Best questions for online course student survey about feedback timeliness

Here are some of the best questions for an online course student survey about feedback timeliness, plus tips on how to create them. If you want to effortlessly build your survey in seconds, you can generate an AI-driven survey with Specific to start collecting feedback right away.

Best open-ended questions for student surveys on feedback timeliness

Open-ended questions give your online course students the space to share details you might never think to ask, making them especially valuable when you want insights instead of surface stats. They work best when you seek in-depth perspectives, stories, or examples that can explain what’s working — or what’s not — in your feedback process.

1. Can you describe your overall experience receiving feedback in this course?

2. How did the timing of the feedback impact your learning and motivation?

3. What did you like most about the way feedback was delivered during the course?

4. Were there times you felt feedback was delayed? If so, how did that affect you?

5. In your own words, how does timely feedback help you succeed in online classes?

6. Can you recall a specific instance when you received feedback that was especially helpful or unhelpful due to its timing?

7. What suggestions do you have for improving the speed or usefulness of feedback in future courses?

8. How do you typically use feedback once you receive it? Does the timing impact this?

9. What challenges have you faced due to the timing of instructor or peer feedback?

10. Is there anything else you’d like to share about your feedback experience in this course?

Open-ended questions invite honest, reflective responses — and, with automated follow-ups, you can dig even deeper to uncover actionable details. When you give students space first, and then probe with smart follow-ups, you capture true context for improvement.

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for student feedback surveys

Single-select multiple-choice questions offer quick, structured data, making them perfect for quantifying sentiment or identifying trends at scale. They also lower the barrier to participation — sometimes students respond more honestly when the choices are easy to scan, and it sets the stage for thoughtful follow-up questions to clarify or expand on interesting responses.

Question: How often did you receive feedback on assignments within a timeframe you found helpful?

• Always

• Most of the time

• Sometimes

• Rarely

• Never

Question: How satisfied were you with the speed of feedback you received in this course?

• Very satisfied

• Satisfied

• Neutral

• Dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

Question: What method of receiving feedback do you prefer most?

• Email notifications

• In-platform messages

• Live discussions

• Other

When to follow up with "why?" Whenever a student gives a rating or selects a choice but doesn’t provide details, following up with "why?" unlocks valuable context. For example, if someone picks “Rarely” on timely feedback, a follow-up like “Why did you feel the feedback was rarely on time?” helps you get to root causes and actionable ideas. According to research, clarifying follow-ups improve the quality and actionability of survey insights dramatically. [1]

When and why to add the "Other" choice? When you know there might be diverse opinions or unlisted preferences, add an “Other” option. It lets students highlight something outside your provided choices — and a quick follow-up (“Can you specify?”) can surface patterns you weren’t aware of. These open responses can lead to surprises and deeper improvements for your course.

Should you use an NPS-style question?

NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a classic metric that asks, “How likely are you to recommend this course (or instructor’s feedback process) to a friend?” It’s simple but powerful, especially when you need a standardized way to benchmark satisfaction or track improvement over time. For feedback timeliness, an NPS question like this can reveal how feedback cadence affects students’ willingness to promote your course — and nudges you to probe both promoters and detractors for critical details. If you want to try this approach, you can auto-generate an NPS survey for students on feedback timeliness in a few clicks.

The power of follow-up questions

We see it in almost every course survey: the best insights happen only after you ask, “Tell me more.” That’s why including automated follow-up questions is a game-changer in a student feedback survey. Smart follow-ups dig into why a student selected “neutral” or what they meant by “feedback felt slow.” Instead of just crossing your fingers that students elaborate on their own, the survey nudges them at the perfect moment.

With Specific, AI-driven follow-ups adapt in real time — so if a student shares something ambiguous like “Sometimes feedback took a while,” the AI can immediately ask for clarification or examples, like a real researcher would. This is crucial, because unstructured feedback (with no probing) can often be vague or incomplete, requiring time-consuming back-and-forth via email later on. With automated follow-ups, you get richer context, reduce researcher workload, and ultimately make your survey feel more conversational and less mechanical.

• Student: The feedback on assignments felt too slow.

• AI follow-up: Can you describe a specific instance when the feedback was delayed? How did that affect your progress?

How many followups to ask? Typically, 2–3 targeted follow-ups are enough to get all the context without overwhelming the student. With Specific, you can set custom logic to stop as soon as the required detail is gathered, making the experience seamless for respondents and efficient for you.

This makes it a conversational survey — the entire experience feels more like a thoughtful dialogue than a stiff form, boosting completion rates and engagement.

AI response analysis, effortless insight extraction. Even if you collect thousands of words of open feedback, it’s easy to analyze responses using AI. Specific’s GPT-powered summaries turn a messy wall of text into actionable insights and key themes, so you don’t waste hours coding answer spreadsheets by hand.

Automated follow-up questions are still a new concept for many — but once you experience how much more you learn, it will change how you approach every future student survey. Want to see it in action? Try generating a survey and experience AI-powered follow-ups for yourself.

How to prompt ChatGPT to generate great survey questions

When working with AI (like ChatGPT or Specific’s survey builder) to craft survey questions, prompts are everything. The easiest way to get started is to ask:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for online course student survey about feedback timeliness.

But you’ll get even better results by adding details — like describing your course, the student’s profile, or your goals. More context = more relevant questions.

For example:

I teach an asynchronous online course for working professionals. I want to know how the timing of my assignment feedback affects their learning. Suggest 10 deep questions to uncover their experience and expectations around feedback timeliness.

Then, you can organize questions further:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Once you see the categories, it’s easy to focus your survey. Let’s say categories like “Perceived Impact” or “Feedback Methods” emerge, you can then prompt:

Generate 10 questions for categories Perceived Impact and Feedback Methods.

This workflow helps you go from generic surveys to laser-focused, highly relevant student questionnaires in minutes — and Specific’s AI survey editor lets you edit or adapt the suggestions instantly in plain language.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey is exactly what it sounds like: a survey that feels more like a chat than a boring checklist. Thanks to real-time AI, your students answer questions, receive smart follow-ups, and can even clarify their thoughts as if they were talking with a human.

The old way? You build a lengthy Google Form or send a SurveyMonkey link. Students see a wall of rigid questions, and you get short, half-baked responses, especially to open-ended prompts. Conversational surveys flip that on its head — they keep students engaged, probe for clarity, and adapt just like a good interviewer. That’s how you consistently collect better, more actionable feedback.

Why use AI for online course student surveys? Because AI can generate and adapt surveys faster and smarter than traditional methods, keep students engaged, and surface insights you’d otherwise miss. Want an AI survey example? With Specific’s survey generator, you can get a tailored conversational experience that’s ready to deploy and easy to analyze. We’ve built our platform to deliver the best-in-class UX for both survey creators and respondents, ensuring your feedback process is smooth and genuinely useful. Dive deep into the details of how to create a survey — you’ll be amazed at how much easier and richer the process can be.

See this Feedback Timeliness survey example now

Unlock deeper insights from your online course students—discover how an AI-powered, conversational survey can boost quality and engagement in your feedback collection. See how easy it is to go from survey idea to actionable results today!