What motivates willingness to complete teaching evaluations? Evidence from hypothetical scenarios

Updated Sep 07, 2026

A study of imagined evaluation requests can test students’ stated preferences, but it does not measure actual survey completion. Xiangrui Zheng and Liping Ma make this distinction explicit in their research on teaching evaluations.

What the experiment tested

The randomised hypothetical-scenario study involved 1,061 undergraduates in China. It compared bonus grades, information about evaluations’ relevance to lecturers’ careers, and reduced survey length.

The publisher’s abstract reports the strongest participation response for bonus grades, a smaller positive response for career-impact information, and no significant effect from shortening the survey. The public ethics statement confirms that the outcome was stated willingness: real evaluations and grades were not changed.

The results therefore cannot establish how much an institution’s actual response rate would rise. Nor does the null finding show that survey length never matters. Detailed methods and results were unavailable for this review.

Questions for survey teams

As editorial recommendations, communicate accurately how feedback will be used and assess whether requests are accessible and proportionate. If trying a new message or timetable, measure actual participation and respondent composition locally.

The paper should not be read as a recommendation to attach grades to feedback. Consider the implications of any incentive for voluntary participation and the interpretation of results. More responses also do not automatically eliminate non-response bias.

Reference

Xiangrui Zheng and Liping Ma. “Motivating student participation in teaching evaluations: evidence from a hypothetical scenario experiment in China.” Higher Education. DOI: 10.1007/s10734-025-01534-9.

Corrected 7 September 2026: author names were wrong. This revision also distinguishes hypothetical willingness from real completion. Review is limited to the publisher’s abstract and public ethics statement.