Course Evaluations: Student Resources

Providing Constructive Feedback

Student Feedback is an integral part of the teaching and learning process here at Stony Brook. The information you provide to your instructors is what helps them make improvements to their teaching methods and overall course design. Therefore, it is important that your feedback is as constructive and helpful as possible. 

Who is your audience? Your comments are used by...

• The instructor(s), to assess their course and make possible improvements.
• Students, to help them decide which courses to take.
• Program administrators, to make specific course and/or program improvements; to develop training for instructors

What are you asked? Course evaluations include the following open-ended questions:

• What, if anything, did you find most valuable about this course?
• In what ways, if any, could this course be improved?

Quality course evaluation feedback should:

• Be specific
  When commenting on the course or the instructor, be sure to provide detailed examples.
• Focus on your learning experience
  Describe what helped you learn most effectively in the class (e.g. practice activities, lecture slides, opportunity for question/answer), and what you found challenging. What might have helped you overcome those challenges?
• Avoid personalization or emotional comments; describe actual incidents
  For example, commenting that, "The professor is sarcastic at times during lectures, which makes learning difficult and confusing" is more helpful than commenting that the instructor is a "sarcastic loudmouth."
• Describe how the instructor’s behavior or elements of the course affect you
  Describing how a situation makes you feel offers the reader a different perspective. For example, "I found the final exam fair, but long. I knew all the material but struggled to finish the exam on time. I felt very stressed by the time pressure and may not have performed my best." This feedback allows the instructor to understand the situation better than saying, "The exam was unfair."
• Offer alternative solutions or suggestions to critiques of the instructor or the course
  For example, "The course could be recorded which would help with studying, I could easily just go back and listen to that part of the class." is very helpful to the instructor when planning the course design for the following year.
• Provide comments about the instructor or the course that are constructive and formative
  Constructive comments offer specific reasons for judgment. These are very helpful as they inform the instructor of what you suggest to be kept or changed. While comments regarding what needs to be improved to help you learn may come more readily, it is just as helpful to remind the instructor about what went well. Essentially, you want to emphasize what the instructor should continue doing in the future, in addition to what changes they should make.
• Be respectful
  Derogatory remarks or criticisms based on identity (e.g., race, color, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, sex, marital status, disability, or status as a U.S. veteran) are not appropriate.
• Include your Teaching Assistant(s)
  If your course had Teaching Assistants, you might provide feedback to them. Please take the time to offer constructive comments about strengths and areas for improvement. Feedback early in their teaching careers will be instrumental in helping them become great educators.