Forward FOCUS (Feedback On Course Understanding and Skills) is an end-of-course confidential survey designed to give an instructor concrete and actionable student feedback to aid in fine-tuning courses for optimal student learning and engagement.
Developed by the UMass Center for Teaching & Learning, Forward FOCUS is:
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Forward-looking: Which aspects of the course should remain in future iterations of the course?
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Focused on student understanding and opportunity for skill development: What were the most valuable things that students learned in your course?
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Actionable: Which course activities were most valuable for students this semester? What changes would improve their learning experience?
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Modifiable: You can add, delete, or modify questions to fit your course.
Currently, Forward FOCUS is available to distribute to your students using Google Forms (e.g., for Canvas users).
- Log into your Umass Google account for access and then make a copy of the survey to your Google Drive.
- Provide your students with a link to the survey and ask them to complete it. Sending reminders is also helpful, as well as providing them with a deadline by which to complete the survey.
Departmental guidelines and faculty directions for implementation
For departments that have chosen the Forward FOCUS as their department course evaluation instead of SRTI.
SPRING 2025
For the spring 2025 semester, departments and programs continue to have the option to choose Forward FOCUS as their departmental course evaluation. Please note the survey instrument a department elects will apply to all instructors (including graduate teaching associates and assistants) in a department. Faculty administering it must share the results with their department. Individual instructors cannot opt to use an alternative evaluation; however individual instructors in departments using SRTI may also administer Forward FOCUS to assist in course redesign.
Department heads/directors will receive email notification from ASER asking them to confirm whether they would like to use Forward FOCUS or SRTI as their departmental course evaluation in September.
For further questions about departmental course evaluations and SRTI, please contact ASER (formerly OAPA) at @email or visit the ASER website page on SRTI.
KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR USE OF FORWARD FOCUS FOR DEPARTMENTAL COURSE EVALUATIONS
- The Forward FOCUS is not centrally administered and the CTL does not have direct access to student responses.
- Departments decide and communicate to all instructors, including graduate teaching associates and assistants, timelines for implementation of the Forward FOCUS and how results are to be sent to departments.
- Faculty using Canvas as their course learning management system must use the Google Forms version of Forward FOCUS.
- Faculty must use the Forward FOCUS without modifying or deleting questions; however, departments can decide to add specific questions to all instructors' surveys. Departments must coordinate this process. In addition, questions can be added to the SRTI from Forward FOCUS or other surveys. Email @email for information.
- Instructors must take action to make the survey available to students and collect responses.
DIRECTIONS FOR FACULTY USING FORWARD FOCUS
Canvas directions to use FOCUS (Google Forms version):
- Sign into your Umass Google account. Make a copy of the survey as a Google Form.
- Open the form you created.
- Select the Responses tab.
- On the Responses tab, click the 3 vertical dots.
- On the dropdown menu, uncheck "Get email notifications for new responses."
- Add your course number to the survey title, filename for the form, or within the survey.
- Provide your students with a link to take the anonymous survey and reminders to complete it.
- Repeat steps 1 -7 for each course in which you wish to use Forward FOCUS.
If you have further questions about how to make Forward FOCUS available to your students in Canvas, contact @email.
Sending responses to your department
- After responses have been collected, the instructor must close the Forward FOCUS survey and then send responses to their departments. Please contact your department to ask in which format they would like the Forward FOCUS results.
For assistance downloading or printing responses to FOCUS, please email @email.
Please contact IDEAS at @email for information on making Forward Focus available to Teaching Assistants.
FORWARD FOCUS PRIOR TO SPRING 2021
Transition to Moodle in the Cloud
Because all Moodle courses were transitioned to Moodle in the Cloud in Summer 2021, Forward FOCUS responses prior to Spring 2021 (e.g., Fall 2020) can no longer be accessed online. This does not apply to instructors who used another survey platform (e.g., Google Forms) to administer Forward FOCUS in their courses prior to Spring 2021.
Learn More about Forward FOCUS
Am I required to use Forward FOCUS?
If your department has chosen to use Forward FOCUS as the departmental option for student evaluations, you are required to use the Forward FOCUS (without modifying or deleting questions) and to submit the student responses to your department.
