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Education & Academic

Student Interest in Course Topics and Activities Survey

Measures which topics, formats, and learning activities genuinely capture student curiosity versus which ones fall flat, for instructors and instructional designers refining a course or program. An AI follow-up interview digs into the specific moment interest sparked or died, surfacing detail that ratings alone can't reveal.

Sample questions

A preview of what’s in the template. Every question is editable before you launch.

12 questions · ~7 min
Q01
Message

Thanks for taking a few minutes to share your honest reactions to this course! We want to know what topics and activities actually grab your attention (and which ones don't) so we can make it better. Your responses are completely confidential and anonymized. About 5-6 minutes.

Q02
Opinion ScaleRequired

Overall, how interested have you been in the material covered in this course so far?

Scale: 110
Min:Not interested at allMax:Extremely interested
Q03
MatrixRequired

How interested are you in each of the following topics? (Template note: replace with the actual unit or topic list for this course before launching.)

4 rows × 5 columns
  • (Replace with Topic A)
  • (Replace with Topic B)
  • (Replace with Topic C)
  • (Replace with Topic D)
Columns: Not at all interested · Slightly interested · Moderately interested · Very interested · Extremely interested
Q04
Best–Worst Trade-off (MaxDiff)Required

From this list of topics covered this term, pick the one you find most interesting and the one you find least interesting each round. (Template note: replace with your actual topic list, 6-9 items.)

  • (Replace with Topic A)
  • (Replace with Topic B)
  • (Replace with Topic C)
  • (Replace with Topic D)
  • (Replace with Topic E)
  • (Replace with Topic F)
Pick best & worst per setBest:Most interestingWorst:Least interesting
Q05
Multiple ChoiceRequired

Which single factor most drives whether you get interested in a topic?

  • It feels relevant to my future career
  • It's genuinely new or surprising to me
  • The way it's taught makes it click
  • It connects to something in my own life
  • It's challenging in a satisfying way
Q06
RankingRequired

Rank these learning activities from most to least effective at increasing your interest in a topic.

  1. Lecture with slides
  2. Small-group discussion
  3. Hands-on project or lab
  4. Real-world case study
  5. Video or multimedia
  6. Guest speaker or expert Q&A
Drag to rank
Q07
Rating ScaleRequired

How likely are you to choose an elective or advanced course in this subject area?

Range: 15
Min:Very unlikelyMax:Very likely
Q08
Short Text

What's one topic or activity you wish this course spent more time on?

Q09
AI Interview

Ask the respondent about the topic they rated lowest in the interest questions: what specifically made it feel boring or irrelevant, and whether a different format or example would have changed that. Then ask about their highest-rated topic or activity and reconstruct the exact moment interest kicked in. If they said they're unlikely to take further courses in the subject, probe whether that's about the subject itself or how it's been taught.

Q10
Multiple Choice

What year or grade level are you currently in?

  • First year
  • Second year
  • Third year
  • Fourth year or beyond
  • Graduate student
Q11
Multiple Choice

What is your primary field of study or major?

  • Sciences
  • Engineering or Technology
  • Humanities
  • Business
  • Arts
  • Social Sciences
  • Undecided
Q12
Message

That's everything - thank you! Your answers feed directly into how this course's topics and activities get redesigned for future terms.

What’s included

  • AI follow-ups

    Adaptive probes on open-ended answers that pull out detail a static form would miss.

  • Attention checks

    Built-in safeguards against rushed answers and low-quality respondents.

  • AI-drafted copy

    Wording, ordering, and branching written by the AI — tuned to your research goal.

  • Auto report

    Themes, quotes, and a plain-English summary write themselves once responses come in.

How it compares

We reviewed the closest templates from other survey tools. Here’s what they do well — and where this template goes further.

Why this template

  • Includes a matrix rating topics and a max-diff exercise to pinpoint exactly which topics spark curiosity versus which ones don't
  • Pairs a ranked list of learning activities with an AI follow-up interview that asks about the specific topic each student rated lowest, surfacing the moment interest died
  • Captures downstream signal via a likelihood-to-take-an-elective question and open-ended 'wish we'd spent more time on' feedback, plus field-of-study and year level for segmentation
  • Automated per-response quality scoring and an auto-generated report mean instructors get synthesized findings, not just raw spreadsheet data

Jotform

Student Interest Survey Form Template

A static, drag-and-drop form template for gauging student interest, easy to customize with Jotform's form builder and widgets. It's built for quick deployment rather than deep qualitative insight. No mention of adaptive questioning or AI-assisted analysis.

What it does well

  • Fast to deploy and customize via a familiar drag-and-drop builder
  • Broad integration ecosystem typical of Jotform's platform
  • Free-tier accessible template, low setup friction

Where it falls short

  • Fixed question set with no adaptive follow-up when a student's answer signals strong disinterest or curiosity
  • No voice AI interview option or guided screen-share tasks
  • No automated quality scoring or synthesized report generation - raw responses require manual analysis

Typeform

Student Interest Survey Form Template

A polished, conversational-style form template that walks students through interest questions one at a time, well-suited to boosting completion rates. It remains a static question flow rather than a true interview. Reporting depends on Typeform's standard analytics dashboards.

What it does well

  • Engaging one-question-at-a-time interface that tends to improve completion rates
  • Clean, mobile-friendly design out of the box
  • Logic-jump branching for basic conditional paths

Where it falls short

  • Branching logic is pre-scripted, not a genuine adaptive AI probe into an individual's specific answer
  • No voice-based interview or screen-share task capability
  • No transparent per-response quality scoring or automatic qualitative report generation

QuestionPro

Course evaluation sample questions and survey template

This page is closer to a course/teacher evaluation guide with sample question banks than a narrowly focused, ready-to-field topic-interest survey; instructors would need to assemble and adapt questions themselves. It suits broad course-quality feedback more than pinpointing which specific topics or activities spark curiosity. Reporting relies on QuestionPro's general dashboard/analytics tools.

What it does well

  • Large bank of sample evaluation questions covering instructor and course quality broadly
  • Established survey platform with standard reporting and cross-tabulation features
  • Applicable across many course types, not narrowly scoped

Where it falls short

  • Presented as a question-bank/guide rather than a single ready-to-field template focused on topic-level interest
  • No adaptive AI follow-up interview to explore why a specific topic or activity fell flat
  • No voice AI interviews, guided screen-share tasks, or automated per-response quality scoring

Frequently asked questions

What questions are in the “Student Interest in Course Topics and Activities Survey” template?

The template includes 12 ready-to-use questions, starting with: “Thanks for taking a few minutes to share your honest reactions to this course! We want to know what topics and activitie…” · “Overall, how interested have you been in the material covered in this course so far?” · “How interested are you in each of the following topics? (Template note: replace with the actual unit or topic list for t…”. The full set is previewed above, and every question is editable.

How long does this survey take to complete?

Respondents typically finish the 12 questions in about 7 minutes.

Can I customize this template?

Yes — every question, answer option, and the ordering is editable before you launch. You can add or remove questions, or ask the AI editor to rework the survey around your research goal.

Is this template free to use?

Yes. Open it in the editor and start customizing right away — no account required to try it, and the free plan covers launching your survey.

Ready to launch?

Open this template in the editor. Every part is yours to change before the first respondent sees it.

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