This article will guide you on how to create an Online Course Student survey about workload. With Specific, you can build tailored surveys in seconds and start collecting meaningful insights right away.
Steps to create a survey for Online Course Student about workload
Let’s get straight to the point—if you want to save time, just generate a survey with Specific and you’re done.
Tell what survey you want.
Done.
You honestly don’t have to read further unless you want to customize your process. The AI survey generator at Specific will take your prompt and instantly create a structured, expert-level survey. It even knows how to ask effective follow-up questions to get deeper insights from your respondents—no manual editing required.
Why a workload survey for online course students matters
Let’s talk about why running a workload survey is essential for anyone managing online courses. The main problem today? Students are wrestling with increased demands, and course creators don’t always know what’s going on behind the scenes.
According to recent research, 43% of students reported increased workload and stress while working from home during online learning transitions [1]. And it gets trickier—25% say they’re overwhelmed by the volume of online assignments [2]. If you’re not running these surveys, you’re missing out on the actual challenges your learners face.
Importance of identifying overload: Helps you catch early signs of burnout or inefficiency in course design.
Direct feedback on student experience: When students report feeling swamped, you can adapt pacing or assignment volume.
Promotes engagement and retention: Students who feel heard are more likely to stay and succeed in your course.
If you want your course to support academic success and a better learning experience, these surveys aren’t a “nice-to-have”—they’re indispensable.
What makes a good survey on workload?
The real art of composing a workload survey is designing clear, unbiased questions that prompt honest and useful answers. You want to avoid jargon, leading language, or anything making a student second-guess their own experience.
Questions should feel like a conversation, not an interrogation. That’s how you get answers students are willing to share (and you can actually use).
Let’s visualize the difference:
Bad practices | Good practices |
|---|---|
Are you lazy with assignments? | How do you feel about your current assignment workload? |
Don’t you think we give you enough time? | Is the time provided for assignments enough for you to complete your work comfortably? |
Ultimately, you’ll know your survey is good when you see both high response rates and detailed, insightful answers. That’s your benchmark: quality and quantity, both above average.
Question types and examples for online course student workload surveys
When you’re building a survey for online course workload, mixing up your question types makes a big difference. You don’t want all open-ended or all ratings—blending them keeps both respondents and your insights sharp.
Open-ended questions invite students to elaborate and give you context you wouldn’t get from a checklist. These are gold for catching pain points you didn’t anticipate. Use these when you want to dig into “why” students feel a certain way. For example:
What is the most challenging part of managing your workload in this course?
Describe a typical week in terms of assignments and deadlines. How do you manage?
Single-select multiple-choice questions deliver precise data you can tally up. These shine when you want to compare, segment, or look for trends. For example:
How often do you feel overwhelmed by your course workload?
Never
Occasionally
Weekly
Daily
NPS (Net Promoter Score) question is powerful for gauging how students feel about your course overall—and if they’d recommend it. When you need a benchmark or want to measure changes over time, this is your go-to. Want a ready-to-use NPS survey? Generate a custom NPS survey here.
On a scale of 0–10, how likely are you to recommend this course to someone balancing a similar workload?
Followup questions to uncover "the why" are invaluable for getting to the root of student frustrations or suggestions. They help transform short or unclear responses into actionable insights. For example:
What could be improved about the workload?
Can you describe a specific situation where you felt overwhelmed?
Want to see more best-practice questions or get tips on fine-tuning your survey? Check out our guide on best questions for online course student surveys about workload.
What is a conversational survey?
Conversational surveys are the new standard for capturing honest, in-depth answers—because they feel like a real chat, not a clinical test. When you’re talking with AI, questions adapt to you in real time. You get follow-ups that actually make sense based on previous replies. Traditional (manual) surveys ask a rigid line of questions and miss out when a student needs to clarify or elaborate.
Manual survey | AI-generated survey |
|---|---|
Static, same for everyone | Dynamic, adapts in real time |
Why use AI for online course student surveys? Because you get an “AI survey example” that feels tailored to each student, collects both structured and unstructured insights, and does the heavy lifting on analysis. The AI survey builder means anyone can launch expert-quality, conversational surveys—instead of building forms the old-school way. Check out how to create a survey step by step here if you want full control.
Specific leads the way with user experience and conversational survey technology, making everything smooth for both survey creators and student respondents.
The power of follow-up questions
No one likes getting vague answers. That’s where automated AI follow-up questions step in. When you use a platform like Specific, the AI asks follow-ups based on each student’s previous answer. These aren’t scripted—they’re smart, context-aware, and adapt like an expert conducting a live interview. The upside? You get rich insights the first time—no wasted back-and-forth over email. Read more about this on our page about automatic AI follow-up questions.
Student: “Some assignments feel like too much.”
AI follow-up: “Could you give an example of an assignment that felt overwhelming?”
How many followups to ask? In most cases, 2–3 follow-up questions are enough. The key is to strike the right balance: ask enough to clarify, but not so many that students disengage. With Specific, you can configure this—when the AI gets a complete answer, it moves to the next question, all automatically.
This makes it a conversational survey—the conversation goes as deep as needed and feels natural, not robotic or rushed.
AI analysis, summarize and categorize responses—don’t worry about handling lots of open-text answers. AI makes sorting and extracting the key points a breeze. See how it works in our guide on analyzing survey responses.
Automated follow-up questions are a new concept for many. Try generating a survey and see just how much context you can unlock from your course audience.
See this workload survey example now
You can generate a real conversational survey for your own students in seconds. Experience higher response rates, smart insights, and a stress-free way to truly understand your course workload challenges—start creating your survey today.