End of course and end of semester survey questions
An end of course survey asks students, in the last weeks of a course, what helped them learn, how many hours the work really took and what to change before the next group enrolls. The core 12 takes about six minutes. Each item below lists its scale and the decision the result informs.
- 32questions
- 12in the core set
- 6 minto answer the core
- Collegeand high school courses
By Michael Hodge, BSc Psychology Updated September 2026
All 32 end of course survey questions
The core 12 is selected from the start. Add a whole set for assignments, online delivery, the teaching team or students' own effort, or pick single questions. Beneath each item are the options on offer and the reason it made the list.
The core 12: this course, start to finish12 questions
Seven statements about learning, structure, grading and materials, two workload questions, a tick list of what helped and two open questions. The twelve work as a complete survey without any of the sets below.
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I can now do things I could not do in week one.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeThe learning question, asked as a change students can check against their own memory of the first week.
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Class time went to the goals on the syllabus.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeShows whether the course delivered what it promised, or drifted toward whatever took longest.
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Each part of the course built on the part before.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeSequence. A low score usually points to one unit that sits out of place or assumes skills nobody taught.
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I knew what good work looked like before starting.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeClear standards. Rubrics and worked examples move this answer more than anything else.
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The graded work tested what the course taught.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeAlignment between teaching and grading, the complaint that sours a course most in the final weeks.
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Comments on my work helped with the next assignment.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeAsks whether feedback arrived in time to be used, not how much of it there was.
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The course materials were worth the time they took.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeReadings, videos and slides as one value judgement. The assignments set asks about single tasks.
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In a typical week, how many hours did you spend on this course outside class?
Under 22 to 34 to 56 to 89 or moreReal hours you can set against the credit the course carries. The bands suit a 3-credit course; shift them for other loads.2
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Given the credit it carries, the amount of work in this course was:
Too lightA bit lightAbout rightA bit heavyToo heavyHow the load felt. Read it with the hours question: the two often disagree, and that gap is the finding.
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Which parts of the course helped you learn the most?
LecturesReadingsDiscussionLabsAssignmentsProjectsOffice hoursTick all that applyTells you what to protect when you trim the course. Rename the options to match your own course before sending.
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What should stay exactly the same next term?
Open answerStudents name what works, and those are the parts a redesign tends to break by accident.
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If you could change one thing before the next group takes this course, what would it be?
Open answerOne change per student. Sorted into piles, the answers become a short list of fixes ranked by how often they appear.
Assignments and deadlines5 questions
For a term when the assessments are up for review. Swap in the names of your own assignments where the open questions allow it.
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Instructions for each assignment were clear.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeUnclear briefs create extra emails and uneven grades. This shows how often it happened.
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Deadlines were spread sensibly across the term.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeBunched deadlines are one of the easiest course problems to fix over a break.
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Group work split the effort fairly.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeOnly for courses with group projects. Low scores suggest peer ratings or smaller groups next time.
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Which assignment taught you the most, and why?
Open answerNames the task worth keeping, with the reason in the student's own words.
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Which assignment would you cut or redesign?
Open answerThe other side of the question above. When one task keeps coming up, ask the class about it in person.
Online and hybrid delivery4 questions
For courses taught fully or partly online, where most problems start on the course site rather than in the lesson.
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Finding what I needed on the course site was:
Very difficult12345Very easy1 = Very difficult, 5 = Very easyNavigation is fixable in an afternoon, and it colours every other answer in an online course.
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Following the recorded lectures was:
Very difficult12345Very easy1 = Very difficult, 5 = Very easyRecordings that are too long or poorly labelled show up here first.
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Getting a reply to a question between sessions was:
Very difficult12345Very easy1 = Very difficult, 5 = Very easyResponse time, which online students feel more sharply than students who see you twice a week.
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How did you mostly take part in this course?
In personLive onlineRecordingsA mixLets you split every other answer by how students actually attended.
Instructor and teaching assistants4 questions
A short set for the people who taught the course. For a full evaluation of the teaching, use the teacher evaluation questions linked at the foot of this page.
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Sessions were well prepared and started on time.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreePreparation is the part of teaching students can see directly.
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Help outside class hours was easy to get.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeOffice hours, email and forums together. A low score often explains low scores on feedback.
