Best questions for student survey about online learning

Here are some of the best questions for a student survey about online learning, along with tips on how to create them. With Specific, you can generate a smart, conversational survey in seconds—capturing richer insights and making your feedback process effortless.

Best open-ended questions for student online learning surveys

Open-ended questions let students express their experiences and opinions in their own words. These yield detailed feedback and help reveal unexpected issues—but they work best when you want context or stories, not just numbers. That said, they can also have higher nonresponse rates compared to closed-ended questions: Pew Research Center found open-ended questions had an average nonresponse rate of 18%—sometimes as high as 50% for specific questions. [1]

1. What has been the most positive aspect of your online learning experience this semester?

2. Can you describe any challenges you've faced while learning online?

3. How has online learning changed the way you interact with your teachers and classmates?

4. What technologies or platforms have made online learning easier or harder for you?

5. In what ways do you feel your motivation has changed with online classes?

6. Can you share an example where online learning helped you understand something better?

7. What feedback would you give to your school or instructors about improving online courses?

8. How do you manage distractions when learning online at home?

9. What resources or support would help you succeed more in online learning?

10. If you could change one thing about your online learning experience, what would it be—and why?

Open-ended questions like these help you discover new themes and dig deeper into student perceptions. For an even smoother experience, you can use Specific’s survey generator to include expert-designed questions with automated follow-ups that drive richer responses.

Effective single-select multiple-choice questions for student online learning

Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect when you need structured, quantifiable data or want to get initial feedback before exploring details. They’re easy for students to answer quickly, and you can always follow up for clarification or depth. This type of question works well if you’re seeking trends or fast benchmarking, initiating conversations that deeper open-ended or followup questions can expand on.

Here are three strong examples for a student online learning survey:

Question: How satisfied are you with your overall online learning experience?

• Very satisfied

• Somewhat satisfied

• Neutral

• Somewhat dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

Question: Which aspect of online learning do you find most challenging?

• Staying motivated

• Technical issues

• Interacting with teachers

• Accessing course material

• Other

Question: How often do you participate in live online classes or discussions?

• Always

• Often

• Sometimes

• Rarely

• Never

When to follow up with "why?" It’s smart to follow up with "why?" whenever a student's answer is particularly positive, negative, or unexpected. If someone selects "Very dissatisfied," following up with "Why do you feel dissatisfied with your online learning experience?" opens the door for specific feedback and actionable improvement. This approach is backed by research, showing that asking "why" can uncover root causes and suggest targeted changes. [1]

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Including an "Other" option allows for unanticipated responses. For instance, if a student chooses "Other" to the question about online learning challenges, a followup can uncover a unique barrier your standard choices missed. These insights often point to new opportunities for support or improvement that you hadn’t anticipated. [1]

NPS-style question for student surveys in online learning

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a simple, proven metric for measuring overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend—originally used in business but now common in education. For online learning, you might ask: "On a scale of 0–10, how likely are you to recommend this online learning experience to another student?" The benefit is comparability and fast tracking of overall sentiment, giving a clear benchmark over time. It's so effective that many education organizations now include NPS in their core feedback strategies. You can instantly create an NPS survey for students about online learning with Specific.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-ups are where conversational surveys truly shine. By asking smart clarifying questions based on earlier answers, you collect richer, more precise feedback—it’s the secret to why conversational AI surveys are trusted for deep insight. We wrote more in-depth about this in our feature breakdown on automated follow-up questions at Specific.

Real-time, AI-driven follow-ups convert vague responses into actionable insights. Specific leverages AI to ask probing or clarifying questions like a skilled researcher, ensuring responses are complete and relevant—without manual intervention or time-wasting emails. This makes the survey engaging, more natural, and less frustrating for students. Here’s how a conversation can unfold:

• Student: "Sometimes I can't focus."

• AI follow-up: "Can you share more about what causes distractions during your online classes?"

• Student: "I like online classes."

• AI follow-up: "What specifically do you enjoy most about online learning?"

How many follow-ups to ask? Generally, 2–3 followups per answer is enough to explore the topic and collect actionable detail—without overwhelming respondents. With Specific, you can set the maximum number or allow students to skip ahead once their input is clear.

This makes it a conversational survey: Instead of feeling like a form, the survey becomes a dialogue. This raises student engagement and increases response quality—something you can only get with a conversation-first approach.

AI analysis, response summaries, themes: Even with lots of open-ended responses, Specific makes it simple to analyze everything using AI-powered conversation tools. For more, see our deep dive into how to analyze survey responses with AI.

Since follow-up questions are still a new concept for most, we always recommend trying them yourself—generate a sample survey and see how the experience shifts from static to interactive.

How to use ChatGPT or AI to create great student online learning questions

If you want to experiment with an AI like ChatGPT to generate your list of questions, the quality of your prompt sets the stage. Here’s a starting point:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for a student survey about online learning.

But you’ll get even better results by adding context: describe your situation, what you want to learn, your goal, or your audience profile. For example:

I'm designing a survey to understand students’ real experiences with remote classes at a university. Please suggest 10 open-ended questions to surface what works well, what’s challenging, and how support could be improved.

Next, ask the AI to categorize the questions—making it easier to balance your survey and spot gaps:

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

Finally, pick categories you want to explore deeper and prompt:

Generate 10 more specific questions for categories such as “Motivation,” “Technology Issues,” and “Instructor Interaction.”

This iterative approach helps you refine your survey with semantic depth and focus, building on each round of AI suggestions.

What makes a survey conversational?

A conversational survey simulates a chat, flowing question by question, adapting based on student responses. Instead of a static list, it listens, probes for clarity, and gives the respondent a sense of being heard. This is where AI survey makers like Specific stand apart from traditional manual survey creation. Not only can you create a survey from scratch with AI in a fraction of the time, but the survey automatically adapts—leading to deeper insights and higher engagement.

Why use AI for student surveys? AI survey examples let you tap into best practices instantly, take advantage of automated followups, and create more engaging, human surveys. You’ll spend less time on logistics and more on understanding your students. Specific leads in conversational survey UX, making it easy for anyone—student or teacher—to give and get valuable feedback.

If you want a step-by-step guide, see our article on how to create a student survey about online learning—it covers survey planning, question writing, and launch tips.

See this online learning survey example now

Want fast, actionable feedback from your students? See how a conversational, AI-powered online learning survey can reveal actionable insights and foster student engagement—make better decisions today.