Creating a Survey

Relevant to: faculty and staff

This article contains information considered accurate at the time of publishing. Technology updates, changes in University security practices, policies and procedures may effect the information in this article - updates to articles are scheduled on a periodic basis and will address any required changes.

Introduction

You can use surveys in several ways, including to collect feedback or opinions, assess student satisfaction, and informally assess learning. Although surveys are not graded, they have several features in common with quizzes, including the types of questions available and the ability to organize them into categories, set restrictions, and associate them with learning objectives.

  • CAUTION: Leave the "Anonymous" setting for last

Create a Survey

  1. From the course landing page, in the navbar, select Course Menu then, select Surveys.
  2. The Manage Surveys page appears, showing a list of all existing surveys. Select the New Survey button and the Properties tab for the survey will appear.
  3. In the Name field enter a title for the survey.
  4. Scroll down to the Survey Questions section and select the Add/Edit Questions button.
  5. The Question Library for the survey will open.
    • Note: You have the option of creating questions directly, or of importing them from a .CSV file or from the Question Library. This article covers creating questions directly.
  6. Select the New button. A menu will appear of all the question types available. Select the type of question you want.
  7. The question page will appear, with fields appropriate to the type of question. Fill out the fields as needed. For some question types, you will see an Options menu in the upper right of the page. Click on the chevron to see additional settings and select them as needed.
  8. At the bottom of the page, you have three Save options:
    • Select Save and New to save your current question and go on to create a new one.
    • Select Save and Copy to save your current question and create a copy of it to edit as needed.
    • Select Save to finish your survey question.
  9. Once you select Save, you'll be back on the Question Library page, which lists all of your questions. From here you can do the following:
    • Select a question to edit it.
    • Add questions by selecting the New or Import buttons.
    • Reorder
      1. Click the Order button.
      2. Click the check box next to the question you want to move.
      3. Click on the up and down arrows to move the question to its new place in the sequence.
      4. Click the Save button.
    • Preview a question by clicking on the chevron next to it and selecting Preview.
  10. Once you are finished, select the Done Editing Questions button in the upper right to return to the Properties tab for the survey.

Adjust Survey Settings

Your survey has many optional settings which you can adjust to meet your needs. The settings are organized under four tabs:

  • Properties: General settings and links to add and/or edit questions.
  • Restrictions: Settings that control when students have access to the survey and for how long.
  • Objectives: Settings that allow you to associate the quiz with a learning objective.
  • Reports Setup

Once you finish adjusting the settings, select the Save and Close button to save your changes and close the survey.

Properties

General

  • The survey's name
  • Category: Categories are a way to organize the list of surveys and are visible to students.
  • Feedback: Select this check box make any feedback entered for a question instantly available to a user taking the survey
  • Anonymous: Select this check box to make the results anonymous. CAUTION! Once you set the survey to anonymous (and save), it cannot be reversed, so it's a good idea to make this setting your last step. In addition, your survey cannot be set to anonymous if you want to do either of the following:
    1. set release conditions for the survey
    2. make the survey a release condition for something else

Survey Questions

In this section, you can:

  • Set the number of questions per page. By default, the entire survey appears on one page.
  • Shuffle the questions.
  • Select the "Add/Edit Questions" button to open the "Question Library" page where you can add questions, edit existing ones, and reorder them.
  • Select the "Edit Values" button to edit whether the questions are mandatory.
  • Select a question to preview how it will appear to students (opens in a separate window)

Description/Submission Message

Enter a description of the survey. Set the description to "on" to make it visible to students. You can also customize the message users see when they complete the survey.

Page Footer

Enter a footer for the survey. Set the footer to "on" to make it visible to students. It will appear at the bottom of the quiz.

Invite Participants

If you wish to let users take the survey without having to log into the course, you can invite them with an email. Select the Invite Participants button. A page will open where you can customize the email sent and select the users who will receive it.

Restrictions

Hide from Users

When you first create a survey, it is hidden from users by default. To make it visible, deselect Hide from Users.

Availability

Set a start and end date for the survey to be available. Select Display in Calendar to include the dates in the course calendar.

Additional Release Conditions

Set release conditions, such as submission of an assignment or completion of content topics.

User Responses

Set the number of times a user can attempt the survey.

Special Access

Set special access permissions.

Objectives

Associate Learning Objectives: Select Associate Learning Objectives to connect the survey to a learning objective.

Reports Setup

Click the Add Report button to set up a report.

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