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Teaching assistants gave feedback I could use.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agreeLeave it out when the course had no teaching assistants.
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What advice would you give the instructor for next term?
Open answerStudents are often generous and practical when asked for advice rather than a verdict.
Your own part, and your verdict5 questions
Students reflect on their own effort before judging the course, which gives you the context for every other answer.
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How many of the class sessions did you attend?
Almost allMostAbout halfFewer than halfLets you check whether low scores come from students who missed most of the course.
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How much of the assigned reading did you do?
AllMostAbout halfA littleNoneIf few students did the reading, the reading list is the first thing to look at, not the students.
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Compared with week one, your interest in the subject is now:
Much higherHigherThe sameLowerMuch lowerA course can teach well and still put students off a subject. This catches it.
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What would you do differently if you took this course again?
Open answerStudents name their own habits, and the best answers make good advice for next term's first week.
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How likely are you to recommend this course to a friend with the same goals?
0123456789100 = Not at all likely, 10 = Extremely likelyOne overall number that you can compare term to term, with "same goals" keeping it about fit.
About you (optional)2 questions
Only when one survey covers several sections or years. Report a split only if each group has enough students to hide any one of them.
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Why did you take this course?
Required for majorRequired electiveFree electiveInterest onlyStudents who had to take a course rate it differently from those who chose it. This shows by how much.
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What year of study are you in?
FirstSecondThirdFourth or laterGraduateUseful when the same course serves beginners and students near the end of a degree.
Your own questions next to the official evaluation
End-of-course evaluations are standard across US higher education.1 The official form asks the same items in every course so results can be compared, which means it cannot name your assignments or check your workload. Send your own short survey in the same week, or add these items where your institution lets instructors add custom questions.
| The standard form usually asks | Your own survey can ask | Questions on this page |
|---|---|---|
| An overall rating of the course | Which parts to keep and which to change, in students' words | 11 and 12 |
| Whether workload was reasonable | Hours per week, set against the course credits | 8 and 9 |
| Whether grading was fair | Whether graded work matched what was taught | 4, 5 and 6 |
| General questions about materials | Which named assignment to keep, cut or redesign | 13 to 17 |
| The same items every term | A check on the change you made last term | Add one statement |
Before the official evaluation opens, tell the class which parts of the course you most want comments on, such as the new project or the switch to weekly quizzes. Students then spend their effort where it helps you, on both forms.
Timing it around the last weeks of term
When and how the survey goes out decides who answers it, and how much of what they say you can use.
Open it late, close it before grades
Send the survey once the last big assignment is back, while the course is still fresh, and close it before final grades come out. The students who answer first are not a fair sample of the class: early and late responders differ, including in the grades they expect.5 Keep the link open for about a week, with one reminder, so the late group is counted too.
Hand over ten minutes of class
At one large US university, online course evaluations had stayed under 50% response for several semesters. When an evaluator walked 273 students through the survey on their own phones during class, 78.4% responded.3 A second study found response substantially higher when faculty gave class time than when they did not.6 Project the survey address with a QR code, then step outside while students answer.
What 55 faculty did with their end-of-course results
Say what the last group changed
Most instructors act on these answers: in a survey of 55 faculty at one research university, 89% had changed their course because of end-of-course results at least once a year, yet 56% never shared the results with their current students.1 Start the survey with one line about what an earlier class asked for and what you did about it. Explaining how the answers will be used was one of the tactics that raised response rates in a study of 678 faculty.4
Ask once in the middle, too
The end of course survey helps next term's students. A two or three question check around week six helps the students still in the room, and some faculty in the same faculty study said they would rather ask halfway through the course.1 A few exit ticket polls at the end of a lecture do that job in two minutes.
Curious how heavy the course felt before the survey closes? Show the workload question in the final lecture as an instant class poll, and students see the spread in under a minute. Our guide to sharing a poll explains links and QR codes.
Check the workload against the credit hours
Question 8 turns "too much work" into a number you can test. In the United States, a semester credit hour assumes one hour of class and at least two hours of work outside class each week for about fifteen weeks.2
| Credits | Class hours a week | Outside class, at least |
|---|---|---|
| 1 credit | 1 hour | 2 hours a week |
| 2 credits | 2 hours | 4 hours a week |
| 3 credits | 3 hours | 6 hours a week |
| 4 credits | 4 hours | 8 hours a week |
A worked example
Forty students in a 3-credit course answer question 8: six say under 2 hours, fourteen say 2 to 3, twelve say 4 to 5, six say 6 to 8 and two say 9 or more. Only eight of the forty reach the six hours the credit assumes. On question 9, most say the load was about right.
