Mid-Semester Unit Survey

Why use a mid-semester survey?

One of our key priorities is improving the ‘student voice’ – not just in terms of giving students opportunities to share their ideas and opinions with us, but also giving us the opportunity to respond to them in ‘real time’, so that the things we do make a difference to their experience, and they know that we have listened to their feedback and responded. Although 80% of students at Manchester think that they have plenty of opportunities to give us feedback, only 49% believe that it’s listened to or acted on (NSS 2024). We need to do better at ‘closing the loop’.

We can’t always do everything that students might ask us to: some things aren’t possible because of other constraints. But it’s important to let them know that we want to know what they think, that we’ve heard it, and that we will act on the things that are within our scope to do so (and escalate other things).

We’re sharing the good practice of colleagues across UoM who use mid-semester surveys in class time on their course units / modules and discuss the results with their students within a week or so of deploying the survey. Their experience indicates that their students feel listened to and valued, and while we can’t always implement everything students would like, engaging in a dialogue with students as part of ‘business as usual’ is something we want to encourage in the Faculty.

As such, mid-semester surveys or ‘check-ins’ enable us to ask students how it’s going and give us the potential to make changes to their experience of a module / unit. Sometimes small changes can make a real difference. This example of a short survey is designed to support this type of ongoing dialogue with our students.

The mid-semester survey is not intended as a tool for students to reflect on their own learning or engagement; there are other methods for that, such as end of unit evaluations. It is intended for them to tell us how it’s going so far, and whether we can do anything to better support their learning, engagement or understanding.

You do not have to use this format or survey if you prefer a different approach. You could use post-it notes, flipchart paper, a ‘suggestions box’, Padlet, Mentimeter, a whiteboard – the choice is yours. They key however is that it is in class time and that you talk to students about why you’re doing it, and then again about what, if anything, you can change in-semester to support their learning.

Please note: this type of survey feedback is only available to you as the course unit director (and anyone you choose to share it with) – it is not accessible to others.

To implement a mid-semester survey using Microsoft Forms, use the guidance that follows.

How to link the Mid-Semester Unit Survey to your Blackboard course

There are two ways in which you can do this.  You can use MS Forms (part of the Microsoft 365 suite) or use Qualtrics if you have access to it.  With MS Forms, you can use our form template to get you started.

Alternatively, the advantage of using Qualtrics is that you can embed the form directly into Blackboard, whereas MS Forms will link out and away from Bb. (Thanks to Alexander Gunz for this top tip and instructions.)

Skip to the Qualtrics method here.

MS Forms method

Step 1:

• Duplicate this form to your own account by clicking the green ‘Duplicate it’ button in the top right-hand corner (as shown in the picture below, circled in red).

Step 2

• 2.1 Click the green ‘Collect responses’ button (circled in red below):

• 2.2 Select your preferred privacy setting, (recommended = ‘Only people in The University of Manchester can respond’):

• 2.3 Click ‘Copy link’ on the right-hand side of the window that pops up. You can also choose to shorten the URL by ticking the checkbox that appears underneath:

Step 3: Copy the URL to your Blackboard course

• 3.1 With the link copied to your clipboard, open the Blackboard page where you would like to link the form. Select ‘Build Content’ and choose the option ‘Web link’ (both circled in red).

• 3.2 Title the link with the name of your survey and paste the copied URL into the relevant box. Scroll down to add a description to tell students what to do, and to choose visibility options or restrictions.

Step 4: Post an announcement on Blackboard to your participants.

• 4.1 On the Home Page of your Blackboard space, click ‘More announcements…’

• 4.2 Select ‘Create Announcement’

• 4.3 Title your announcement and describe where the survey is linked in the page. Scroll down to add further details and links. Click ‘Submit’ in the bottom right-hand corner to complete.
  

Qualtrics method

With Qualtrics, you can embed the form directly into Blackboard so that students don’t have to click any links to answer the questions (response rates for humans drop every we have to click on something).

• • 1. Copy your questions into a blank Qualtrics survey
  • 2. Obtain link for new survey
  • 3. On Blackboard create a new “item”
  • 4. Click the same “Source Code” button (it looks like “<>”)

     

    

  • 5. It will pop open a text window into which you enter the following code:

     

    <iframe width=”100%” height=”400″ src=”htts://SURVEY_LINK”>

    </iframe>

    Insert your survey link.  Change the width or height values as desired (if you leave them out, it apparently defaults to squeezing the survey into a small box)

• 6. You need to put a title on the item. I use: “A quick mid-semester check-in (please only do once – it’s not smart enough to hide after you’ve done it)”

(Thanks to Alexander Gunz for suggesting this method.)