This article will show you how to create a parent survey about remote learning experience to understand what worked and prepare for future school closures. A well-designed parent survey is crucial because it reveals how families experienced remote education firsthand.
Parents offer unique feedback on their children's remote learning experience, surfacing essential insights that schools can’t get anywhere else.
Why parent surveys matter for remote learning assessment
Parents witnessed firsthand how their children adapted to the sudden shift to remote learning. Their perspective helps fill in the gaps left by traditional academic measures. Only parents can describe:
The specific technical challenges at home—like device shortages or unreliable internet
The emotional impact of isolation, stress, or new routines
How the learning environment at home shaped focus, motivation, and willingness to participate
Areas where school communication either supported or frustrated the family
Traditional surveys often gloss over the emotional context parents want to share, or miss the evolving barriers unique to each household. By using conversational survey tools that enable dynamic follow-up questions, we can uncover richer and more nuanced experiences—not just static ratings or checkboxes.
When follow-ups happen in real time, the survey starts to resemble an actual conversation. Parents open up, and we get those “aha!” moments that inspire real change.
Essential topics for your parent remote learning survey
To capture the full picture, a strong survey covers a few essential areas. If you’re looking to build a comprehensive survey, here’s where to start:
Technology access and challenges: Ask parents about the types and quality of devices available, internet reliability, and what kind of tech support (if any) the household needed. Approximately 30% of parents found it “very or somewhat difficult” to assist their children with technology during remote learning [1].
Learning environment at home: Dig into where students did their work, how distractions were managed, and whether parents needed to adjust work schedules or routines in order to help.
Academic progress and engagement: Get feedback on student attendance patterns, how assignments were completed (or not), and how well teachers kept in touch with both students and parents.
Social and emotional impact: Explore signs of isolation, loss of motivation, or changes in peer interaction. Parents often notice subtle changes in mood or stress that schools can’t see from a distance. 38% of parents felt their children learned less during remote periods [4].
Future preparedness: Invite parents to share what resources, training, or changes would help if remote learning is needed again.
With a tool like the AI survey generator, you can combine these topics into a robust, engaging survey without spending hours on question design. Try using prompts like:
Design a parent survey to understand technology barriers, the at-home learning environment, and support needed for future remote learning.
How to structure questions that parents want to answer
Balancing open-ended questions with structured ones delivers both breadth and depth in your parent survey. Open-ended questions capture nuanced stories (“Tell us about any challenges your child faced during remote learning”), while multiple-choice and rating scales quickly pinpoint trends.
Here are three sample questions you might use:
“What barriers or frustrations did your family face with remote learning technology?”
“On a scale from 0 to 10, how satisfied were you with the communication from your child’s school?” (NPS-style)
“Which of the following best describes your child’s workspace during remote learning?” (Multiple-choice: dedicated room, shared space, no defined space, etc.)
Here’s how traditional vs. conversational survey questions compare, especially when you want to dig into root causes:
Traditional Survey Question | Conversational Survey Question |
|---|---|
Rate your satisfaction with remote learning (1–5) | How did remote learning work—or not work—for your family? Can you share any specific moments that stood out? |
Did you experience internet issues? (Yes/No) | Can you describe any internet or technical issues you encountered? How did it impact your child’s studies? |
Were you satisfied with teacher communication? (Yes/No) | How did your child’s teachers communicate during remote learning, and what did you wish was different? |
Conversational survey questions allow AI-powered follow-ups to clarify and dig deeper into concerns—just like a helpful interviewer. When you want to refine your survey, using an AI survey editor allows you to tweak wording, add follow-up logic, or specify the kind of stories you want parents to share—all by describing your intent in plain language.
For instance, adding these kinds of prompts makes survey creation stress-free:
Add an open-ended follow-up whenever a parent mentions internet challenges.
Turning parent feedback into remote learning improvements
Raw data isn’t helpful unless you can turn it into clear action. AI analysis makes a huge difference: it can rapidly identify common patterns and surface themes across hundreds of open-ended responses. Some actionable insights schools often discover include:
Widespread need for tech support or Wi-Fi booster devices
Preferences for flexible schedules to fit family routines
Gaps in school-to-home communication flow during crises
Emotional strain on students, especially youngest or those with special needs
You can filter parent responses by grade level or demographic—so, improvements can be precisely targeted where they’ll make the most difference.
Here are example AI analysis prompts you might use:
Summarize the top three technology issues mentioned by parents in grades 6–8.
What emotional impacts did parents mention most often about remote learning?
AI-driven tools like Specific's response analysis let schools chat with the data conversationally. I can dive deeper with questions like “Which concerns are unique to single-parent households?” instead of endlessly scrolling spreadsheets.
When you can chat with the data, it’s easy to bring parents’ real voices into strategic planning.
Getting more parents to share their remote learning experiences
Even the most thoughtful survey won’t help if parents don’t respond. Timing your survey at the end of the semester or right after major changes boosts participation, since parents’ experiences are fresh in their minds. Consider these tactics to make distribution easy:
Email, SMS, or messaging apps suited to your parent community’s habits
Integration with school-parent portals or direct messaging apps
Printed QR codes sent home for those who prefer mobile access
Multilingual support: Make your survey accessible to all parents, regardless of language. In 2022–23, 5.2% of children received home instruction—up from 3.7% just a few years earlier, underscoring the growing diversity in learning environments [3].
Surveys in a conversational format lead to higher completion rates, because parents feel recognized and heard. With conversational survey pages, sharing via link is simple—and these feel more like personal invitations than mass emails.
For maximum engagement, brand your survey to reflect your school’s identity and communicate its relevance. Highlight in your outreach that feedback will directly shape future planning.
Start capturing parent insights today
Parent feedback is essential to improve remote learning and prepare for the unexpected. Don’t let critical insights slip through the cracks—create your own survey and turn parent experiences into your school’s roadmap for what comes next.