Best questions for online course student survey about office hours helpfulness

Here are some of the best questions for an online course student survey about office hours helpfulness, plus tips on crafting a great survey. With Specific, you can generate a tailored conversational survey in seconds—no expertise required.

Best open-ended questions for student surveys about office hours helpfulness

Open-ended questions encourage students to share detailed feedback, giving us deeper understanding of their experience. They’re invaluable when we want genuine, nuanced insights. Interestingly, in large-scale research, 76% of respondents chose to leave written feedback when prompted with open-ended items—clear proof that people have more to say when given space to say it [1].

That said, open-ended items can also have higher nonresponse rates, so use them thoughtfully and always review your phrasing for clarity [2]. Here are ten of the best open-ended questions to uncover what students really think about office hours:

1. What aspects of office hours have been most helpful to your learning in this course?

2. Can you describe a time when attending office hours made a difference in your understanding of course material?

3. What challenges, if any, prevent you from attending office hours regularly?

4. How could the format or timing of office hours be improved to better support you?

5. In what ways do you think office hours could be made more engaging or accessible?

6. Are there topics or course areas you wish were addressed more often during office hours?

7. If you've attended office hours, what did you expect going in, and were those expectations met?

8. How comfortable do you feel asking questions during office hours? What could make you feel even more comfortable?

9. What suggestions do you have for making office hours more useful for students like you?

10. Is there anything else you’d like to share about your experiences with office hours in this course?

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for student surveys

When we want to quantify student experiences or lower the barrier to participate, single-select multiple-choice questions are ideal. They’re quicker for respondents and deliver immediately actionable, structured data. Research shows that these types of questions are less cognitively demanding—students scored significantly higher when responding to single-select questions, a win for engagement and clarity [3].

Here are three strong examples for an office hours helpfulness survey:

Question: How often do you attend office hours for this course?

• Every week

• 2-3 times per semester

• Once per semester

• Never

Question: How helpful do you find the office hours you’ve attended?

• Very helpful

• Somewhat helpful

• Not very helpful

• Not helpful at all

Question: What is the main reason you do not attend office hours more frequently?

• Schedule conflicts

• Lack of need

• Unaware of timings

• Uncomfortable asking questions

• Other

When to follow up with "why?" It’s a good idea to follow up with a “why?” when you want to understand the reasons behind a choice. For instance, if someone selects “Not helpful at all,” a follow-up like “Why did you find them unhelpful?” can uncover actionable feedback that would otherwise remain hidden.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Adding an "Other" option is useful when you can’t anticipate every possibility. Follow-up questions here are gold—asking students to elaborate can surface unexpected issues that closed choices would never catch.

Should you use NPS-type questions with students?

The classic NPS (Net Promoter Score) question asks students, "How likely are you to recommend office hours in this course to a classmate?" It’s simple, memorable, and yields a single score that’s easy to track over time. For online course student surveys, using a NPS survey helps us gauge both overall satisfaction and opportunities for improvement. NPS works especially well with tailored follow-ups asking "why" after a low rating, letting us learn not just what students think, but what drives their experience.

The power of follow-up questions

What sets conversational AI surveys apart is how they use follow-up questions to drill deeper, in real time. Specific’s AI-driven followups act like a skilled interviewer—they instantly analyze the previous answer and ask clarifying questions to get the full context. This isn't about badgering; it’s about understanding, and it makes all the difference:

• Student: "Sometimes I feel lost during office hours."

• AI follow-up: "Can you share what makes you feel lost? Is it something about the way the office hours are run, or the topics being discussed?"

Without that follow-up, we’d have a vague comment and no idea how to improve. With it, we're actionable.

How many followups to ask? Usually, two or three follow-ups are plenty—enough to clarify without making the exchange tedious. Specific lets you cap the depth, and even gives the respondent a way to move on if they feel done—this keeps the experience smooth for everyone.

This makes it a conversational survey: Follow-ups transform a static survey into a real conversation. This two-way feel increases engagement and reveals what really matters, not just what makes it onto the first draft of your question list.

AI survey response analysis: AI makes it easy to instantly analyze all responses—even if you’ve ended up with lots of rich, unstructured student comments. Tools like Specific’s AI response analyzer let you uncover key themes and stats in minutes, not hours.

Automated follow-ups are a leap forward in survey design. Try generating a survey just to see how much easier and richer student feedback collection becomes.

How to prompt ChatGPT to generate great survey questions

If you want to use ChatGPT or another GPT model to brainstorm questions, prompts matter. Start simple:

Ask for a list of open-ended questions:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for online course student survey about office hours helpfulness.

If you give GPT more context—your role, course structure, specific challenges—the results get even better. For example:

I am an instructor for a large online course with over 200 students. We run weekly office hours, but attendance is low. My goal is to understand how helpful students find office hours, what stops them from coming, and how to improve them. Suggest 10 survey questions to capture detailed student feedback.

Once you have a list, ask GPT to sort them for clarity:

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

Scan the categories, pick which ones really matter, then drill in:

Generate 10 questions for categories attendance and perceived helpfulness.

This method quickly creates a strong, relevant question bank tailored to your exact goals.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey feels like a chat, not a form. Students answer questions in natural language, then the AI asks smart, instant follow-ups, just like a good interviewer would. This format adapts in real-time to each answer, driving richer, clearer feedback than old-school forms.

Compared to traditional survey tools, AI survey generators like Specific let you create, tweak, and launch surveys simply by chatting with the platform. This is a huge shift—instead of manually setting up question blocks and logic, we use natural language. It’s not just easier; it’s way faster to get a great survey in front of students.

Why use AI for student surveys? The fast, chat-like survey flow means students are more likely to participate and offer real feedback. Plus, with AI handling followups and analysis, you get deeper, clearer insight with less work.

Want to learn how to build one yourself? Check our step-by-step guide on how to create a survey for online course students about office hours helpfulness. Or, see how the AI survey editor lets you make changes instantly by describing what you need in plain language.

We designed Specific to deliver the best-in-class conversational survey experience—making it seamless for both students and instructors to dive into feedback and drive improvement.

See this office hours helpfulness survey example now

Experience deeper, actionable student feedback instantly with conversational AI surveys crafted for online course students—see how easy it is to get started and unlock insights that help you improve office hours today.