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Dr Les Ellam (April 2012) e-learning team (http://studentfolio.brighton.ac.uk/elearning) 1
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Using the survey tool in studentcentral to gather opinions
Unlike paper surveys, online surveys have the advantage of low cost and quick distribution.
Additionally, if using the tool in studentcentral, responses go straight into the Grade Centre
eliminating transcription errors and allowing quick and easy analysis. This document looks
at an overview of online surveys, hints and tips and how to set one up in your study area on
studentcentral.
Dr Les Ellam (April 2012) e-learning team (http://studentfolio.brighton.ac.uk/elearning) 2
When would you use an Online Survey?
Gathering evidence on student experience
Adjusting instructional practices during the semester
Gathering anonymous feedback about instructor performance
Gathering anonymous feedback about the course or module
Determining what and how students are learning
Gaining insight into student attitudes about course/module content and assignments,
and student satisfaction with quizzes, exams, and the course/module in general
Works especially well for large classes
Is the survey tool in studentcentral totally anonymous?
If you use the studentcentral tool, although a survey response is not linked to a specific
student, surveys are not strictly anonymous because instructors can view a record showing
which students have completed them. However, when downloading results, student names
are NOT recorded. So it would be very hard to determine which students gave which answer.
You would have to continually go into the Grade Centre and see if any new names have
appeared and then look at the analysis again. So for all practical purposes, it IS anonymous.
Planning your survey
Determine the context and purpose of the survey
Develop central questions
Avoid the temptation of asking too many questions in a single survey or surveying
students "just to see what's going on"
Determine how you will use the results which should also guide the content of your
survey. If you will not use responses to a survey question to guide course or program
content or instruction, leave the question out
Decide at what point in your course you will survey your students and schedule it into
your course schedule
Add an announcement before you launch the survey to ensure students know it is
available. A multi-step process that separates the invitation and survey presentation is
less likely to cause a negative reaction (Sheehan, K. B., (2001) Email survey response
rates ; a review. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication)
Dr Les Ellam (April 2012) e-learning team (http://studentfolio.brighton.ac.uk/elearning) 3
Writing survey questions
Use simple language and language respondents understand to avoid producing biased
data
Too complex: "How ingenuous are you when the instructor asks if you have
understood material presented during a lecture?"
Better: "How honest are you when the instructor asks if you have understood
material presented during a lecture?
Write clearly. Good survey questions are clear and direct. Respondents should know
exactly what you are asking. A common mistake is to assume that respondents will
have the same understanding of a question that you do. Avoid asking questions that
have several possible meaning
Unclear: "How would you rate your participation during class?"
Clearer: "Compared to others in the course, how often do you ask questions
during lectures?"
Avoid universal words and double negatives. Because respondents may avoid
choosing extremes, do not use universal words such as "all," "always," "none," and
"never". It is also best to avoid words such as "only", "just", and "merely", which may
lead respondents to answer in a particular way and bias the results. Negatively worded
questions are often confusing because responding "no" creates a double negative.
Write short questions. Questions should be short and simple, rarely exceeding 20
words. Survey items are often completed quickly, without much thought. Therefore,
compound questions can lead to misinterpretation when the respondent tries to
rapidly read, understand, and answer them.
One concept per question. Each survey questions should contain only one concept.
"Double-barrelled" questions, addressing more than one concept, may confuse the
respondent. The solution is to separate two ideas into two questions.
Avoid biased questions. Write questions that do not lead the respondent to answer a
particular way.
Biased: "This semester we used state-of-the-art technology with the
wonderful new interactive whiteboard. What is your opinion of the system?"
Better: "What is your opinion of the interactive whiteboard?"
Dr Les Ellam (April 2012) e-learning team (http://studentfolio.brighton.ac.uk/elearning) 4
Organising online surveys
Start with a name, description, and instructions for your survey. If you use the
studentcentral tool, these boxes are there for you to complete already
Write an introduction explaining the survey's purpose, how results will be used, how to
complete the survey, and the terms of confidentiality or anonymity. Providing these
terms promotes honest responding
Use clear, basic instructions for completing the survey. For short answer or essay
questions explain the desired length and detail of responses
Make the survey visually inviting and easy to follow
Avoid tiny fonts or fonts that are distracting or difficult to read
Order questions carefully to improve the flow and coherence of your survey
Group similar questions together so the survey is easy to follow
Ask interesting questions first in order to engage respondents
Position sensitive questions in the middle. Once respondents have begun completing
your survey, they may be more likely to answer sensitive questions. Placing them at
the very beginning may result in potential respondents refusing to participate.
Place demographic questions (gender, year, age, etc.) at the end.
