This article will guide you on how to create an Online Course Student survey about Instructor Effectiveness. With Specific, you can build a tailored survey in seconds—no technical know-how required.
Steps to create a survey for Online Course Students about Instructor Effectiveness
If you want to save time, just generate a survey with Specific. Here’s what it really takes to tap into the power of AI-driven surveys:
Tell what survey you want.
Done.
That’s it. You genuinely don’t have to read any further if you just want results fast. The AI creates surveys using expert knowledge, asks follow-up questions that dig deeper, and helps you capture actionable insights—no more back-and-forth, no headaches.
Want to customize or start from scratch? You can create surveys from your own prompt for any type of audience or topic in seconds. Truly, this is survey creation reinvented for the modern researcher.
Why gather student feedback on instructor effectiveness?
Let’s be real: if you aren’t surveying your students about instructor effectiveness, you’re missing out on core learning opportunities and course improvement. Here’s why these surveys matter:
Surveys reveal how well your instruction is landing. It’s not about vanity metrics—it’s about tangible growth for both students and educators.
You can pinpoint strengths, surface blind spots, and get ahead of disengagement long before student complaints hit your inbox.
According to Learning House, 85% of students enrolled in online courses desire more instructor feedback, showing how critical instructor responsiveness is to overall satisfaction. [1]
That’s not all. The Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education notes that institutions actively seeking and acting on student feedback see higher student satisfaction and retention rates [2]. If you’re not proactive, you’re unwittingly letting valuable insights slip through the cracks. Plus, the Online Learning Consortium reports that 90% of higher ed institutions see student feedback as vital for measuring online course quality [3].
The importance of Online Course Student feedback surveys is hard to overstate—they’re direct pipelines for actionable improvement.
What makes a good survey on instructor effectiveness?
All feedback is not created equal. The difference between a survey that works and one that flops is simple: clarity and honesty reign supreme. The best instructor effectiveness surveys are:
Clear and unbiased: Each question is straightforward and doesn’t lead the respondent.
Conversational: The tone feels like a friendly chat, not an interrogation—people are more honest when they feel at ease.
Let’s look at this visually:
Bad practices | Good practices |
|---|---|
Vague or leading questions | Specific, neutral wording |
Complex, multi-part questions | One question at a time |
The best metric? High quantity and quality of responses. If you’re seeing thoughtful, in-depth answers—not just a bunch of “n/a”—you know your survey is performing.
Question types and examples for Online Course Student survey about Instructor Effectiveness
Let’s break down the essential types of survey questions you’ll want in your instructor effectiveness survey—along with concrete examples and when to use each type. For a deeper dive, check out our curated list of best questions, with tips and guidance.
Open-ended questions are perfect when you want honest, deep insights that go beyond simple ratings. These allow students to share details or context you might not expect. Examples:
What’s one thing your instructor does especially well that helps you learn?
If you could change anything about your instructor’s teaching style, what would it be?
Single-select multiple-choice questions help you quickly spot patterns across many students, streamlining quantitative analysis. Let these cover the essential aspects you most want to benchmark. Example:
How clearly does the instructor explain difficult concepts?
Very clearly
Somewhat clearly
Not very clearly
Not at all clearly
NPS (Net Promoter Score) question is your go-to when you want to gauge overall satisfaction, and segment promoters, passives, and detractors. You can even generate a tailored NPS survey for instructor effectiveness instantly. Example:
On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this instructor to a friend taking a similar course?
Followup questions to uncover "the why". Don’t settle for surface answers. As soon as a student gives a vague or incomplete answer, a smart follow-up (handled automatically by Specific’s AI) digs deeper for motivation or concrete examples.
You gave a low rating—can you share what led to that experience?
Can you describe a specific moment where the instructor’s explanation helped (or hurt) your understanding?
If you’re looking to explore even more question types and expert advice on making surveys engaging for students, explore this article on best questions for instructor effectiveness surveys.
What is a conversational survey?
Conversational surveys feel like a chat, not a bureaucratic form. This format lowers the barrier to participation and makes giving feedback quick and (almost) enjoyable—especially for busy online course students.
Traditional survey forms are static: boring, sometimes overwhelming, and definitely impersonal. With conversational surveys generated by AI, you deliver questions one at a time, react naturally to responses, and invite honest feedback in a way that feels human—mirroring the natural back-and-forth of a real-life interview.
Manual surveys | AI-generated surveys |
|---|---|
Boring forms | Conversational interface |
Why use AI for Online Course Student surveys? Simply put: speed, depth, and engagement. An AI survey builder lets you instantly compose expert-quality surveys, with adaptive follow-up logic you’d otherwise spend hours scripting. The result? Higher response rates and better insights—no guesswork, no wasted time.
If you want a step-by-step tutorial on creating surveys, see our guide to composing and launching surveys. Specific makes the process smooth, conversational, and super intuitive for both survey creators and respondents. This is best-in-class user experience for AI surveys, period.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are what transforms your feedback from half-baked to deeply insightful. With Specific’s AI, each response is the trigger for a conversation—not just a score. Our automatic AI follow-up questions continually dig for context, clarifications, and examples—just like a great researcher would.
Let me illustrate how followups make a difference. If you skip asking “why?”, you might get:
Student: The instructor sometimes goes too fast.
AI follow-up: Can you give an example of when this happened, or explain which topics you felt were rushed?
Without followup, that “goes too fast” comment is a dead end. With one more question, you get actionable context… and your next steps become obvious.
How many followups to ask? Usually, two to three targeted follow-ups yield rich insights without overwhelming your students. You can always set a max number or skip early if you’ve already gotten enough information (Specific includes this flexibility in settings).
This makes it a conversational survey: follow-up questions keep the experience dynamic and personal, fueling authentic conversation between student and AI.
AI analysis, unstructured responses, qualitative feedback: even if your survey collects lots of open-ended, free-text replies, AI-powered tools (like Specific) make it easy to analyze all those insights at scale. Richer feedback, easy analysis—no manual reading needed.
Still curious? Try generating a survey now and watch how the automatic followup logic levels up your respondent engagement.
See this instructor effectiveness survey example now
Get actionable, honest feedback from your online course students instantly—no more confusing forms or guesswork about your teaching. Make better, data-driven improvements today with AI-powered, conversational surveys designed for real insight.