Here are some of the best questions for an online workshop attendee survey about expectations, plus straightforward tips for designing them. If you want to build a high-impact survey in seconds, you can generate one instantly with Specific.
Best open-ended questions for online workshop attendee survey about expectations
Open-ended questions unlock rich feedback by letting people speak in their own words. They’re your go-to when you want depth instead of simple yes/no responses or checkboxes. According to recent research, 76% of people are willing to add comments in open responses, giving you far more context than closed items ever could. [1] However, since open-ended questions also tend to have a higher nonresponse rate—sometimes as high as 18% on average [2]—you’ll want to use them for your most important insights, and mix in simpler types elsewhere for balance.
Here are 10 of our favorite open-ended questions to ask online workshop attendees about their expectations:
What is your main goal for attending this workshop?
Are there specific topics you hope we'll cover during the session?
What led you to sign up for this online workshop?
How do you hope this workshop will support your current projects or work?
If you’ve attended similar workshops before, what did you like or wish had been different?
What concerns or hesitations, if any, do you have about participating in this workshop?
Are there any skills or tools you want to gain from this experience?
How do you prefer to participate—actively in discussions, or mostly by listening?
What would make this workshop a “win” for you by the end?
Is there anything else you’d like us to know before we start?
These prompts encourage detailed answers and help you understand the nuanced motivations, hesitations, and goals that drive your audience. For even more inspiration, visit our AI survey generator for online workshops.
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for online workshop attendee survey about expectations
Single-select multiple-choice questions are powerful when you need to quantify expectations or break the ice with respondents. They make answering easy, often increasing response rates and offering a useful starting point for later follow-ups. Sometimes, choosing from a short list is less intimidating than formulating a detailed answer up front.
Question: What is your primary reason for attending this online workshop?
Learn a new skill
Earn certification or credits
Network with peers
Get practical tips and tools
Other
Question: Which format do you prefer for workshop sessions?
Lecture-style presentations
Interactive group discussions
Hands-on activities
Q&A with experts
Question: What time of day works best for attending online workshops?
Morning
Afternoon
Evening
When to follow up with “why?” Use a follow-up “why?” when you want to dig deeper into the choices people make. For example, if a respondent selects “Learn a new skill” as their main reason, following up with “Why is this skill important to you right now?” often leads to valuable, actionable insights about real needs and motivations.
When and why to add the “Other” choice? Sometimes, your list won’t cover every possible expectation. Adding “Other” lets attendees bring up needs you hadn’t thought of. Smart follow-up questions here can uncover unexpected insights—sometimes game-changing ones.
NPS questions: Should you include them in an online workshop attendee survey?
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a simple but effective metric to gauge overall sentiment—“On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this workshop to a friend or colleague?” While NPS is often used after the event, adding it to your pre-survey about expectations can help you set a baseline for attendees’ enthusiasm and gather valuable follow-up context. If you want to generate a ready-made NPS survey for online workshops, here’s one to start.
The beauty of including NPS is it allows you to segment expectations by “promoters,” “passives,” and “detractors”—you can then ask different follow-up questions based on their scores, unlocking richer detail about what drives excitement or hesitation.
The power of follow-up questions
There’s no secret sauce quite like the magic of automated follow-up questions. If you’ve ever wrangled with unclear survey answers, you know how much of a difference a good follow-up can make. Specific’s AI follow-ups engage respondents in real time, prompting for detail or clarification based on their initial response and context—just like a human interviewer, but available 24/7.
Online Workshop Attendee: “I just want to learn practical things.”
AI follow-up: “Can you tell me about a practical skill or tool you’re hoping to take away from this workshop?”
Without this second question, we’d be left guessing what “practical things” means. Multiply this by dozens of survey responses, and the value of smart, automated follow-ups becomes obvious—they’re your shortcut to context and clarity.
How many follow-ups to ask? In most cases, 2–3 follow-ups are enough. You want detail, but you don’t want to fatigue your respondents. With Specific, you can set the follow-up depth and even enable skipping to the next question when you've got the context you need.
This makes it a conversational survey: Instead of just a static form, your survey becomes a real dialogue. Respondents stay engaged longer, and you get the “why” behind the “what.”
AI survey response analysis: Even if you end up with a lot of open text, the AI makes it easy to analyze all your responses and uncover key themes—no need to wade through it manually.
These AI-powered, real-time follow-up questions are a leap forward over traditional surveys. Curious how it feels in action? Try generating your own survey and watch the magic happen.
How to use prompts to create better survey questions
If you want to brainstorm your own survey questions—for example, using ChatGPT or another large language model—start with a focused prompt:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for online workshop attendee survey about expectations.
But AI always performs better when you provide more context about your role, your goals, and what you want out of the survey. Here’s a richer prompt example:
I’m organizing an online workshop for a diverse group of professionals. My main goal is to understand what topics they hope to learn about, any hesitations or barriers they may have, and their preferred formats. Suggest 10 specific open-ended questions I should ask before the workshop begins.
Next, help structure your thinking by writing:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Pick out the categories that matter most, and ask:
Generate 10 questions for categories [Insert Category Names, e.g., motivation, format preference, prior experience].
The more you clarify your objective in the prompt, the better and more tailored your results will be.
What is a conversational survey?
Conversational surveys feel like a chat, not a form. Instead of presenting a static block of questions, the AI guides your audience through a natural back-and-forth. Every reply can trigger a follow-up, letting you get clarity and nuance on the spot.
Here’s how conversational (AI-powered) survey builders like Specific differ from old-school manual survey tools:
Manual Survey | AI-Generated Conversational Survey |
|---|---|
Static questions, no adaptation to responses | Follows up dynamically based on each user’s reply |
Difficult for respondents to clarify or elaborate | Feels like a human conversation; AI prompts for more detail when needed |
Responses can be incomplete or confusing | Much richer, contextual insights—usually less ambiguity |
Manual data analysis (time-consuming) | AI-powered summary, themes, and even chat-based analysis |
Why use AI for online workshop attendee surveys? Manual survey tools are rigid and often miss out on respondent nuance. AI survey examples are adaptive, increase participant engagement, and make it infinitely easier to gather and analyze qualitative data—which is especially crucial when you care about expectations and context. For a deep-dive on making your own, check out our guide to creating a workshop attendee survey.
With Specific, you get best-in-class user experience for both the survey creator and the people you’re interviewing. The conversational design keeps the feedback process smooth, fast, and engaging.
See this expectations survey example now
Get deep, actionable feedback from your online workshop attendees by using the right mix of question types and conversational follow-ups. Try out the AI-driven survey builder for richer insights and a natural, engaging experience. Start collecting smarter feedback in seconds.