Individual faculty in departments that have adopted SRTI as their departmental option may continue to use Forward FOCUS. This participation in Forward FOCUS is voluntary and confidential; the anonymous student responses are available only to the faculty member teaching the course. We suggest not overlapping implementation dates of the SRTI and the Forward FOCUS.
How can I get access to the Forward FOCUS?
We have created a Google Forms version of the survey. To create a Forward FOCUS survey for your course:
- Click on “Make a copy” of the survey to save a copy of the Forward FOCUS to your UMass Google Drive account. You may need to sign into your UMass Google account.
- We recommend that you add your course title and number to the survey title or within the introductory text, particularly if you will be administering the form in multiple courses.
- Provide your students with a link to the Forward FOCUS survey (Found under the purple "Send" button in the upper right").
To confirm the Form is set up to be anonymous:
- Open the form you created.
- Select the Settings tab.
- Under settings, expand the Responses section.
- Under responses, confirm that "Collect email addresses" is toggled OFF.
- Under responses, confirm that "Restrict to users in UMass Amherst and its trusted organizations" is toggled ON.
To disable notifications of new responses:
- Open the form you created.
- Select the Responses tab.
- On the Responses tab, click the 3 vertical dots.
- On the dropdown menu, uncheck Get email notifications for new responses.
If you have questions about how to make the Forward FOCUS available to your students, contact @email.
Does the CTL send the Forward FOCUS to my students?
No. The instructor must:
- Embed a link to the Google Forms version of the survey in Canvas;
- provide students with the link to the survey and tell them by when to complete the survey (usually 2 weeks is recommended);
- remind students periodically to take the survey.
Does the CTL send me a report of student responses?
No. Only instructors have access to the Forward FOCUS responses. For departments that choose to use the Forward FOCUS as a departmental option, instructors must send the responses to their department.
Is the survey anonymous?
Yes. The Forward FOCUS survey Google Forms is by default set to be anonymous. Do not modify these settings to preserve student anonymity.
Can I modify Forward FOCUS?
If your department has chosen to use FOCUS as their departmental course evaluation, you may not modify or delete questions on FOCUS. Departments may decide to add questions to all faculty's Forward FOCUS surveys.
Instructors who are using the FOCUS as a supplement to their departmental course evaluations (e.g., SRTIs) may modify FOCUS. You can customize the survey to get targeted feedback from your students. We suggest that you replace existing questions and/or delete questions that are not important to your teaching/course.
Where can I find my Forward FOCUS responses for past courses?
Because all Moodle courses were transitioned to Moodle in the Cloud in Summer 2021, Forward FOCUS responses prior to Spring 2021 (e.g., Fall 2020) can no longer be accessed online. This does not apply to instructors who used Blackboard or another survey platform to administer Forward FOCUS in their courses prior to Spring 2021.
Contact @email for assistance locating past Forward FOCUS surveys, including those conducted in Moodle or Blackboard.
How does SRTI compare to Forward FOCUS?
The Forward FOCUS was designed for instructors to collect formative feedback on the course from their students; thus the questions differ in focus and content (download a PDF of the Forward FOCUS survey to review the questions).
The main logistical difference is that the Forward FOCUS is not centrally administered. Instructors must handle survey distribution and reminders communication with their students for each course in which they use FOCUS. This chart (PDF) summarizes the main differences between SRTI and FOCUS regarding implantation and reporting results.
How can the Forward FOCUS benefit me and my students?
The Forward FOCUS is a course redesign instrument, designed to get specific feedback from students on course activities and experiences and to inform the instructor about ways to redesign or “tweak” the course as it is taught in the future—whether face-to-face or online. Students give feedback on how valuable they found different course activities, what they learned, what was helpful in supporting their learning, and what changes to the course would support their learning. In addition, this survey also gives students an opportunity to reflect and share their experiences. Student reflection on their learning process helps solidify learning for long-term gains (Ambrose et al., 2010).
When should I send the survey to students?
We recommend that you give students about two weeks to complete the survey. For faculty using both Forward FOCUS and the SRTI, we recommend not overlapping the survey administration dates. For assistance with setting the start and end dates for Forward FOCUS or making the survey available to students, please email @email for support.
How do I encourage students to respond?
Consider making the FOCUS part of a weekly assignment checklist, reminder email, and other typical method used to communicate tasks to students.
