Why Facilitated Feedback?

Why wait until the end of the semester to get feedback from your students on the Student Evaluations of Teaching in Blue? With our Facilitated Feedback program, otherwise known as Ongoing Learning Assessment, we can help you understand the student experience in your courses, regardless of modality, with enough time to effect change that can improve learning.

The Facilitated Feedback Overall Process

  1. You contact CTL to schedule an initial meeting.
  2. During the initial meeting, we will work together to plan the format of the feedback session, select questions, and discuss any issues related to the class. The most common questions include:
    • What supports your learning in this class? (Keep doing)
    • What hinders your learning in this class? (Stop doing)
    • What are specific suggestions for improving your learning in this class? (Start doing)
  3. Schedule a follow-up meeting to discuss feedback.
  4. The facilitator visits your class to conduct a facilitated feedback session.
  5. The facilitator synthesizes student responses and writes a summary for you.
  6. You meet with the facilitator to discuss the feedback and any support you would like in making changes in your courses.
  7. You discuss the feedback with your students. This is a foundational element of this process! The discussion may be a simple “thank you” for your feedback or may go more in-depth with students.
  8. The facilitator deletes notes and summary and does not share anything learned from the session with others.

This highly effective intervention can help you to make small or large adjustments midway through the semester to improve the learning experience for both you and your students. Reach out to CTL for more information or to get started:

  1. Inform your students that a colleague is coming in for the last 15-30 minutes of a class to gather feedback for student learning.
  2. The facilitator will introduce himself/ herself and explain that the purpose is to gather feedback for the instructor to support student learning during the semester and that he/she is there at the invitation of the instructor.
  3. You leave the room.
  4. The facilitator will ask 3 pre-selected questions for feedback; students will discuss in small groups (if larger class), then the whole group. During whole group report out, the facilitator will ask for information deemed most important related to each question.
  5. The facilitator will write or project feedback, noting similar responses with check marks and work to identify and build consensus.
  6. The facilitator will thank students for their feedback and dismiss class.
  7. The facilitator prepares a summary document to share and discuss at the follow up meeting with you.
  8. In the next class meeting, you discuss the feedback with students and your response.

  1. Inform your students through an announcement in Brightspace or an email that a colleague will be running a course-feedback activity.
  2. The facilitator will create a short video or announcement explaining the purpose and process, emphasizing anonymity and constructive feedback.
  3. The facilitator will collect feedback in one of three ways:
    • Create an anonymous discussion board and randomly assign students to small groups. Post feedback questions and collect responses. Summarize responses into themes, highlighting common supports, barriers, and suggestions, and post to discussion for feedback. You are asked not to visit the discussion forum.
    • Create an anonymous Google Form with the feedback questions for students to respond to. Summarize the responses into themes, highlighting common supports, barriers, and suggestions, and email to students for feedback.
    • Create a Google Doc with the feedback questions for students to anonymously contribute to and comment on. Summarize the responses into themes, highlighting common supports, barriers, and suggestions, and ask students to comment.
  4. After the feedback is collected, the facilitator will prepare a summary document to share and discuss with you at the follow up session.
  5. You post a video or announcement acknowledging feedback, explaining which changes will be made, and which constraints prevent certain changes.

  1. Inform your students that a colleague is coming in for the last 15-30 minutes of a class to gather feedback for student learning.
  2. The facilitator will introduce himself/ herself and explain that the purpose is to gather feedback for the instructor to support student learning during the semester and that he/she is there at the invitation of the instructor.
  3. You leave the Zoom meeting and assign the facilitator as host.
  4. The facilitator explains the purpose via screen share/slide, emphasizing confidentiality.
  5. The facilitator places students into breakout rooms of 3–4 for 5 minutes to discuss the three questions.
  6. Each breakout group types their “most important points” into a shared Google Doc, Padlet, or whiteboard visible to all.
  7. After all students return to the main Zoom room, the facilitator summarizes the comments, highlighting common supports, barriers, and suggestions. Students use the Zoom reaction tool to confirm accuracy.
  8. The facilitator prepares a summary document to share and discuss with you at the follow up session.
  9. You post an announcement in Brightspace or discuss the feedback in the next class meeting acknowledging the feedback and what actions will be taken.

The format for facilitated feedback was adapted for Bowdoin College use from “From SGID and GIFT to BBQ: Streamlining midterm student evaluations to improve teaching and learning”, by Margaret K. Snooks, Sue E. Neely, and Kathleen M. Williamson in POD Networks “To Improve the Academy: Resources for Faculty, Instructional, and Organizational Development”, Volume 22, Catherine M. Wehlburg, Editor. Anker Publishing Company, Inc., Bolton, Massachusetts.

Ready to get started?

Fill out this short form, and we will get back to you, to chat about your needs and/or to schedule an appointment with the facilitator as soon as we are able.

Request Facilitated Feedback

What else should I know?

Facilitated Feedback is voluntary and any information about your session is confidential. You pick the facilitator – UMPI has 5 trained facilitators! You may choose to include information from Facilitated Feedback in your peer review binder or not. Facilitated Feedback is a peer model focused on gathering timely, actionable feedback. After we prepare our report for you, we will destroy student comments and our copy of the report. All student comments will remain anonymous and aggregated.

Sample OLA questions

  • What is one thing you, as a student, can keep doing, start doing, or stop doing to improve your own learning in this course?
  • Do you have any specific recommendations for improving this course?
  • What are the strengths of this course?
  • What parts of the course aided your learning the most?
  • What are one to three specific things about the course that could be improved to better support student learning?
  • What changes might improve your learning?
  • What can we do to improve the learning environment?
  • What would you like to change about the course?
  • What have you learned in this course that you have found particularly interesting or exciting?
  • What are the instructor’s strengths?
  • What has been taught that is confusing or unclear and do you feel needs greater coverage in class?
  • What would help you get more out of this course?
  • Does the course environment feel inclusive and respectful of diverse perspectives and identities?
  • Are the goals and expectations of this course clear to you?
  • What could the instructor do to communicate instructions, deadlines, or expectations more clearly?
  • What aspects of this course keep you most engaged?
  • What changes would make you feel more motivated to participate or complete the work?
  • Do you find the feedback you receive in this course helpful to your learning? How could it be more useful?
  • Do the assessments (quizzes, papers, projects) feel like they measure what you’re learning?
  • What could make the course content feel more relevant or connected to your goals?
  • Are the course materials helping you learn effectively?