Here are some of the best questions for an office hours attendee survey about discussion topics, plus tips on crafting a great survey that really gets to the heart of what your group needs. You can quickly generate an engaging, conversational survey with Specific—in just seconds.
The best open-ended questions for office hours attendee surveys about discussion topics
Open-ended questions are your gateway to rich, thoughtful feedback. They invite attendees to share unique perspectives and experiences you might not anticipate. While these questions yield deep insights, keep in mind they can sometimes have higher nonresponse rates—Pew Research Center found that open-ended questions average an 18% nonresponse rate, sometimes soaring over 50% depending on context [1]. However, when people feel motivated and the questions are meaningful, many willingly provide thoughtful answers—one study showed 76% of surveyed patients added detailed comments [2]. So, design your questions with care and foster engagement.
What discussion topics would you find most valuable for upcoming office hours?
Can you describe a recent challenge you’ve faced where office hours could have helped?
Which skills or concepts do you wish to explore further during office hours?
What’s one thing you wish we did differently in our previous office hour sessions?
How do you decide which office hour sessions to attend?
Share a specific example of a time when a topic from office hours helped you overcome a hurdle.
Are there topics you feel aren’t getting enough attention during discussions?
Is there anything about our current discussion format you’d like to change or improve?
How do you prepare for office hours, and what would make it easier?
If you could modify one thing about our office hours to make them more useful, what would it be?
Thoughtfully chosen open-ended questions provide room for nuance while helping you see blind spots you might otherwise miss. If you're looking for inspiration or AI-powered help to draft and structure such questions, you might find this AI survey builder useful in building your next survey.
The best single-select multiple-choice questions for office hours attendee surveys about discussion topics
Single-select multiple-choice questions are ideal when you want quick, quantifiable feedback, or when you want to ease respondents in before diving deeper. These questions lower the effort required to respond and help guide the conversation. A simple choice is sometimes all it takes to get people thinking—then follow up with open-ended or clarifying questions for richer insights.
Question: Which type of discussion topic do you find most useful in office hours?
Hands-on problem solving
Theoretical explanations
Case studies from peers
Open Q&A
Question: What’s your preferred format for office hour topics?
Prepared presentations
Live demos
Group discussions
Other
Question: How often would you like new discussion topics introduced?
Every session
Once a month
Quarterly
Only as needed
When to follow up with "why"? Any time a respondent selects a choice but their reasoning isn’t clear, it’s a golden opportunity to dig deeper with a simple "why?" For example, if an attendee prefers "live demos," asking "Why do you prefer live demos over other formats?" can uncover actionable insights about engagement or learning styles.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always include "Other" when you think your list of options may not cover all perspectives. Then, follow up by asking them to describe their choice—often these responses surface innovative ideas or subtle needs you hadn’t considered.
Should you add an NPS-style question about discussion topics?
NPS (Net Promoter Score) is widely recognized for measuring loyalty and satisfaction—but it's also a smart inclusion for office hours attendee surveys about discussion topics. An NPS question asks respondents to rate, on a scale of 0–10, how likely they are to recommend something—in this case, the current discussion topics in office hours—to a colleague or peer. This gives you a clear, benchmarked metric and instantly highlights advocates, detractors, and those in between. We use this approach both as a pulse check and a conversation starter. You can set up an NPS survey tailored to office hours attendees in seconds using Specific.
The power of follow-up questions
Great surveys adapt and dig deeper—a power enabled by AI-driven follow-up questions. Asking targeted follow-ups not only clarifies unclear answers, but builds a conversational flow that results in deeper understanding. At Specific, automated follow-ups are at the core of our conversational survey experience. Research shows that integrating AI-powered conversational interfaces can lead to higher engagement and richer, more specific survey responses [3]. By asking smart follow-ups based on a respondent’s own words, you create a feedback experience that feels like a real conversation—not a cold form.
Attendee: “I liked last week’s topic.”
AI follow-up: “What specifically did you find most helpful about last week’s topic?”
How many follow-ups to ask? In general, we find that 2–3 thoughtful, contextual follow-ups are enough to get the depth you need—while still respecting respondents’ time. You don’t need to follow up forever; it's best to stop once you’ve captured the essential information. With Specific, you can easily control or automate this logic.
This makes it a conversational survey. When a survey adapts based on answers and feels like a chat, people engage more deeply—this is the heart of a conversational survey.
AI-powered response analysis makes it easy to interpret all the rich, free-text answers, even at scale. With tools like AI survey response analysis, you won’t drown in data—you’ll actually find themes and actionable recommendations with just a few clicks.
If you haven’t tried automated follow-ups before, generate a survey with them and notice how quickly the quality of your insights improves.
How to draft a great prompt for ChatGPT (or any GPT) to generate survey questions
Getting quality survey questions from AI models is just a matter of asking the right way. Start simple and get more specific as you go.
Try this first prompt in ChatGPT or the Specific AI survey generator:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for office hours attendee survey about discussion topics.
You’ll get better results if you share more context. For example, describe your audience, your goals, or the kind of feedback you’re looking for:
Our office hours are for a cross-functional product team, and we want to encourage attendees to suggest new and diverse discussion topics. Suggest 10 open-ended questions to uncover both pain points and aspirational ideas.
Next, organize your brainstorming. Try this prompt to categorize your questions:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Once you see the categories, you can easily double-click into what matters most. For example:
Generate 10 questions for categories ‘Topic Preferences’ and ‘Format Feedback’.
This iterative prompt approach leverages AI’s strengths, helping you invent and refine survey questions that suit your needs.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey is exactly what it sounds like—a survey that feels more like an ongoing, adaptive chat than a static list of questions. Powered by AI, the survey adapts in real time based on each answer, uses natural language, and asks smart follow-ups. This approach offers several clear advantages over traditional manual survey design and delivery.
Manual Surveys | AI-Generated Conversational Surveys |
|---|---|
Static questions; little adaptability | Dynamic; follow-up questions based on context |
Time-consuming to build and edit | AI generates and edits surveys in seconds |
Very limited personalization; one-size-fits-all | Feels uniquely conversational for every respondent |
Manual analysis of qualitative responses required | AI summarizes and analyzes responses instantly |
Why use AI for office hours attendee surveys? In short: You get higher engagement, richer insights, and a dramatically easier workflow—both for building your survey and analyzing the results. Plus, conversational interfaces have been shown to boost informativeness and specificity of survey responses [3]. If you want to dive deep without creating more work for yourself (or your attendees), this is the way to go.
With Specific, you get best-in-class user experience for conversational surveys. Feedback collection becomes fluid and natural. If you're wondering how to actually set one up, this how-to guide will show you how to create a survey for office hours attendees about discussion topics in just a few minutes.
See this discussion topics survey example now
Unlock deeper insights and higher attendee engagement by running a truly conversational survey—designed for meaningful feedback in every office hours session. Start discovering what really matters to your attendees today.