Effective open-ended student evaluation questions As we reach the end of the semester, the students in my class are being asked to do their evaluation of my teaching, as is common at most universities. As with most evaluations that I know of, I have been given an opportunity to provide open-ended prompts for the students to respond to.

I would like to craft open-ended questions for the students that will help me to improve my class/teaching style. This class was a large (~100 students) lecture, so I would like to focus the questions on how to improve myself in teaching large classes. Has any research been published showing which questions (or which types of questions) generate answers that are most effective at helping teachers to improve at teaching large lectures? If no research, is there any anecdotal evidence of "most helpful" questions?
Actually, based on my experience, it is better to ask the questions to the students at the end of the next semester.

During the semester, an average student usually concentrates on passing the course, rather than thinking about the outcomes of the course.
I think one realizes what the course gave him/her after about one semester.
And this is the time that they use their knowledge of your course to understand or pass another course.

Of course, the questions are highly dependent on what you want to improve.
However, it is always more clear what to improve when the students have a chance to use the course outcomes without any expectation of the grade.
If a student says "I wish you underlined the importance of Unit 6. Thus I could understand XX201 better", this is a good feedback, whereas
"This course is sooooo hard." is not.

As for the questions, this is what I ask to my students after one semester. Not like a questionnaire, but face-to-face:


Do you use what I've taught you for this semester?
Are there any redundant topics that I've covered?
How would you study if you were to take the course this semester?