Here are some of the best questions for an online course student survey about workload, plus tips on crafting effective ones. If you want to build a personalized survey fast, Specific makes it effortless.
What are the best open-ended questions for online course student survey about workload?
Open-ended questions are powerful for understanding complex challenges, motivations, and real-life context—crucial when exploring workload experiences. They invite students to share stories that may not fit predetermined choices, leading to rich, actionable insights. For online course students, whose lives are full of competing demands (with 85% working while enrolled and 74% choosing online education for flexibility), open-ended questions help us learn what actually works—and what doesn’t—in accommodating their needs. [1]
How do you typically manage your course workload alongside your other responsibilities?
What aspects of the course workload feel most manageable to you, and why?
Are there specific assignments or activities you find especially time-consuming? Please explain.
What strategies have you found effective in balancing coursework, work, and personal life?
Can you describe any moments when you felt overwhelmed by the course workload?
Are there resources or support systems that have helped you with workload management?
What changes to the course structure could improve your ability to manage your workload?
How does the pacing of the course impact your overall stress or satisfaction?
What challenges have you faced with time management in this online course?
If you could change one thing about the workload in this course, what would it be and why?
What are the best single-select multiple-choice questions for online course student survey about workload?
Single-select multiple-choice questions are best when we need quantifiable, easy-to-analyze feedback. They work well at the start of a conversation, giving respondents quick ways to share their experiences, which is invaluable given many online students are pressed for time (44% struggle with time management in online courses). [2] After an initial choice, deeper insights often emerge through follow-up questions—or when someone picks “Other.”
Question: How would you describe your current course workload?
Too light
About right
Too heavy
Question: On average, how many hours per week do you spend on coursework outside of class meetings?
Less than 5 hours
5–10 hours
11–15 hours
More than 15 hours
Question: What is your biggest challenge in managing your workload?
Time management
Understanding material
Balancing work/family
Other
When to follow up with “why?” If a response seems broad or generic—for example, someone chooses “Too heavy” for their workload—it’s smart to ask, “Why do you feel the workload is too heavy?” This invites details and can identify concrete issues, such as unclear instructions or overlapping deadlines.
When and why to add the “Other” choice? Including “Other” allows students to provide an answer that may not fit standard options. Following up on “Other” is essential—often these responses highlight unique problems or innovative solutions you hadn’t anticipated.
Should you use an NPS question for online course student workload insights?
NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a straightforward, highly effective way to measure overall satisfaction or likelihood of recommending an online course—especially when tied to workload experience. For online course students, asking “How likely are you to recommend this course, considering the workload?” gives a quick snapshot of whether the workload helps or hinders positive word-of-mouth.
Automating this with a tool like Specific’s NPS survey generator removes friction, so you get both the metric and context-rich follow-ups—all in one conversational flow.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are where the real depth is unlocked. We talk a lot about them in our article about automated followups. In conversational surveys, AI can adapt follow-ups instantly, prompting for clarification, more detail, or specific examples. This is critical for online course student workload surveys, particularly as response rates for traditional surveys can be as low as 20% if the survey feels irrelevant or impersonal. [3]
Specific’s AI asks smart, context-aware follow-ups—like an expert interviewer—so every ambiguous, brief, or interesting answer turns into a real dialogue, not a dead end. Instead of chasing down respondents via email, you get clarity and detail on the spot.
Student: “I struggle to keep up some weeks.”
AI follow-up: “Is there something specific about those weeks or assignments that makes them more difficult for you?”
How many followups to ask? Typically, 2–3 follow-ups are plenty to get actionable insights. It’s important to have settings that let you skip further probing once you have the information you need—Specific lets you customize this, balancing depth and respondent fatigue.
This makes it a conversational survey. The back-and-forth feels like a natural conversation, which means higher engagement and richer data.
AI survey response analysis, AI-generated summaries, survey insights: Even though follow-ups generate lots of qualitative feedback, you can analyze responses using AI with ease—see our guide on how to analyze survey responses automatically, no manual sorting required.
Automated follow-ups are a fresh idea—if you haven’t yet, generate a workload survey and watch how smooth respondent interviews can become.
How to prompt ChatGPT or other GPTs to generate effective survey questions
Want AI to brainstorm your Online Course Student survey about workload? Start with a general prompt for a wide range of ideas.
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Online Course Student survey about Workload.
You’ll get even better questions if you provide extra context—like your goals, your course structure, or specific workload challenges.
Here’s some more context: Our course is fully asynchronous, attracts working parents, and often struggles with low engagement. Please include questions about how work/family responsibilities impact learning.
After collecting some questions, use a categorization prompt:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
From there, pick the most relevant categories, then prompt:
Generate 10 questions for categories "Time Management" and "Course Expectations".
What is a conversational survey, and why use AI-driven survey generation?
Conversational surveys turn rigid forms into natural, back-and-forth interviews—much like a chat with a knowledgeable researcher.
Unlike traditional forms, an AI-powered survey generator like Specific’s survey builder creates a seamless flow, adapting each question and probing deeper based on responses. This approach can boost response quality and participation, which is especially valuable in busy student populations.[3]
Manual Survey Creation | AI-Generated Conversational Survey |
|---|---|
Create every question by hand; time-consuming | Describe what you want—AI suggests expert-level questions in seconds |
No dynamic follow-ups | AI asks smart follow-ups based on answers |
Analysis by hand or with cumbersome tools | AI summarizes and categorizes responses instantly |
Impersonal, form-like experience | Natural, chat-like flow (mobile-friendly, familiar to students) |
Why use AI for online course student surveys? AI-driven survey makers let you generate, launch, and analyze detailed conversations at scale. They turn overwhelming unstructured feedback into clear, actionable summaries, and support real-time insights for course designers and instructors. For semantic SEO: this is the ultimate AI survey example, and the fastest way to generate or create a top-notch workload survey for students.
Specific’s conversational survey builder is designed for smooth, engaging feedback—benefiting both course creators and students. See more on how to create a survey about workload for online course students.
See this workload survey example now
See how easy it is to engage students and uncover actionable insights—start your survey, enjoy real-time conversation, and make feedback feel effortless for everyone.