Creating Course Evaluations using Qualtrics Survey Software

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The basic work process

  1. Create your Qualtrics course evaluation survey by copying from an existing template survey.

  2. Rename and customize it.

  3. Distribute the survey to your students by an anonymous link.  You can also send it via targeted emailings with tracking for completion and scheduled reminder emails too.

  4. You can schedule several automated reminders.  These will only be sent to those students who have not yet responded.

  5. After the end of the time allotted for collecting submissions, you can close the survey, then view and export results.

If you have any issues, send a request for assistance to help@downstate.edu

  1. Log into Downstate’s Qualtrics site:

    • USERNAME:  your Downstate full email address

    • PASSWORD:  your Downstate email password

  2. Basic layout of the Qualtrics landing page:  Click on the links along the top to access main tools.

Projects

Projects

Surveys are called “Projects”. This is where your working surveys are located.

  • They can be organized into folders and subfolders

  • Surveys can be shared among faculty in a degree program by adding the survey to one of that program’s Groups.

Contacts

Contacts

  • You can email your survey to groups of respondents right from inside Qualtrics via a Contact List. 
    Contacts 2

  • You can create your own Contact list manually:
    Contacts 3

  • You can also create a contact list by a file upload:
    Contacts 4

  • These lists can be shared among faculty in a degree program by adding the Contact List to one of your Groups.

Libraries

Library 1

  • Shared items are made available to you here, such as Surveys, Graphic images, Files and Email Messages.

  • You have access to several different folders in the Library.  By default, when you first enter the Library, your own folder is displayed.  It contains any items that you yourself created and that you also decide to share from that folder.  

  • Switch to a different shared Library folder to view by dropping down a list of your Library shared folders at upper left.
    Libraries 2

  • Now you can see items in the different shared folder:
    Libraries 3

Creating your survey

  1. Log into Qualtrics and click on the Folders link at the upper left side.

    • If the folder does not yet exist, click on the green Create Folder button and type in a name.

    • If the folder already exists, click on it along the list on the left

  2. Click on Create Project. 

  3. To clone from an existing survey, use the Create a Project from a Library method:
    Survey 1

  4. Click on the From a Library link at the left side, 

    • Please select a Library:  drop down the Library list and course the Library folder that has your survey to copy – “Nursing Templates”, “CHRP Templates”, etc. 

    • Source Project:” Drop down the “Select a Project” list to select the survey to copy.

  5. Project Name: Give the new survey a title:

    1. TITLE:  To make it easier to identify the data after download, we suggest course subject code, course number and short title – for example, “NRBS 8130: Field Nrs Pract Mgmt Fall 2017”.  

    2. The ACT Office will have already uploaded an Excel file into the Library listing all courses.  You can download this file in order to copy the full title and paste it in here.  Go to Library, then choose Files tab.

  6.  Project Folder: Select the destination folder for the new survey – for example, “CHRP OT Fall 2016 Course Evals”. 

Editing a Survey

Editing a Survey

  1. Click on any question in the copied survey to edit it.  A selection menu with various selectable options will appear on the right side.  The options that are shown will depend upon the type of question being edited.

  2. You can insert new questions by clicking on the green plus signs at either the top or bottom right of a given question box.

  3. Change Question Type: By default, new questions that are added are multiple choice. Change the question type by clicking on the green Question Type button at upper right. A pop-out dialog box will appear with various options:
    Editing a Survey 2

  4. Choosing the Question Type at the top right will then change the various style options that are available on the rest of the list.  

    • For Likert-scale ratings, change the question to a Matrix type and set your Likert scale rating terms (“Excellent”, “Always Agree”, etc)
      Editing a Survey 3

    • Click on the Question Text, Scale text or Statement text to highlight it, then type in the question, scale heading or statement.
      Editing a Survey 4

    • Click on the Rich Content Editor tab to employ text formatting (bold, italics, etc):
      Editing a Survey 5

    • For multiple sentence “essay” answers, choose the Text Entry question type and change to Essay Text Box.
      Editing a Survey 6

  5. You can add instructions or graphics at the top, bottom or any other spot.  

    • Use the plus signs to insert a new question.

    • In the Question Type selection field, note that the very top of the list on the right has a segment called “Static Content”. Choose Text or Graphic.
      Editing a Survey 7

  6. Preview Survey: Click on the Preview Survey button at upper right to view how it will appear to the user.

Distribute your Survey

  1. Click on the Distributions tab.

  2. You can distribute it anonymously via an emailed or posted URL.

  3. If you can decide to track user submissions instead, you can set the system to send automatic reminder emails that will only be sent to users who have not yet completed the survey.

  4. While you are in Projects and are viewing your Survey, click on the Distributions tab.

  5. Anonymous evaluations:

    • Click on the Anonymous Link at upper left.
      Distributing your survey

    • A page appears with the URL for the survey.  You can copy that URL and paste it into an email or post it on your page in Prime.

    • Want a link that displays useful text instead of the URL — for example “Click here for NRMS 5180 Fall 2016 course evaluation” ?  The Customize button will open a Link Text text box. Type what you want your link to display.

    • Keep in mind that using an anonymous link means you can’t tell who has or has not yet submitted a course evaluation.  Just like in the days of handing out paper surveys during class time, however, If you set aside some class time for students to fill out the online survey, tracking is not as necessary to ensure a good number of submissions.

  6. Creating a Contact List:

    • Click on Contacts.

    • Choose “Create a Contact List”

    • You can manually enter key info (email, first name, last name, an identifier such as the Downstate student ID number).

    • You can also download an example file to use as a template to create a spreadsheet to upload.

More information can be obtained at https://www.qualtrics.com/support.

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