#  Feedback 

 



       ![Overhead view of hands writing feedback on an evaluation form.](/sites/g/files/omnuum6756/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/2025-03/46495143874_c6c65f1cca_k%20%281%29.jpg?itok=gp7-UleZ) 

 

 



 

 



 

It can be helpful to assess your teaching throughout the term, and one strategy for assessment is through asking for feedback from your students. Coordinating with your teaching team to incorporate opportunities for frequent, early, and low-stakes feedback will help you better understand what your students are learning and how they are experiencing your class, allowing you to adjust your teaching methods as needed.

### Collecting Feedback

Formal feedback surveys are administered by Blue via the [Q / Course Evaluation ](https://q.fas.harvard.edu/)at the end of each term, and at the [Midterm](https://oue.fas.harvard.edu/faculty-resources/mid-semester-feedback/) (if the course head opts-in).

For on-going, low-stakes feedback, a few strategies you can use include:

- Minute Papers: end section a few minutes early and ask your students to jot down anonymous answers to a few questions, such as: What did I learn? What am I confused about? What would I like to learn more about?
- [Polling software](https://atg.fas.harvard.edu/classroom-participation-and-polling): you can poll students in real time, check their comprehension, or to prompt group brainstorming. You can also use polling software to see how student attitudes and knowledge shifts over a class, a unit, or a course.

Encourage students to share their names if they would like a follow-up to a specific question or concern.

### The Benefits of Soliciting Early Feedback

Hearing directly from students about what is working well and what is less effective about section allows you to make informed changes to your teaching strategies. It also provides the opportunity for you to communicate to students what can and cannot change and why the course or section is running the way it is.

By asking students to reflect on their learning experiences, you are also encouraging students to recognize their roles as active participants in shaping the learning community.

### Interpreting Student Feedback

Responding to feedback is an important step in the process, and acknowledges the time and thought that students have put into sharing their experiences. This can include: acknowledging what they shared, responding to questions asked, sharing why you have made specific teaching choices, and/or noting that you will be changing an aspect of the way you teach.

If you receive conflicting feedback, it can feel challenging to know how to respond, but it also provides an opportunity to engage with both your students and your teaching team in follow-up conversations, and allows you the chance to reflect on and discuss *why* you have made certain choices in your teaching.

### Putting Students' Feedback into Perspective

While student feedback can tell you a lot about how students are experiencing your teaching, a video consultation is another meaningful way to give you the chance to notice and reflect on your teaching and your students’ experiences. It’s challenging to monitor your teaching in real time, but reviewing a recording with a peer or trained consultant gives you the chance to see how your students are engaging with you, with the course material, and with each other.

[Schedule a video consultation](https://bokcenter.harvard.edu/class-observations-grad)