I discovered this technique quite by accident, but boy did my official evals jump after this.
I used to (out of academics, making real money now) do my own informal evaluation about 4-6 weeks ahead of the official one. I'd ask just four questions:
1) What are things you like about the class?
2) What is one thing you'd like to see the instructor do to improve the class?
3) what is one thing you'd say to your fellow students that would improve the class?
4) what is one thing you could do to improve the class?
I would be honest and tell the students that there is naturally a chance I'd recognize handwriting, so anonymity can't be guaranteed.
Interestingly, I found that 2) often canceled itself out. For instance, there was usually a balance between students who thought the pace was too fast and those who thought it too slow. It was almost dead on 50-50 split. 3) allowed me to reinforce things I'd been doing in class discipline all along -- typically the complaint was about class noise/side conversations.
But I'd always find something to "improve" upon, even if I had to pick something superficial.
Initially, I was honestly trying to improve the class atmosphere, but later on I found it a great and memorable gesture to the class that I actually cared about my performance and their experience in the class. I think it was the gesture more than anything that created a positive mindset going into the formal evals.
