Mid-Semester Feedback Options

Mid-Semester Feedback Survey

Mid-Semester Feedback (MSF) has undergone a revision and transitioned to the CoursEval tool, the same platform UMSL uses to collect End-of-Course Student Feedback. The revised question set was piloted in CoursEval during the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 semesters.

Register for Mid-Semester Feedback

Mid-Semester Feedback (MSF) is an optional, anonymous, confidential, and non-evaluative online survey administered through CoursEval to students to obtain early feedback on a 16-week course. MSF allows instructors to adjust or optimize a course while the semester is still in progress, provides insights into professional development, and empowers students to feel involved in shaping their educational experience. 

Benefits for Faculty

Research has shown that soliciting mid-semester feedback can:

  • Stimulate and motivate faculty to learn more and improve their teaching methods
  • Positively impact student perceptions, motivations, and engagement
  • Improve end-of-semester survey results

Instructors can use MSF to identify student concerns or opportunites for clarification, adjust pacing or expectations, and gain a clearer picture of how students are experiencing the course at the mid-point of the semester. 

Benefits for Students

  • Students feel empowered to share what is working well and what may be challenging
  • Feedback can reduce barriers to learning and increase clarity
  • Transparency in the follow-up process strengthens communication and trust
  • Students can see their feedback directly influence the learning environment

 

Only the course instructor has access to view Mid-Semester Feedback results. Department chairs, deans, or other administrators cannot access or request MSF reports. MSF is designed to support formative improvement, not evaluative decision‑making.

Faculty can register for Mid‑Semester Feedback from the first day of the semester up until the end of the fifth week. View this semester’s CoursEval Schedule for specific dates.

How to Use Mid-Semester Feedback Results

The Mid-Semester Feedback Survey serves a fundamentally different purpose from the common End-of-Course Student Feedback Survey and should be interpreted with a formative, growth-oriented lens. The goal is not to summarize performance, but to understand how students are experiencing the course at the mid-point and identify small adjustments that can support learning during the rest of the semester. Here are several strategies that can help faculty make the most of Mid-Semester Feedback results.

Students often respond to the open-ended questions in narrative form. As you review comments, look for recurring themes across multiple responses rather than focusing on single strong opinions. Consistent patterns, whether about pacing, assignments, or communication, are usually the most meaningful indicators of the current learning experience.  

For support identifying themes in the open-response questions, faculty may use Microsoft Copilot to help organize and summarize comments. Copilot can help you spot patterns, group related ideas, and highlight strengths students notice, but your professional judgment should guide what actions you choose to take. Please only use Copilot when you are logged in with your UM System Microsoft 365 account, which keeps all data private and stored securely within our system. ChatGPT or other public AI tools should not be used for this purpose unless you have a University-approved educational license. For more information about current guidance on AI tools, including which platforms are approved, please see the UMSL ITS Artificial Intelligence website. 

You can use the prompt below to get started:

I am a faculty member reviewing private mid-semester feedback for [COURSE NAME]. Please analyze the comments below by:

  • Identifying the main recurring themes
  • Sorting feedback into
  • Things I can address this semester
  • Things to control for future course revisions
  • Things outside my control
  • Highlighting strengths students consistently mention
  • Pointing out contradictory or mixed feedback and suggesting how to interpret it
  • Summarizing the top 3-5 takeaways I can act on

Here are the student comments:

[PASTE COMMENTS HERE]

Mid-Semester Feedback often highlights ideas about improving clarity or logistics. Identify one or two small, feasible changes you can implement right away. Students are not expecting an overhaul; even small adjustments can significantly improve engagement or reduce confusion.
Some suggestions can be acted on during the current semester, while others may be more appropriate for future iterations of the course. Use Mid-Semester Feedback to distinguish changes that can immediately support students this semester from those that could inform course redesign later.
Because Mid-Semester Feedback is mid-course and personal, it can feel urgent, but not all suggestions require changes. Evaluate whether the feedback aligns with your goals, disciplinary expectations, and pedagogy. Maintain the integrity of your course design while still being responsive.
Read feedback with curiosity and context. Consider what is happening in the course—and in students’ other courses!—when they are completing the survey. External factors such as major assignments, overall workload, or points of high stress in the semester can influence student perceptions. Understanding these factors helps you distinguish between temporary pressures and patterns that point to ongoing needs in the learning experience.
After reviewing the results, take a few minutes in class or in Canvas to acknowledge what you heard, share what you plan to adjust, and explain what cannot reasonably change. This step increases student motivation and trust, and often improves subsequent feedback.
While Mid-Semester Feedback supports timely, in-semester adjustments, many instructors also use insights from Mid-Semester Feedback to guide longer-term reflection on their teaching. Patterns that emerge over multiple semesters can help faculty identify areas for sustained professional development or document responsiveness to student learning needs. Although it is non-evaluative and instructor-only, faculty may choose to reference themes from Mid-Semester Feedback in promotion and tenure materials as evidence of reflective, improvement-oriented teaching.

GIFT (Group Instructional Feedback Technique)

This service is currently on hiatus.

A Group Instructional Feedback Technique (GIFT) is a facilitated student group interview about what is working well in a course and where obstacles to learning may be. The instructor explains to students in the class session prior to the GIFT what will happen during the process and why the process is being initiated. On the day of the GIFT, the instructor introduces the CTL facilitators and leaves the room.

During the last 20–25 minutes of class, the facilitators guide students to reach a consensus around what is fostering their learning, barriers to their learning, and potential solutions to those barriers. The facilitator then summarizes the responses and, within one to two days, meets with the instructor to discuss the feedback and potential teaching strategies. The instructor reports proposed changes and feedback to the class.

Confidential feedback from a GIFT can be implemented before final end‑of‑semester student surveys to optimize learning. The process empowers students and builds trust with the instructor. Only the instructor and the CTL consultant have access to the feedback.

When active, faculty can register for a GIFT for 16‑week classes by the end of the 5th week and for 8‑week classes by the end of the 3rd week. The GIFT should not be administered directly before or after a major exam or assignment.

 


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