- Explain in writing, video, and/or in person:
- The purpose: Why are you doing this? What do you hope to learn? What will you do with results and what, if applicable, have you changed in your teaching based on student feedback? What might they gain from doing the survey? If possible, give an example of a change you’ve made to your courses from past student end-of-term feedback.
- Reassure them their answers are anonymous and that you want their honest and constructive feedback.
- State that it will take them approximately 8-10 minutes to complete the survey.
- Show them where/how to access the survey.
- Clarify the date and time by which they should complete the survey and what they should do if they have any questions or difficulty accessing.
- Remind students about the survey periodically.
- Report the response rate and thank all those that have responded already.
- Remind them that it takes 8-10 minutes to complete and that it is important to you to hear their feedback.
- Provide the directions to the survey again and restate the date and time by which to complete.
How can I find out how effective individual aspects of the course were for student learning?
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We have four questions that ask about individual aspects of the course: lecture, discussions, reading, and homework. We suggest modifying these terms to use the names of activities as they were identified in the course syllabus. Focus on the most important activities that you want feedback on.
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Also, remember that the second open-ended question on the Forward FOCUS (“What aspects of this course and/or the instructor's teaching of it - activities, assignments, expectations, tools, etc. - were particularly HELPFUL FOR YOUR LEARNING?“) will give you feedback about what aspects of the course were effective. We have found this question very informative in our CTL midterm assessments.
What are some tips from developing my own rating scale (quantitative) questions?
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As surveys get longer, student response rate decreases. We recommend replacing, rather than adding questions, when possible. If you have used the Forward FOCUS in previous semesters, consider that tracking scores on similar items over time can be helpful in drawing conclusions about your teaching and sharing your teaching strengths.
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It will be easiest for students if you use the same response scale that already exists on the survey, for example: a 1-5 response scale with 1=Almost Never and 5=Almost Always
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Focus on the most important, “big picture” aspects of the course for which feedback will help you improve the course and make changes.
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When possible, avoid double barreled questions that ask about two different things for which students might have different perceptions.
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Double-barreled: I found the technology easy to use and helpful for my learning.
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Instead: I found the technology easy to use.
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What are best practices for writing open-ended, qualitative questions?
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Limit the number of open-ended questions to encourage thoughtful responses.
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For the question that matters most to you, consider adding a statement like, “Your opinion is very important to me,” to encourage a response. Do not use this statement for every open-ended question.
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Focus on the most important aspects of the course for which feedback will help you improve the course and make changes. Provide students with context for questions:
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For example, The TA in this course was tasked with providing you feedback on your research paper. In addition, I also provided you with a detailed rubric for research reports and had you self-evaluate your paper. Which did you find most helpful—TA feedback or the self-evaluation with the rubric—and why?
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As you review student responses to any course feedback tool, remember that their responses reflect not only the experiences they may have had in your class but also the challenges they were experiencing in their own lives. Remember that you did your best, and use the feedback as a starting point for understanding what happened this semester and thinking about your teaching options moving forward.
In Google Forms, click on the "Responses" tab when viewing the survey. To retain a copy, print the survey responses using your web browser or download as a .csv file.
Reflecting on Student Responses
In general, we recommend reflecting on Forward FOCUS responses with these three guiding questions:
- What did students say went WELL? Why?
- What were the “pinch points” for students? Why?
A “pinch point” is a source of persistent challenge, frustration, or where students just tend to get bogged down despite our best efforts. Every course has pinch points. - Based your strengths and pinch points, what manageable changes might positively enhance student learning and your teaching of the course?
Other Ways to View Forward FOCUS Responses
You might consider graphing your quantitative responses on the Forward FOCUS.
By area of effective instruction. The first eight questions on the Forward FOCUS assess five different areas of effective instruction: communication and transparency, learning supports, equity and inclusion, social presence, and engagement. By averaging your scores by area, you can more easily see your strengths in instruction.
Figure 1: Five areas of effective instruction with bar chart of averaged scores by area.
Ranking all quantitative responses. Professor Nick Tooker in Engineering shared his experiences and his anonymous student responses with the CTL. We generated this graph of all of his quantitative items (Questions 1-10, with modifications specific to course to assess the value of “group work” and “labs”), and he was able to see student responses in a new light.
