connected with friends and loved ones worldwide, even when we are far away. We can listen in on our friends’ lives, share pictures they have taken, and comment on any post or picture they have thrown up.
If you have ever used social media to get advice, feedback, or even just to tell a friend what you are doing, you will know how helpful it can be.
5. Offer Discounts for Honest Feedback
In an ideal world, you wouldn’t have to pay for feedback. But in reality, many people wouldn’t mind getting some discount or offers to review your online course. Think of it as some ‘Get-paid-to’ offer or activity.
Besides, if you are ready to guarantee the quality of your product and make sure you’re meeting your customers’ needs, then it’s time to collect feedback.
Being honest with your customers means they’ll enjoy their experience with you, which means happier clients will spread the word about your business.
Offer discounts for honest feedback to ensure every customer gets good service and has a positive experience.
6. Leave Room for Criticism
Always leave an open door for people to criticize your work. While it is great to know that some of your students may become raters of the course, you must expect lower ratings. Do not take this personally if bad ratings are given because of poor content quality.
The course can go wrong for various reasons, such as poor design, insufficient materials (are there too many steps? Are the links insufficient?) or unexpected technical difficulties.
The best thing you can do is be open to constructive criticism. Asking for honest feedback is important and will guarantee improved product and service design.
Feedback is a huge part of any learning process. However, feedback from readers of your writing can be extremely personal and change your feelings and opinions.
Try to react positively to the feedback you receive, as it will help you improve on future work. Refrain from being defensive and be willing to reflect upon the feedback.
7. Involve the Students in Forums and Group Projects
We all have good ideas, but it can be hard to know if anyone will pay attention to them. Seeking feedback on your online course has been difficult, until now.
With the help of student forums and group projects, you can easily create a course that better meets student expectations.
Advise your students to start a course forum where they can share those ideas and get valuable feedback from fellow students.
The most effective means of receiving feedback is by having students participate and contribute in various ways throughout the course. This encourages students to contribute their ideas and opinions, leading to a more objective evaluation.
If you are an online educator, you know how important honest feedback can be when designing great online courses.
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8. Create In-course Surveys
After you create an online course and offer it for sale, you need to assess whether it is worth updating.
You must ensure that your course is valuable to students, or you will waste time reworking it. This is why you need in-course feedback. This way, you will get live feedback from your students and know what’s working for them and what’s not.
In-course feedback lets you know where to put in more effort and where to cut down. It allows you to organize your materials and check if your content is comprehensive. It helps you improve the quality of your course.
A general misconception about gathering feedback is that you need to ask for feedback at the end of a course. But you can get feedback at any given point during your discussions by asking a specific question.
9. Carry Out Personal Interviews
Whether you’re receiving feedback on an assignment or attending a live course, getting personal opinions from trusted outside sources is helpful.
Asking your students to complete a small survey before the course is finished will help you gain better feedback on your product or service.
For teachers and instructors, surveying students from a classroom is always nerve-wracking. Instead of pounding the streets, try carrying out personal interviews.
Feedback from your students will help you refine your course, and so will the results of surveys; it will also help you know what kind of input they need.
Upon helping them through a difficult time, you may discover some hidden talents, assist with tech challenges, or introduce them to a career path or hobby they would enjoy.
10. Use Email to Your Advantage
Email is a wonderful way to get honest feedback from students without having to jump through hoops or share too much information.
Emailing your students before, during, and after the class helps you build relationships with the people taking your online course.
You may find out things you never would have learned if they had not emailed you. Be sure to ask open questions to encourage communication so they can reflect on their learning.
The easiest way to address an email is to simply type in the response that you are responding to the student and question.
Be sure, though, not to be spammy in this process, so communicate well with your students as to why you are doing this and how they can help you.
11. Show a Willingness to Change And Adapt
You need to understand that change is possible. Nothing is perfect, and everything will always be changing.
The real question is, how do you adapt to those changes and use each new moment to create better ones? Just because you want something, doesn’t mean you have to get it by any means necessary.
When you get feedback, ask yourself if it reflects what your intended audience needs, and then take action quickly.
Even if you have had to make changes to your course design, remember to include this in the feedback section so that students and professors can realize the impact of your adjustments. If the feedback isn’t helping you refine the course, save it for later.
12. Focus on How to Make Your Online Course Better, Not What Is Wrong with It
Online courses can be a lonely beast. One minute you think your course is going swimmingly, and the next, it’s called “dog-poo”-lence, or worse yet, “an online sewer.” Don’t become so focused on the “bad” things that people say that you ignore the positive stuff.
There are always good reasons why a person gives feedback as bad (and vice versa). People generally want to give helpful feedback; they cannot just express themselves verbally or have different priorities from their classmates.
In either case, their opinions can still be useful to you in understanding where others might be struggling and making future adjustments to your course in response.
FAQs
Why is it important to get feedback for your online course?
Getting feedback from your students is important. It helps you see how well your course is written and what you need to improve on.
Furthermore, your students will become more engaged if you integrate the components of student-to-student interaction into the course.
What if students don’t want to give you feedback on your online course?
While you can’t force students to give feedback on your online course, you can encourage them to drop feedback by offering rewards or prizes.
Final Thoughts
As digital learning increases in popularity, online course development is becoming more of a necessity than an option. Creating amazing online courses not only helps you reach more students and grow your audience, but it can also help you get recognition for your talent.
Honest feedback is the best way to ensure that your online course resonates with the right learners. Therefore, you must provide exactly what learners are looking for when they give feedback.
The feedback you get from your students or learners has a lot to do with your future sales of online courses.
Driving traffic to your online course is the key to generating sales. For information on how to drive traffic to your course, see the article that outlines the top traffic generation strategies.
Thanks for reading.
