Best questions for parent survey about remote learning experience

Here are some of the best questions for a parent survey about remote learning experience, plus practical tips on designing those questions. With Specific, you can generate a conversational survey in seconds—making it easy to gather genuine feedback from parents.

Best open-ended questions for parent surveys about remote learning experience

Open-ended questions give parents the freedom to share specifics and highlight issues you might not expect. They're perfect when you want deep, authentic stories—not just numbers. In surveys about remote learning, this is especially important since statistics show parents have a wide range of emotions and opinions: for example, a Leanlab Education survey found 3.7 out of 5 average parental satisfaction, but that number hides frustrations and insights only words can reveal. [2]

1. Can you describe your overall experience supporting your child with remote learning?

2. What was the biggest challenge your family faced during remote learning?

3. Which tools, resources, or school practices worked best for your child’s learning at home?

4. Was there anything you wish had been done differently to make remote learning easier for your family?

5. How did remote learning affect your child’s motivation or emotional wellbeing?

6. What changes (if any) did you notice in your child’s academic progress during remote learning?

7. How comfortable did you feel in assisting your child with schoolwork during remote instruction?

8. Did you have adequate support from teachers or the school when you needed it? Please elaborate.

9. Were there any unexpected positives or silver linings for your family during remote learning?

10. What additional support or resources would have made your experience with remote learning better?

Open-ended questions like these let us tap into parent perspectives—whether they report stress (as 70.6% of families did in one study [1]) or find opportunities for growth. These are perfect for capturing emotion, nuance, and actionable stories.

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for parent surveys about remote learning experience

Single-select multiple-choice questions are great when you want data you can easily compare, segment, and track over time. They lower the barrier to a response and can help you spot trends—like how many parents had positive vs. negative experiences. If you want to uncover major themes, single-selects are a solid starting point before asking why.

Question: How would you rate your overall satisfaction with your child’s remote learning experience?

• Very satisfied

• Somewhat satisfied

• Neutral

• Somewhat dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

Question: How confident did you feel in supporting your child’s education remotely?

• Very confident

• Somewhat confident

• Not very confident

• Not at all confident

Question: What was your child’s biggest challenge during remote learning?

• Lack of motivation

• Technical issues

• Limited teacher support

• Distractions at home

• Other

When to follow up with "why?" If a parent chooses "Somewhat dissatisfied," asking "Why did you feel dissatisfied?" opens the door to actionable context. The follow-up turns basic data into insight—helping you fix or improve real problems.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always offer "Other" when you suspect your list might miss unique perspectives. Following up on "Other" uncovers unexpected insights—not every experience fits the categories you predict, and these off-script answers can be gold for understanding parent needs.

NPS question for parent surveys about remote learning experience

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) question—"How likely are you to recommend remote learning at this school to another parent?"—is a trusted, one-line way to gauge sentiment and loyalty. Parents respond on a 0–10 scale. The advantage? It’s a number anyone can understand and compare. For remote learning, NPS can quickly flag whether parents are advocates or skeptics—an essential signal when satisfaction sits only at 3.7 out of 5 on average [2].

See what this looks like in a real survey with NPS for parents about remote learning experience—perfect if you want a ready-to-use survey tailored for parents, complete with auto-generated follow-up prompts.

The power of follow-up questions

Anybody who’s ever sorted through one-word answers knows the pain: follow-up questions make all the difference. Using automated follow-ups with AI rescues the experience—ensuring you never end up with a pile of incomplete answers. Specific’s AI asks smart, real-time follow-ups based on the parents’ initial reply, just like a veteran interviewer would, so you get the full context right away. This is a leap forward from emailing back and forth for weeks to clarify responses.

• Parent: "It was difficult."

• AI follow-up: "Could you tell me a bit more about what made it difficult for your family during remote learning?"

How many followups to ask? We recommend 2–3 follow-ups per topic. This uncovers depth without overwhelming respondents. If you’re satisfied with an answer early, Specific allows you to skip ahead—so you keep things engaging and respectful of parents’ time.

This makes it a conversational survey—parents feel like they’re chatting, not filling out a cold form. It’s a natural, two-way exchange that raises the quality and richness of feedback.

AI survey response analysis, analyze parent responses, and AI-powered summary—these aren’t just buzzwords; AI now makes it easy to analyze long-form, text-heavy responses. Want to learn how to do this yourself? Check out our guide on analyzing parent survey responses using AI.

Automated follow-up questions are still new for most people—give the experience a try and discover how much richer your survey responses can get by building your own AI survey.

How to prompt ChatGPT to generate questions for parent remote learning surveys

Prompts are the best way to leverage AI for question creation. Start simple:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for parent survey about remote learning experience.

But AI gives the best results with more context. Mention your goals, your audience, and what you hope to learn:

I'm designing a survey for parents of K-8 students to understand their experiences, challenges, and successes with remote learning during the past school year. My goal is to identify areas for school improvement, including communication, technology, and student support. Please suggest 10 open-ended survey questions that will surface detailed and actionable insights.

Next, use AI to organize your brainstormed questions into groups:

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

After you see the categories, you can focus your follow-up prompts to go deeper where it matters most:

Generate 10 questions for categories “parental support” and “student engagement.”

This approach makes sure your parent survey covers exactly what you need—and leaves nothing out.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey feels like a real back-and-forth, not just an online form. The AI asks follow-up questions in real time, explores unclear answers, and adjusts based on parent responses. The experience is familiar and engaging—more like texting than filling out paperwork.

Let’s compare:

Why use AI for parent surveys? Because you collect richer, more authentic data, and the entire experience (for both survey creators and parents) is smoother. You’re not spending hours designing, troubleshooting, and manually reviewing responses. With an AI survey example—especially using Specific’s AI survey generator—every question and follow-up can be tailored for your school, your context, and your goals. Parents engage more, and you get answers you can use immediately.

Specific is recognized as a leader in this space, offering best-in-class user experience for conversational surveys—making feedback collection effortless and response rates higher. If you want to see how easy it is, check out our article on how to create a parent survey about remote learning experience.

See this remote learning experience survey example now

Try generating your remote learning experience survey now with Specific and see how effortlessly you can collect deeper insights—thanks to intuitive follow-ups, AI-powered analysis, and a truly conversational experience. Don’t miss your chance to unlock the full story behind parent feedback.