Disclaimer: Some content in this article shows details only available with the new course page. As a Superadmin, you can activate the preview of the new course page for your user only, test it, and then activate it for all users. Learn more on the transition to the new course page.
Introduction
A survey of a course is a type of lesson used to gather feedback about the learner's experience taking the course and on various aspects of the training, such as the effectiveness of the teaching methods, the clarity of the course materials, and the relevance of the course content.
The results of the survey can be used to make adjustments to the course design, teaching methods, and training materials.
Overall, a course survey is an important tool for improving the quality of instruction and ensuring that learners have a positive learning experience.
Surveys are usually kept confidential. You do not have access to nominative responses through the platform reports, however, alternative advanced tools (such as QB reports, APIs, or Learn Data) can give you access to individual responses. In such cases, we recommend that Superadmins communicate clearly with learners about how the survey data is handled, including who has access to what.
Learn more about how learners complete surveys.
Use case scenarios
A useful scenario for this functionality is creating one survey that is included as training material in all courses and has the purpose of gathering feedback on the course by asking a few questions regarding how beneficial the training materials were and what could be done to improve the course in the future.
Superadmins and Power Users with granted permissions can create the survey within the Central repository. Since learners have to complete the survey for each course, select the local tracking option so the user is prompted to take the survey each time it is presented.
Creating a survey
To create a survey in a course, access the Admin menu from the gear icon in the top right corner of your platform, then select the Course management option in the E-learning section.
Find the course for which you’re interested in adding a survey from the list of courses, click on its description and move to the Training material tab. Click on the Add training material button, then select Survey from the dropdown menu.
Add a title and a description for the survey. Move to the Additional info tab to optionally add a short description and a thumbnail choosing from a selection of pre-loaded thumbnails, or upload your own. Once you have finished, click Save changes.
You will be redirected to the survey page where you can start creating it. Click on the Add question button and select the type of question you would like to add from the drop-down menu.
Types of questions
Survey questions can be delivered in various formats:
Single choice questions
A single-choice question is followed by a list of possible answer choices. Learners are required to select the option that best answers the question. Differently from tests, there are no correct or wrong answers.
For example, a single-choice question might be:
How did you find the level of complexity of the course?
- Too basic
- Appropriate
- Too complex
Type the question into the Question text box, then click Add answer in the Answers section to add an answer. Type the answer in the Add Answer text box and click Add to confirm its creation and repeat the process for all of the answers you wish to add.
The answers will then be listed in the Answers section and you can reorder them using the cross icons at the beginning of their row. You can edit answers by clicking on the pen and paper button or delete them using the x button.
Click Save changes to complete the creation of the question. The question will be displayed as follows to learners:
Multiple choice questions
A multiple-choice question is followed by a list of possible answer choices. Unlike single-choice questions, multiple-choice questions allow for more than one answer to be selected. Differently from tests, there are no correct or wrong answers.
For example, a multiple-choice question might be:
Which device did you use more to attend this course?
- Notebook/Desktop PC
- Tablet
- Smartphone
Type the question into the Question text box, then click Add answer in the Answers section to add an answer. Type the answer in the Add Answer text box and click Add to confirm its creation and repeat the process for all of the answers you wish to add.
The answers will then be listed in the Answers section and you can reorder them using the cross icons at the beginning of their row. You can edit answers by clicking on the pen and paper button or delete them using the x button.
Click Save changes to complete the creation of the question. The question will be displayed as follows to learners:
Please Note! Being a multiple-choice question, it is suggested to insert at least three answers to give learners more options.
Inline choice questions
An inline choice question is a sentence or statement containing one or more blank spaces, where each blank space corresponds to a list of options in a dropdown. Learners are required to select the correct option for each blank space to complete the sentence or statement.
For example, an inline choice question might be:
The quality of the training material made available is _______.
- Poor
- Needs improvement
- Good
- Excellent
- Not applicable
Type the question into the Question text box, then click Add answer in the Answers section to add an answer. Type the answer in the Add Answer text box and click Add to confirm its creation and repeat the process for all of the answers you wish to add.
The answers will then be listed in the Answers section and you can reorder them using the cross icons at the beginning of their row. You can edit answers by clicking on the pen and paper button or delete them using the x button.
Click Save changes to complete the creation of the question. The question will be displayed as follows to learners:
Text answer questions
A text answer question requires learners to provide a written response to a question. These questions typically ask for a short answer, a sentence, or a brief explanation.
For example, a text answer question might be:
Which type of training material did you appreciate more?
Type the question into the Question text box, then click Save changes to complete the creation of the question.