Figure 2: Bar chart of selected responses to quantitative items in descending mean order
Professor Tooker was gratified to see that students felt he was communicating clear expectations and supporting them to learn. They also valued his brief pre-recorded lectures and felt they know what content was critical to learn. Students also valued labs (a survey question the instructor added to his Forward FOCUS survey), and in the open-ended responses, students explained it was because the instructor was present to answer questions and the labs offered hands-on experience.
Next steps
Request a consultation with the CTL to formulate a reasonable and actionable plan for the course going forward. Even if you think a solution is clear (e.g., different technology), it’s still good to do some “big picture” thinking in conjunction with CTL consultants as a first step.
A pinch point is a persistent source of struggle or confusion for your students. Every course has pinch points.
What are my pinch points?
To identify pinch points, ask yourself these questions:
- Where do my students always have questions?
- Where do they always get things wrong on tests or assignments?
- Where do they always ask for explanations in a different way than I provide?
After identifying a pinch point, brainstorm “one more thing” that you can do to help students through this pinch point (Tobin & Behling, 2018).
Keep reading for examples of pinch points and “one more thing” solutions.
Did You Know?
Students may enter college in an "absolute knowing" phase where they rely on experts, such as the teacher, for knowledge they view as certain or absolute. It can take quite a lot of support and practice to transition to an "independent knowing" stage where they view their peers and themselves as sources of knowledge (Baxter Magolda, 1992). Thus, some pinch points are developmental in nature.
Where do my students always have questions?
For their first writing assignment in Junior Year Writing seminar, students always have a number of questions: How long should it be, what are you looking for, how it will be graded …? While the professor has always answered these questions thoroughly in class, she still gets follow-up questions in emails or requests to review drafts ahead of time. While she has always attributed these questions to the fact that it’s the first writing assignment of the course, she has begun to wonder if she can do just “one more thing” to help lessen student anxiety and confusion.
One more thing: Talking with a trusted colleague in his department, the professor realized that she has been providing expectations in different places and in fragments—over email, in class, or on Moodle. She also hasn’t clearly communicated the purpose of the assignment. She decides to create one comprehensive document for assignment #1 following the Transparency in Teaching and Learning (TILT) format.
Where do they always get things wrong on tests or assignments?
In an Engineering Statics course, students constantly skip over the critical stage of drawing a free body diagram when solving a problem. The professor, who has students working in groups, finds that when students are stuck, she often just has to ask them to draw the free body diagram, and they can figure out the solution.
One more thing: Talking with a colleague in the Center for Teaching and Learning, the professor decides that she will split up group work into 2 stages: a free body diagram stage and then a problem-solving stage. After the free body diagram, students will compare their diagrams with that of another group or she will choose one to discuss as a class. Additionally, she decides that if a group of students wants to ask her a question, they will post a picture of their free body diagram in a collaborative online document which she then comments on and other students can see.
Where do they always ask for explanations in a different way than you provide?
In a psychology course, helping students understand the difference between a positive punishment (that decreases or maintains behavior by adding something undesirable) and negative reinforcement (that increases or maintains a behavior by taking something undesirable away) always requires multiple explanations, sometimes over many days.
One more thing: Writing in her teaching reflection journal, the professor decides that she will ask students to develop their own examples of positive punishment and negative reinforcement that they have seen in animal or childcare settings. She will let students know that some of the student examples will be included on the next assessment. After they come up with their examples in groups, the professor will randomly choose examples to present to the class. Class members will identify the type of reinforcement or punishment using an online student response system, and they will discuss the correct answers as a class. If examples are incorrect, the class will collaboratively rewrite them.
References
Baxter Magolda, M. B. (1992). Students’ Epistemologies and Academic Experiences: Implications for Pedagogy. The Review of Higher Education, 15(3), 265–287. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.1992.0013
Tobin, T. J., & Behling, K. T. (2018). Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education. West Virginia University Press. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/62887
Forward FOCUS in the News
- UMass Advance leadership team members Ethel L. Mickey, Dessie Clark, and Joya Misra wrote an article for Inside Higher Ed in which the CTL’s Forward FOCUS was mentioned as one way that UMass responded to the COVID-19 pandemic to support faculty equitably.
- The Forward FOCUS, in conjunction with the voluntary SRTI developed by ASER, was one of 5 finalists for the 2020 Innovation Award by the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education.