Getting to Know You Survey
A humanizing element for online courses.
Sends the cue, “I want to know how I can support you.”
All students deserve a supportive instructor. But your time is limited and some students will benefit from your high touch more than others. Having your students complete a confidential Getting to Know You Survey in week one will help you identify your high opportunity students. Use the information your students choose to share with you to adapt your teaching throughout the term. If a student has not logged in or has missed an assignment, for example, review their survey response and reach out with a personalized message. Use a subject line that conveys concern like, “Carlos, is everything ok on your end?” as opposed to something like, “Missing Work.” See the different cues these two subject lines send?
Survey Tools
Learning management systems include a survey feature. If you use Canvas, follow this How to Create a Survey instructor guide for assistance. You will also find a sample Getting to Know You Survey in the Canvas Commons shared by Mike Smedshammer of Modesto Junior College. Just search using this keyword: #HumanizingSTEM. If you are a Canvas-user, enable the Notes column in your gradebook and record brief notes about what each student has shared with you. These notes are only visible to you (and any other person enrolled as a Teacher in the course).
If you use Google Forms for your survey (like the sample below), the results will be curated in a Google Sheet, which you can link into an unpublished module in your LMS for your eyes only.
Important Note: This form is provided as a sample that you are welcome to recreate in your own Google account (or with any other survey tool). If you give your students/participants a link to this page, however, and they complete this form, their responses will come to me.