Providing Constructive Feedback

Teaching is fundamental to the University of Florida. We appreciate your confidential feedback, which improves learning and is also used for Faculty development and evaluation.

Research shows that we may evaluate identical course content and teaching differently based on unintentional stereotypes, such as professor age, gender, nationality, race, title or other characteristics. For example, women and people of color may be rated lower even when no actual differences exist.

Please keep this in mind and focus evaluations on course content (assignments, readings, in-class materials) and not unrelated matters (instructor’s appearance).

Use the following guidelines to provide your instructor with constructive feedback:

Guidelines: 

  1. Be respectful—Your evaluation is a professional communication. Derogatory or offensive language are inappropriate and unhelpful.
  2. Focus on course substance—Comments about clothing, hairstyle, etc., are unhelpful.
  3. Be clear and specific—Think about activities and content (assignments, lectures, discussions). Provide examples and constructive suggestions.

After final grades are submitted at the end of the term, evaluation results are shared with the instructor and administrators. Therefore, keep in mind that you are communicating directly (though anonymously) with the instructor – they see the evaluation results (without your identity).

Prior to completing your course evaluations, consider: 

Confidentiality: course evaluation results (both numeric and free-response) are provided to the instructor, as well as administrators within the department and college. 

The results are not made available until after final grades have been submitted at the end of the term.

 

Less Helpful or Vague

More Helpful and Specific 

“The instructor was great”

“Dr. Smith was quick to respond to student questions and concerns. She fostered an environment that encouraged us to speak up and contribute to the conversation.”

“The instructor just lectured the whole time”

“In a 3 hour course, I would suggest taking a few breaks between the topics being covered. A little more time should be spent on interaction with the students with hands on learning and discussion.”

“The instructor was engaging”

“The instructor included multiple class discussions throughout class. They posed questions for us to grapple with and asked us to formulate how we would approach the issue.” 

“Improve organization of the course”

“I never really knew what to expect when coming to class. The syllabus did not include an outline of what would be covered each week. The wording in the slides were unorganized and led to confusion on relatively simple topics.”  

“Tests were not on what I learned”

“The content in course materials was very general or in some cases very specific. It was very difficult to know what topics to review for the upcoming exams. It would be nice to have a review guide that covered the relevant material to review.”

“The textbooks were unhelpful”

“The textbook did not appear to relate to the concepts covered in class. It would have been useful if the instructor highlighted the portions of the textbook that supplemented the content learned in class or included relevant problem sets or review questions. I appreciated that the instructor added journal articles and other shorter materials that enhanced what we learned in class.”

“The teacher really cared about the students.”

“I really appreciated that the instructor always answered emails within 24 hours and never canceled their office hours. They also made it a point to learn all of the students' names and a little bit about each of us.”