In May, 2021, the 500th respondent completed our student satisfaction survey. Their (anonymous) responses were typical: highly satisfied. The learner answered yes to our top 3 questions:
1. All things considered, were you satisfied with your studies with the Wilmette Institute?
2. Would you recommend these studies to a friend?
3. Did you achieve, or will you have achieved upon completing your studies, the goals you had when you started this course?
They have been taking Wilmette Institute courses for 1-2 years, and consider the courses to be high quality, and above average value for money. They reported that they are extremely likely to take another course with us.
Of course, not all of our respondents have been as enthusiastic. The report below is part celebration and “thank-you” to our community of learners, and part a call for even more honest feedback. If you took a course in the past year and did not complete the survey, please do take the time to send us your feedback. The survey can be completed anonymously, but if you wish to be contacted or to send a testimonial for publication in the monthly Wilmette Institute News, please do complete the survey during July, and include your name and email address in the comments box at the end.
Link to Student Satisfaction Survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WISatisfaction
Below are some graphics showing the aggregated results from the 500 survey responses.
97% satisfaction 
98% satisfaction 
88% satisfaction (room for improvement))
The Institute is currently considering ways to increase the numbers of learners who achieve their goals. Some ideas include making course objectives clearer to prospective students, paying more attention to students’ personal learning plans, and supplementing the teaching staff by training and working with volunteer teaching assistants.
93% rate courses as very high or high quality 
91% report that faculty provide very high or high quality service
The graphs above indicate that a large majority of students (over 90 percent) rate Wilmette Institute courses as either very high (58%) or high (34%) quality, and consider the quality of service provided by the faculty as very high (63%) or high (28%).
About half of our students each year are taking their first Wilmette Institute course, and some of them do need help with learning how to use the Moodle online learning center. The Registrar has started a weekly tech tutorial on Zoom, Tuesday evenings (8:30 pm Eastern/ 5:30 pm Pacific Time) for anyone who needs help using the course platform. It is open to all students (whether taking their first, second, or 10th course). If you are interested, please register on Zoom using the link below.
Register for Tuesday Tech Tutorial: bit.ly/WI-Tutorial
The graph above shows that a majority of students do plan to take another course, and we are very happy to have their feedback (on this survey as well as on the longer course evaluation survey, where students are able to respond in more detail about the service we provide). For the Institute, this is perhaps the most important question of all. The Institute aims to “provide innovative and transformative learning experiences for college students and others who want to make the world more compassionate, just and inclusive.” Such transformation doesn’t happen overnight; lifelong learning is, we believe, one of the keys to growing the kinds of communities envisioned by Bahá’u’lláh for the future of humankind.
