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Mid-course evaluations

Mid-course evaluations, typically conducted between weeks 4 and 7 for regularly scheduled courses, allow you to provide feedback to your instructors during the course while some adjustments are still possible.

Note that even if your instructor does a mid-course evaluation exercise, it is still important to provide feedback through your Mercury end-of-course evaluation, as this is the official course evaluation system for the University. 
 

Methods instructors use for mid-course evaluations

Online Survey in myCourses Discussions Tool in myCourses

Your instructor may create an anonymous survey through myCourses. This allows you to answer questions and provide anonymous written feedback.

Select the Post as Anonymous checkbox to submit your feedback anonymously in an anonymous myCourses discussion board.

How to participate in myCourses discussions.
Anonymous Polling Questions

Your instructor may ask you to use the Polling @ McGill service (previously known as clickers) to answer some multiple-choice and open-ended questions anonymously.

Learn more about Polling @ McGill
One Minute Paper Student-led Discussion

Your instructor may ask you to pull out a sheet of paper and take one minute to answer a question, such as: "What single thing could I change about my teaching that would improve this course for you?" You would then submit your paper to the instructor.

Your instructor may, depending on the size of the class, ask students to break out into groups of no more than 20 students. While the instructor is outside of the classroom, one student facilitator leads a discussion on constructive feedback for the instructor and Teaching Assistants, while another student reporter takes notes on the discussion.  The reporter then conveys the feedback to the instructor after class.  

View guidelines on mid-course evaluations.

 

Sample questions on mid-course evaluations

  1. What do you like best about the course and the instructor's teaching?

  2. If there was one thing that you could change about this course, what would it be?

  3. Do you feel comfortable expressing your opinions or asking questions in this course?

  4. Any specific areas of change, for example:  Should we continue the online discussion forums? Do the voluntary review quizzes/other practice tools work for you?

  5. Is there a strategy that really works for you? If so, which one? (e.g., summary at the beginning of class, weekly quizzes, questions that accompany the reading material, class discussions, online discussions)

  6. What could you do to make the course better for you and the instructor?

  7. Is there an area where you would need more guidance/support to enhance your learning?

  8. Do you have any additional comments or concerns?
     

Considerations when providing feedback

McGill University is on land which has served and continues to serve as a site of meeting and exchange amongst Indigenous peoples, including the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabeg nations. Teaching and Learning Services acknowledges and thanks the diverse Indigenous peoples whose footsteps mark this territory on which peoples of the world now gather. This land acknowledgement is shared as a starting point to provide context for further learning and action.

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