Here are some of the best questions for an online course student survey about learning path guidance, along with tips on how to create them. If you want to build a survey fast, Specific lets you generate a conversational survey in seconds.
Best open-ended questions for student surveys about learning path guidance
Open-ended questions give us richer insights, revealing not just what students think, but also why. Use these when you want to dig deeper into real experiences, barriers, or suggestions instead of limiting responses to a set of predefined options. It’s especially vital for nuanced topics like learning path guidance, where everyone’s journey differs.
Here are the 10 best open-ended questions you can ask:
What’s your biggest challenge when deciding which course to take next?
Describe a time when you felt unsure about your learning path in this program.
How helpful do you find the current guidance or resources about selecting your next course?
What information or advice would have made your course selection process easier?
Can you tell us about any gaps in the current guidance for planning your learning journey?
When you set goals for your learning, what kind of support do you expect from the course provider?
What’s one thing we could do to better support your decision-making for future courses?
Can you share an example of how personalized guidance helped (or didn’t help) your learning progress?
If you could ask a mentor anything about structuring your learning path, what would it be?
How do you prefer to receive advice or support about course choices (e.g., emails, forums, interactive tools)?
Stats show that engagement—and completion—in online courses is closely tied to how supported students feel in shaping their path. For example, completion rates for cohort-based online courses with strong guidance can hit 98%–100%, versus just 5%–15% for “self-serve” open courses without structure [1][2][3].
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for student surveys
Single-select multiple-choice questions work best when you want to quantify responses or jumpstart a conversation. They're easier for students to answer quickly, especially at the start of a survey, and help you see clear trends. Later, you can follow up to dig deeper into those answers.
Question: How confident are you in your current learning path?
Very confident
Somewhat confident
Not confident
I’m unsure
Question: Which factor influences your next course selection the most?
Career goals
Personal interests
Course requirements
Advice from mentors or peers
Other
Question: Have you used any of our learning path guidance tools?
Yes, and they were helpful
Yes, but they weren’t helpful
No, I didn’t know about them
No, I prefer self-directing
When to follow up with "why?" Ask “why?” right after a multiple-choice response when you need context or reasoning. For example, if a student says they're “not confident” in their learning path, following up with “Why did you feel unsure?” can reveal root causes and actionable suggestions.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? “Other” lets students point out factors or needs you never considered. Following up on “Other” uncovers insights you might miss if people are forced to select from predefined options. It often leads to the most surprising feedback and improvement ideas.
NPS for learning path guidance surveys—does it make sense?
NPS (Net Promoter Score) asks, “How likely are you to recommend [this course/guidance] to a friend or colleague?” It’s a staple for measuring user satisfaction and loyalty. For online course student surveys on learning path guidance, it’s a great metric for benchmarking overall perception and surfacing enthusiastic promoters and frustrated detractors. You can create an NPS survey tailored for this use case here.
Since research suggests that structured guidance and support dramatically boosts satisfaction and completion rates in online learning [1][2][3], tracking NPS helps reveal if your current tools and resources are delivering on that promise.
The power of follow-up questions
Specific’s automatic AI follow-up questions feature is a game changer for getting clarity. When students give an ambiguous or brief answer, the AI can instantly ask for more detail, just like an expert interviewer would in-person. The result is clearer, more valuable feedback without extra manual effort.
Student: “I found the course selection process confusing.”
AI follow-up: “Could you share what confused you specifically? Was it the terminology, the number of options, or something else?”
This follow-up uncovers actionable points, rather than leaving you guessing how to improve.
How many follow-ups to ask? Generally, 2–3 is plenty. You want to probe deep enough to understand the real issue, but not so much that it feels like an interrogation. Specific offers the flexibility to set follow-up behavior and let the AI move on when it gets what you need.
This makes it a conversational survey: You’re not just collecting data—you’re building a two-way conversation that feels personal and engaging.
AI response analysis, qualitative themes, survey insights: It’s easy to analyze lots of open-ended and follow-up responses using AI. AI-powered survey analysis helps you find major themes and actionable patterns without sifting through text manually.
Automated follow-up questions are a new concept—try generating a survey and see how much better the responses are compared to static forms.
How to prompt ChatGPT for better learning path guidance survey questions
Let’s say you want to create a long list of great questions. Start with this simple prompt:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Online Course Student survey about Learning Path Guidance.
But you’ll get better results by giving more context—share your role, goals, student profiles, or the specific challenges you’re facing. Try this:
I’m designing a conversational survey for online course students to improve our learning path guidance. Our students range from working adults to new grads, and many struggle with course choices. Suggest 10 open-ended questions that will help us support students’ decision-making.
Next, organize your questions for clarity:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Review the categories and dive deeper into any area you want to explore:
Generate 10 questions for categories “goal setting,” “decision challenges,” and “preferred support methods.”
This approach helps you get a focused, actionable question set instead of a random list. If you want to skip manual prompt crafting, Specific’s AI survey generator takes care of it with just a sentence or two of input.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey uses AI to guide respondents through a back-and-forth chat—unlike traditional static survey forms, it adapts in real time, probes for depth, and mimics a natural conversation. Students feel like someone genuinely listens to them, which leads to more complete, contextual, and honest responses.
Here’s a quick comparison:
Manual surveys | AI-generated surveys |
|---|---|
Fixed questions, little flexibility | Dynamic, adapts in real-time |
Responses often brief—and ambiguous | Automatic follow-ups for clarity |
Manual analysis required | Instant AI-powered insights |
Time-consuming to build | Survey generated in minutes by AI |
Why use AI for Online Course Student surveys? AI survey generators like Specific cut out the guesswork, automatically producing effective questions based on your goals—while giving respondents a friendly, engaging experience. That means higher completion rates, more actionable data, and less effort for your team. Explore how easy it is in our guide on how to create a conversational survey for course students.
Specific stands out for its user experience, making conversational surveys seamless for both you and your respondents—combine fast survey creation, smart real-time follow-ups, and instant AI analysis, all in one place.
Want to edit your survey after it’s live? Specific’s AI survey editor lets you tweak questions or logic just by chatting with AI, saving huge amounts of time compared to manual editing.
See this learning path guidance survey example now
Supercharge your course insights: see the difference that conversational AI surveys make in engagement, clarity, and speed—bring your learning path guidance feedback to the next level with Specific.