The question will be displayed as follows to learners:
Likert scale (rating scale)
The Likert scale (or rating scale) is used to measure the opinion or perception about the course. It is named after its creator, the psychologist Rensis Likert.
The scale consists of a series of statements or questions that express a range of opinions such as "strongly agree," "agree," "neither agree nor disagree," "disagree," and "strongly disagree." Learners are asked to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with each statement by selecting the option that best reflects their opinion.
For example, a Likert scale question might be:
To what extent do you agree with the statement 'My overall level of knowledge of the course topics has increased'?
Learners will choose from the options provided, such as "strongly agree," "agree," "neither agree nor disagree," "disagree," or "strongly disagree."
Type the overall question and/or the instructions on how to answer into the Question text box.
In the Add Questions area, type the questions requiring an evaluation by typing them in the text box and adding them to the list with the plus button. The questions you add are listed in the Questions area.
Set now the options for the rating scale by typing them in the Define Likert Scale text box and adding them to the list with the plus button. The values of the Likert scale that you add are listed in the Scales area.
You can reorder both questions and scale values using the cross icons at the end of each row, edit them by clicking the pen and paper button or delete them using the x button.
Click Save changes to complete the creation of the question. Here follows an example of the configuration of a Likert Scale question:
And how it is displayed for learners:
Please Note! You can have more than one Likert scale question in a survey, but you cannot have multiple Likert scales. Once you configure a Likert scale for the first question, it will be automatically ported in all Likert Scale questions.
Titles and page breaks
Titles allow you to divide the survey into different sections or provide an explanation for the question before users begin answering it.
Page breaks allow you to divide the survey into pages.
Marking questions as mandatory
When adding a question to a survey, you can mark it as mandatory, meaning that the learner needs to answer the question to submit and complete the survey.
To do so, when you add a question select the Make this question mandatory for the users option under the question text box.
If you set one or more questions as mandatory in a survey, it is suggested to enable the Use "no answer" option in survey questions in the platform Advanced settings menu, E-learning tab so that learners can still avoid answering a question you set as mandatory. This behavior applies to single-choice, multiple-choice and inline choice questions only.
When a question is set as mandatory, it is identified by the (Required) text in the interface. If learners do not answer all of the mandatory questions, they won’t be able to submit the survey.
Note that you cannot set a title or a page break as mandatory, since they are used to organize the survey into paragraphs and pages, and they are not question types.
Analyzing survey statistics
You can analyze statistics related to the survey from the Training materials tab of the Course report. Click the title of the survey from the list of training materials.
The statistics will tell you how learners answered the questions but you will not know which answers belong to which learner.
You can export the survey results by opening the Export as drop-down menu, choosing between CSV or Excel, and then clicking the Download icon on the right of the drop-down menu. The results are exported only when the number of replies does not exceed 10000.
Please Note! If the survey is composed of more than one page, learners’ answers are saved when they click on the Next page button, even if they don’t click on the Submit button. If the survey is on a single page, learners’ answers are saved only once they click on the Submit button.
You can also have an overview of all completed surveys in all courses using the Surveys-Individual Answers custom report. You cannot match an answer to a learner, but the surveys’ answers will be identified by a unique ID. Learn more about Surveys-Individual Answers report type.
Surveys and the Central repository
When creating a survey in the Central repository, you can assign the same survey to multiple courses and decide whether to have local tracking (course tracking) rather than shared tracking.
Local tracking requires learners to complete the survey in every course it is included as training material, while with shared tracking when learners complete the survey in any of the courses it is included as training material, the survey will be marked as completed in all of the courses.
When you create the survey in the Central repository, on the New Survey page, besides adding a title and description for the survey, set whether you want the survey to be tracked locally or share-tracked by selecting the corresponding option under the Description text box.
Once you select the type of tracking, you cannot see or change the selected option later. You will need to delete the survey and recreate it with a different type of tracking.
Warning: Regardless of the survey's type of tracking, if you reset the survey completion in one course and the same survey is also placed in another course where the same user is enrolled, the reset is applied to all courses in which the learner is enrolled. This may affect the learner's course completion.
Best practices
Keep the following best practices in mind when creating and managing surveys:
- Remember that surveys are training material, so they are part of the course's completion process.
- Use surveys as the first training material to collect the learners’ expectations and needs.
- Use surveys after specific training materials to collect specific feedback or thoughts about it.
- If you want learners to receive a survey after completing a course, send the URL of the survey in a notification. As an example, for e-learning courses, you can use the Learner completed a course notification while for Instructor-Led Training (ILT) courses, you can use the User has passed ILT session notification.