Course Evaluation Form Template

What is the course evaluation form template?

A course evaluation is only useful if people actually finish it and answer honestly. This template is built around that: a short first page to set the context, two rating grids that take seconds to click through, a workload and pace section, and finally open comments for anything the ratings didn't capture. Students or trainees can respond anonymously by simply leaving the optional name field blank.

Running this online instead of on paper handed out at the last session means you're not stuck transcribing handwriting or chasing people who missed that day — anyone with the link can respond in their own time, from any device, and doesn't need a FileIt account to do it. A closing date can be set so the survey shuts itself off once you've moved on to the next term or cohort.

Every submission is turned into a PDF the moment it's received and filed in your FileIt vault, in whichever folder you choose for that course. If you're gathering evaluations across several courses or terms, each one lands as its own dated PDF, and the full set can be exported to CSV whenever you want to look at the numbers together.

Who uses a course evaluation form?

• A college department collecting end-of-term feedback on a lecturer and course content
• A training provider evaluating a workshop or short course immediately after it finishes
• A corporate trainer checking whether workload and pace suited the group before running it again
• A tutoring or exam-prep business gathering structured feedback across multiple instructors
• A curriculum team comparing ratings across terms to see whether changes to a course actually helped
• An online course creator sending the evaluation link once a cohort reaches the final session

Questions on this course evaluation form

17 questions over 4 pages · includes conditional questions, multiple pages, ratings.

The course evaluation form, page by page

1 About the course

A short note up front tells respondents their name is optional and they can answer anonymously. They then fill in the course name, the instructor's name (optional, in case one person is evaluating several instructors separately), the term or dates, and how many sessions they attended — all, most, about half, or fewer than half.

Asking attendance up front matters: someone who missed most sessions is answering from a different vantage point than someone who was there every week, and having that on record helps you weigh the comments that follow.

2 Ratings

This page opens with a simple five-star "Overall, how would you rate this course?" rating, then two ratings grids. The first, "The course," asks respondents to agree or disagree with six statements — the learning objectives were clear, the course was well organised, materials and resources were useful, assessments matched what was taught, feedback on their work was timely and useful, and they learned a lot.

The second grid, "The instructor," covers five statements about how ideas were explained, how prepared the instructor was, how engaging sessions were, how approachable they were, and how helpfully questions were answered. Splitting course quality from instructor delivery means you can act on the two separately — course materials might need work even when the instructor is well-rated, or vice versa.

3 Workload & pace

A radio question asks whether the workload was too light, a little light, about right, a little heavy or too heavy, followed by an optional number field for hours spent on the course outside sessions each week — useful for sanity-checking whether the stated workload matches what people actually experienced.

A 1–5 scale then asks how difficult the course was, labeled from "too easy" to "too hard," and a final radio question covers pace — too slow, about right, or too fast. Together these three questions give a quick read on whether the course needs to move faster, slower, or stay as it is next time it runs.

4 Your comments

Open text questions ask what worked best and what should change next time. If someone gave an overall rating below 3 stars, a further question appears asking what the main problem was — so the form only digs for detail from people who had a difficult experience, rather than asking everyone to justify a good rating.

A yes/no question asks whether they'd recommend the course, and the page closes with optional name and email fields — the email field only appears once a name has been entered, for anyone who'd like a reply.

Make the template yours

• Rename the course, instructor or term fields to match how your institution refers to them
• Add or remove statements in either rating grid to match what you actually want feedback on
• Set a closing date so the evaluation stops accepting responses once the next term starts
• Turn on email notifications so you see low overall ratings as soon as they come in, rather than waiting for term-end
• File responses into a folder per course or per term so you can compare cohorts later
• Add a question about specific assignments or materials if you want more granular feedback
• Set the confirmation message to thank respondents and mention when changes based on feedback typically happen

Tips for a better course evaluation form

• Keep the anonymous option genuinely anonymous — don't require an email address if you want honest answers about a struggling course
• Send the link while the course is still fresh in people's minds, ideally right after the final session
• Ask only what you'll actually use — a shorter form gets more complete responses than an exhaustive one
• Read the open comments alongside the ratings, not instead of them; a single detailed comment can explain a whole cluster of average scores
• If you make changes based on feedback, mention it the next time you run the course — respondents are more likely to fill in future evaluations if they see it makes a difference
• Export a term's responses to CSV before archiving the course, so the summary data is easy to compare year over year

Course evaluation form: frequently asked questions

More form templates

All Feedback & surveys templates · Every form template

Templates are a starting point. Check that the questions and any wording about consent, privacy or terms suit your situation and the rules where you are. Page last reviewed 2026-09-26.