So the course asks less outside class than its credit suggests, and students are content with that. Before adding work, look at question 27: if most students skipped the reading, the fix is making the reading count, for example a short weekly quiz on it, not a longer list.
For a 4-credit course, move the bands up by two hours so the top band starts at the eight-hour mark. For a quarter system, use ten to twelve weeks in place of fifteen.
Read the seven statements on one page
Enter the counts from the paper sheets or the online results. Each of the seven core statements gets a bar, the strongest are tagged, and the two to work on first are flagged, ready to print for your course file.
- 1Fill in the counts for each statement. The panel works out what fraction of the class agreed or strongly agreed.
- 2Rank the seven against one another, not against other courses. The two weakest are where the course itself has most to fix.
- 3Read statements 4 and 5 next to the hours and workload questions. Long hours alongside weak scores on those two suggest students worked hard without knowing what would be graded.
- 4Sort the keep and change comments into a few piles, choose two changes, and name them in next term's syllabus so the new group knows they were asked for.
Course results
Ten quiet minutes and an envelope: the paper route
In the last class, a printed sheet reaches students who never open their email. Give it out as the session begins, allow ten quiet minutes, and ask a student to collect the sheets in an envelope.
Cut the list for your course? for the final session.
End of course survey
The first sheet carries the core 12 under a course and term line, so it stands alone. Each optional set comes after it; print only the sheets you plan to use.
Download PDF
Results worksheet
Mark each paper answer for the seven statements and the what-helped list, find each agreement rate, and note the two changes for next term.
Download PDFThe five-question version for the final class
When the last session is already full, these five still tell you whether students learned, whether grading matched teaching, what the hours were, and what to keep and change.
- 01I can now do things I could not do in week one.
- 02The graded work tested what the course taught.
- 03In a typical week, how many hours did you spend on this course outside class?
- 04What should stay exactly the same next term?
- 05If you could change one thing before the next group takes this course, what would it be?
Where common course questions go wrong
Each weak version here turns up on real end of course surveys. For other question types and topics, see our survey question examples.
How would you rate this course overall?
I can now do things I could not do in week one.
An overall rating blends the subject, the timetable and how well the student did. A statement about new skills points at what the course did.
Were the lectures and readings clear and useful?
Class time went to the goals on the syllabus.
The course materials were worth the time they took.
Two things and two qualities at once. Anyone who liked the lectures but not the readings has no honest answer.
Was the workload reasonable?
In a typical week, how many hours did you spend on this course outside class?
"Reasonable" is a matter of opinion. Hours can be checked against the credit the course carries.
Did the group project help you learn to work in a team?
Group work split the effort fairly.
The weak version suggests its own answer. The better one asks about something students saw happen.
Instructors usually ask these before the final week
Short answers to the questions that come up before the survey goes out.
What is an end of course survey?
A short questionnaire students answer in the final weeks of a course about how it went: what they learned, how the course was organised, how fair the grading felt and how heavy the work was. The answers are used to plan the next run of the same course.
Do instructors actually read the answers?
Most do and act on them. In one study of faculty at a US research university, 89% said they had changed their course because of end-of-course results at least once a year.1 Telling students what changed last time makes the next round more useful.
Should an end of course survey be anonymous?
Yes. Share the survey through a link that never asks who is answering, or let a volunteer gather the paper sheets, and never break results down into groups of just a few students. Close the survey before final grades go out so students know the grade and the survey are separate.
How many questions should it have?
Twelve is enough for most courses, about six minutes of answering. Add a set only when a decision depends on it, such as the assignments set before a redesign. Long rating grids invite students to click the same point all the way down.
What should students write in the comments?
Specific, fixable points: name the week, reading or assignment, say what happened, and suggest one change. "Week 9 lab instructions were missing a step, a checklist would help" is far more useful than "labs were confusing".
Get it out before the last lecture
Load these questions into the form builder, rename the tick-list options to match your course, and share the link in the final week. Or print the paper copy for the last session and collect it on the way out.
