Improve Your Course Batch by Batch with Claude
Feed last batch's student feedback back into next batch's lesson plan. Claude counts the scores, you check each complaint, and the plan changes only where the evidence says it should.
The situation
A term or batch has just ended. You have a feedback export, a lesson plan that did not quite go to plan, and a few comments that stung.
After this guide you will have a checked list of changes for the next run, and a skill that repeats the process every time.
What you walk away with
Scores counted with the working shown, so nobody argues about the numbers
Each complaint checked against evidence before it changes your plan
A change table you can hand to a co-teacher or program lead
The difference one prompt makes
Don't
here is my student feedback, how can I improve my course?
Do this
Here is the feedback export from my last batch, the lesson plan they got, and the things I cannot change (90-minute classes, the platform requires quizzes). Give me the average as a sum over a count, list every score below 7 with its comment and date, and for each complaint ask me one question that would prove or disprove it. Do not suggest changes yet.
The vague prompt gets generic advice like "add more interaction". The specific one makes Claude count first, look at the worst scores, and check each complaint before proposing anything.
Collect three things before you start
Claude cannot tell you what to change without knowing what students got and what you are stuck with.
- The feedback: a spreadsheet export, pasted survey rows, or your own notes
- The last plan: the lesson plan or schedule students actually received
- What cannot change: class length, platform rules, required quizzes, dates
Ask Claude to count, and to show the working
An average with no working invites argument. A sum over a count does not. Ask for the low scores and their dates too, because when they arrived matters.
what you should see
Check each complaint before you change anything
A complaint is a lead, not a verdict. For each one, find the one fact that proves or disproves it. In my case "class runs too long" was checked against real start and end times, and one class had run 178 minutes against a 90-minute plan. That made it a real problem, not one student's mood.
Turn confirmed complaints into a change table
Only confirmed complaints become changes. Each change needs a way to tell, next time, whether it worked.
- Classes ran nearly double the plan, so troubleshooting moved out of class into a written "problem, cause, fix" sheet for every lesson
- Almost nobody finished the first assignment because setup blocked them, so setup became homework and the first assignment needs only a browser
- Students answered quizzes with AI, so quiz questions now ask about the student's own work instead of facts about the tool
Save the loop as a skill so it runs the same way every time
A skill is a saved set of instructions Claude follows whenever the task comes up. This one walks through the four steps above, refuses to skip the checking step, and never repeats student names. To install it, open the Code tab in the Claude desktop app and paste the prompt below. Using Claude in the browser instead? Open the file and paste its contents at the start of your chat.
What's next?
Write lesson plans with ClaudeNew guides, when they ship
One email, roughly weekly. CLAUDE.md templates, workflows I actually use, and the cut-for-length stuff that does not make the public guides. One-click unsubscribe.
Or read Product Field Notes, the Substack