This article will guide you on how to create an online course student survey about learning path guidance. With Specific, you can build a survey like this in seconds—just generate your student survey and capture in-depth feedback with ease.
Steps to create a survey for online course students about learning path guidance
If you want to save time, just generate a survey with Specific—the process is incredibly simple thanks to AI-powered survey generators like Specific’s conversational surveys.
Tell what survey you want.
Done.
Honestly, you don’t even need to keep reading if you take this route. The AI builds the survey for you, leveraging expert research knowledge—and it will even ask your respondents natural follow-up questions to dig deeper and capture real insights, all without you having to script anything.
Why does this survey matter for your course?
If you ignore this, you’re missing out on information that can transform your learning process and outcomes. Let’s talk about why these surveys are essential:
Students want their voice heard—87% of students believe timely feedback from instructors is important for their learning [2]. When you close the feedback loop, your students feel supported and valued, fueling their course engagement.
There’s real academic benefit: Feedback ranks as one of the most significant factors influencing student achievement, with a notable effect size of 0.79 [1]. A good survey uncovers the areas where guidance is unclear and helps directly target content or support where students need it most.
If you’re not actively seeking and acting on this kind of feedback, you’re overlooking potential for higher satisfaction and retention among your online learners—students stick around when they feel their input drives improvement [2].
So, the importance of an online course student recognition survey or a survey focused on learning path guidance goes well beyond compliance or evaluation—it’s about making learning better for everyone involved. The benefits of feedback are clear: better guidance, deeper engagement, and improved educational outcomes for your students.
What makes a good survey on learning path guidance?
Let's not overcomplicate things—a good survey is all about clear, unbiased questions and a tone that encourages honest feedback. In the context of learning path guidance, this is even more critical.
Write concise questions; avoid jargon at all costs. Surveys that use clear language improve response accuracy by 25% [3].
Make the survey conversational. The easier and more natural it feels, the more your online course students will open up about where the learning path is or isn’t working for them.
Avoid leading questions or assumptions—let students tell you honestly whether they understand their next step or feel lost.
Bad practices | Good practices |
Using jargon | Clear, everyday language |
Long, complex questions | Short, focused questions |
No follow-up to clarify | Conversational, adaptive follow-up |
The ultimate test? Quantity and quality of responses. You want both. If students aren’t responding or their answers are vague, you have to rethink your question design or format. Conversational surveys, such as those you can create with Specific, are optimized for capturing both volume and richness in feedback.
Survey question types and examples for online course student learning path guidance
A variety of question types will keep your survey balanced and get you the insights you need.
Open-ended questions are perfect for capturing nuanced thoughts. Use them to ask for honest opinions, experiences, or suggestions. For example:
What’s one thing about the learning path in your course that you find confusing?
Can you describe a moment when you felt lost about what to do next?
Single-select multiple-choice questions are great for structured feedback—especially when you want to quickly see trends or group responses. For example:
How clear are the steps in your current learning path?
Very clear
Somewhat clear
Not very clear
Totally unclear
NPS (Net Promoter Score) question works well if you want to benchmark student advocacy or satisfaction with guidance. NPS questions can be quickly generated using this NPS survey generator for online course students.
How likely are you to recommend this online course’s learning path guidance to a friend or classmate? (0 = Not at all likely, 10 = Extremely likely)
Followup questions to uncover "the why": These are invaluable when you want to dig deeper into a response. For example, if a student says the path is "not very clear", a smart follow-up might be:
What specifically makes the guidance unclear for you?
Can you share an example where you felt uncertain about your next step?
Follow-ups help you move beyond surface answers. If you want more inspiration, dive into our curated list of best questions for online course student learning path guidance surveys, including pro tips on constructing questions for maximum clarity and engagement.
What is a conversational survey—and why should you care?
Conversational surveys mimic real chat interactions, making the feedback process friendlier and much more engaging. What sets AI survey generation apart from traditional survey design is speed, personalization, and quality of results:
Manual surveys | AI-generated surveys |
Manual setup for every question | Instant survey composition via AI |
Static forms; no adaptation | Dynamic follow-ups based on responses |
No built-in conversational flow | Interactive chat-like experience |
Harder to get quality responses | Higher-quality, richer feedback |
Why use AI for online course student surveys? It’s simple: AI survey builders like Specific give you a conversational interface that captures natural, detailed responses, plus the AI drives real-time follow-ups so you never miss context. Interested? Check out our article on how to analyze responses from these surveys—you’ll see how easy it is to turn all that feedback into actionable insights.
The best-in-class user experience of Specific conversational surveys keeps both creators and students engaged. You just describe what you want, and AI takes care of the rest, generating a true AI survey example that’s relevant and actionable each time.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are a game-changer for student feedback. With traditional surveys or static forms, you often end up with incomplete or vague responses—forcing you to email back and forth for clarification (if you get a response at all).
Specific’s automatic AI follow-up questions feature uses the power of GPT-based AI to ask smart, real-time follow-ups based on what a student just said—like a research expert would in a natural interview. This not only builds a richer context but saves a ton of manual work. Here’s how that plays out in practice:
Student: Sometimes the modules are unclear.
AI follow-up: Can you give an example of a module that was unclear and what information was missing for you?
How many followups to ask? Usually, 2-3 follow-ups per topic are enough to unpack the full story. You also want to give respondents a way to skip to the next question once you’ve gathered enough detail. Specific makes this easy to configure to your workflow.
This makes it a conversational survey: Conversations are about asking, listening, and digging deeper—follow-up logic is exactly what makes conversational surveys stand out from static forms.
AI survey response analysis and chat with AI: Even with lots of open feedback, you can use AI to instantly summarize, spot trends, and answer your research questions. Use our article on AI survey response analysis or analyzing open-ended survey responses to see just how easy it is.
These automated follow-ups are a new standard in research—try generating a survey yourself and see how much more actionable your feedback becomes.
See this learning path guidance survey example now
Create your own survey in seconds with Specific and experience the difference: conversational, smart surveys that help you deeply understand your students’ needs and improve your online learning pathways—starting today.