This article will guide you how to create a Student survey about Instructor Effectiveness. If you want to build a Student survey quickly and easily, you can generate your own conversational survey with Specific in seconds.
Steps to create a survey for students about instructor effectiveness
If you want to save time, just click this link to generate a survey with Specific. AI platforms like Specific’s AI survey generator let anyone create student surveys without any manual setup — just describe what you need, and it’s ready to share instantly.
Tell what survey you want.
Done.
You honestly don’t even need to read further — the AI builds the right questions with expert knowledge, and even follows up with students for deeper, actionable insights. Semantic survey tools make this effortless and accurate.
Why instructor effectiveness surveys matter for student feedback
Let’s get real: student surveys about instructor effectiveness are more than a checkbox. They are the most direct way to measure what’s actually working in the classroom and to fix what isn’t.
If you’re not running these, you’re missing out on consistent opportunities to improve your courses, enhance student satisfaction, and even boost teaching careers. Students offer rich, firsthand feedback when you give them a chance and a safe space to do so.
Surveys with concise, clear questions and a mix of quantitative and qualitative items tend to achieve higher response rates— this leads to more reliable data and better improvement decisions. [1]
Consistently collected results allow you to spot trends early, making it possible to adjust course content or teaching style before it’s too late.
Ensuring anonymity dramatically improves the honesty of feedback, providing you a clearer, truer picture of what’s going on. [2]
The importance of student recognition surveys can’t be overstated. If you’re not collecting this feedback, you might never know what’s holding back student learning or what’s making an instructor stand out—leaving both students and staff in the dark.
What makes a good survey about instructor effectiveness?
If you want to gather student perceptions and actionable opinions on instructor effectiveness, only well-designed surveys will work. The benefits of student feedback are directly tied to the quality of your questions. The best surveys are:
Clear and unbiased: questions that don’t lead, confuse, or overwhelm.
Conversational and approachable: the tone should make answering feel safe and even enjoyable.
Balanced: use both open-ended and structured question types to draw out genuine responses while making quantifiable analysis possible.
Anonymous: foster trust so students feel comfortable sharing the truth.
Here’s a quick look at common pitfalls and best practices:
Bad practices | Good practices |
|---|---|
Leading or biased questions | Neutral, open-ended phrasing |
All closed or “rate-from-1-to-5” questions | Mix of structured and open feedback |
Ambiguous instructions | Clear, direct guidance for every item |
Formality that discourages honesty | Conversational tone students relate to |
The real measure of a survey’s quality isn’t just the number of responses, but the richness of the feedback. Great surveys maximize both.
Types of questions for student survey about instructor effectiveness
Let’s dig into the most effective types of questions for capturing how students really feel about their instructors. A strong survey should blend open-ended, single-select multiple-choice, and NPS questions, along with targeted follow-ups for deeper insights.
Open-ended questions empower students to share details, context, and opinions you may not have anticipated. These are perfect when you want authentic reactions or want to understand “why.” Examples:
What’s one thing your instructor does that really helps you learn?
How could your instructor improve their teaching methods?
Single-select multiple-choice questions help you compare data across many students. They are best used for quick, structured feedback that’s easy to quantify. Example:
How clearly does your instructor explain course material?
Very clearly
Somewhat clearly
Not clearly at all
NPS (Net Promoter Score) question is highly effective when you want to measure the likelihood of students recommending a course or instructor. You can easily generate an NPS survey for students about instructor effectiveness. Example:
On a scale of 0–10, how likely are you to recommend your instructor to other students?
Followup questions to uncover "the why" take your survey to the next level. These help in clarifying confusing answers or exploring motivations, so you don’t get stuck with vague data. For instance, after a student rates something low, it’s critical to ask, “Could you share more about what didn’t work for you?” Example:
Your instructor’s explanation wasn’t clear? Can you provide specific examples or situations where you felt lost, so we can address those?
For more inspiration, see our in-depth guide on the best questions for student surveys about instructor effectiveness, which also offers extra tips for composing smart, unbiased items.
What is a conversational survey?
Conversational surveys transform the feedback process from a rigid form into a dynamic, human-like interaction. Unlike traditional tools that just throw a static list of questions at students, conversational surveys adapt in real time, probing deeper when needed and making it easy for people to share honest thoughts—even on their phones.
AI survey generators like Specific take this to the next level: instead of crafting static surveys, you simply describe your goals, and the platform designs a tailored conversation for you. The survey adapts, follows up, and learns, creating a richer and smoother feedback loop compared to dated manual approaches.
Manual surveys | AI-generated surveys |
|---|---|
Clunky web forms | Conversational chat interface |
No follow-up or context | Smart follow-ups gather richer insights |
Manual editing for every change | Edit in seconds with an AI survey editor |
Hard to analyze open responses | Instant summaries and AI-powered analysis |
Why use AI for student surveys? The main reason is AI survey generation slashes the time, effort, and guesswork needed to collect feedback. With an AI survey example, you can test new course content, measure teaching methods, and surface unknown issues faster than ever. Specific’s interface ensures the process feels like a real conversation for both survey creators and students, raising participation and data quality.
If you want a step-by-step guide, check our article on how to create a survey for students about instructor effectiveness.
The power of follow-up questions
We’ve seen how crucial it is to ask the right question, but even the best phrased item sometimes needs a follow-up to reveal true student sentiment. That’s where Specific’s smart, automated AI follow-up questions really shine. Instead of relying on a fixed script or tedious email ping-pong, Specific’s AI proactively asks clarifying questions based on the student’s own words, delivering richer context and key insights—making your survey genuinely conversational. Learn more about the automatic AI followup questions feature for deeper dives.
Student: The instructor’s explanations could be better.
AI follow-up: Can you share a specific example when the explanation didn’t make sense, or describe exactly what could be improved?
How many followups to ask? Generally, 2–3 targeted follow-ups per topic are enough to extract actionable context. Specific lets you fine-tune this and offers settings for skipping to the next question if you’ve collected enough detail.
This makes it a conversational survey in every sense: every answer triggers a relevant reply, just as if you were chatting with a real-life researcher.
AI-powered analysis of open-ended and followup responses is easy with Specific. If you’re worried about parsing a sea of text, don’t be—see our article on how to analyze survey responses using AI for tips.
These automated followup questions are a new standard—try generating a survey and see the difference for yourself.
See this instructor effectiveness survey example now
Ready to capture powerful, honest student feedback and unlock actionable insights? With conversational, AI-powered surveys, you’ll make instructor reviews truly meaningful—fast and effortlessly. Create your own survey and experience the future of educational feedback.