One of the major problems with end-of-the-semester evaluations is that they occur too late to help those students who are currently enrolled. Nowadays, teachers are garnering feedback from their students much earlier in the semester. Teachers who do this show that they really care about the quality of their instruction and the opinions of their students. It allows teachers to build on the things that are working well and improve upon the things that are not.
A good source that discusses this method is W.C. Rando and L.F. Lenze’s Learning from students: Early-term student feedback in higher education (1994). It includes reports from teachers who have used early-term student feedback. They show how early-term student feedback has helped make teaching and learning more effective. Their book organizes sample items that might be asked on early feedback surveys under six topics:
Are students learning what I set out to teach?
How much content and in what order?
Am I making myself clear?
Are my students actively involved?
How does my grading affect student performance?
Is my classroom comfortable for learning?
Some campus teaching centers offer computer banks of items that can easily be incorporated into an early-feedback questionnaire and quickly scored.