Benefits of using online surveys
Low cost
Quick distribution
You can create your own questions
You can order and re-order them as you wish
Typically transfer responses into a database which eliminates transcription errors
For a good review of online surveys search for Evans, J.R., Mathur. A. (2005) The value of online
surveys. Internet Research 15 (2)
Benefits of using the studentcentral tool for online surveys
You can include multi-media or embed web addresses
You can download raw data to run cross-tabular analysis
It operates within a secure and familiar environment
Dr Les Ellam (April 2012) e-learning team (http://studentfolio.brighton.ac.uk/elearning) 5
Limitations of using online surveys
Much research has been done into why response rates to online surveys are not as high as
traditional paper based surveys.
Suggestions to boost online survey response rates include offering incentives such as increased
grades or even money (not usually the norm in traditional module evaluations so maybe not
appropriate here!). Clearly any incentives may introduce a systematic bias into the study.
Studies have found that online evaluations do not produce significantly different mean
evaluation scores than traditional paper evaluations (Dommeyer, C.J. et al (2004) Gathering
faculty teaching evaluations buy in-class and online surveys ; their effects on response rates and
evaluations Assssment & Evaluation in Higher Education 29 (5) )
Respondents must be enrolled in the course/module area if using the studentcentral
tool
Not suitable for assessing individual student performance as the response output is
anonymous
Electronic surveys generally have lower response rates than paper surveys
Requires having clear assessment goals and an understanding of assessment practices
in order to write effective questions and properly organise the survey
High non-response rates may revolve around issues of privacy and confidentiality
Poorly designed online surveys encourage novice users to break off the survey process,
making them less effective than paper surveys
The inability to inspect the survey document prior to completion, as can be done with a
paper copy
Limitations of using the studentcentral tool for online surveys
No graphics available to display results
All respondents must be enrolled in the same study area
Best used when only simple analysis is required
Dr Les Ellam (April 2012) e-learning team (http://studentfolio.brighton.ac.uk/elearning) 6
If you use the studentcentral survey tool, you build a survey in the same way as you might
build a Test, adding questions from a list of question types, choosing settings which define how
the survey will be made available and collecting the results from participants
Setting up an individual Survey in studentcentral
1. Login to your appropriate study area
2. From the Course Management Control Panel (beneath the menu) choose Course Tools
> Tests, Surveys and Pools
3. To set up an individual survey, choose Surveys
4. Click Build Survey
5. On the Survey Information page, type a Name for the survey
6. It is advisable to enter a Description and Instructions
7. When you have completed these two boxes, click Submit and you will be taken to the
area where you start to compose the questions, by clicking the options arrow beside
Create Question
8. On the Survey Canvas page, click the Create Question
options arrow
9. Choose the question type you want from the list
10. The question type most often used in surveys is Opinion
Scale/Likert
11. Another question type most frequently chosen is Short
Answer which gives the students 3 ‘lines’ to write some
text in – although they can exceed the 3 lines. This could
be used as “Please use this space to comment on your
answer to the previous question” for example
Dr Les Ellam (April 2012) e-learning team (http://studentfolio.brighton.ac.uk/elearning) 7
12. The following example show how you might wish to use an Opinion Scale/Likert
question after choosing it from step 9 above
13. In section (1) Question, type a statement into the Question Text box (you don’t need to
use the Title box), e.g. “The module was well planned”
14. Choose the settings you want in section (2) Options
15. We recommend you change the setting from the default of 1, 2, 3 to None so that the
answers do not appear as being in an order which may sway responses
16. Answer Orientation is up to your own preference but the default of Horizontal is fine
17. It is probably best to NOT randomise answers
18. In section (3) Answers, choose how many options you want to offer. The default
setting for this question type is 6 options of :
Strongly agree
Agree
Neither agree nor disagree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Not applicable
Dr Les Ellam (April 2012) e-learning team (http://studentfolio.brighton.ac.uk/elearning) 8
19. You can use the answers offered, or type your own into the boxes provided for each
answer or Remove ones you don’t want
20. If you wish to change the answer, you simply click into the box and change the text
21. If you want less answers, you simply click Remove beside the answer
22. You can ignore Sections 4 and 5 and click Submit
23. You continue adding questions in that way
24. If you want to add a ‘comment’ style question you could choose the question type of
Short Answer
25. The default ‘size’ for this question is 3 rows although this can be changed. But if you
have selected 3 and the students wants to write more, it does allow them to. So seeing
3 rows, for example, just gives them some idea of how much text you wish them to add
26. Another question type you may wish to use is Multiple Choice
27. Again, you would type the question in the Question Text box
28. There are 4 answers by default, but as before you can remove or add some
29. After you have added all your questions, you can rearrange the order of the questions
by using the drop and drag arrows to the left of each question or you can use the less
fiddly method of using the Reorder box over on the right hand side
Dr Les Ellam (April 2012) e-learning team (http://studentfolio.brighton.ac.uk/elearning) 9
30. When you have added all your questions, click OK (at the bottom right of the page)
Dr Les Ellam (April 2012) e-learning team (http://studentfolio.brighton.ac.uk/elearning) 10
Making the Survey Available (Deploying the Survey)
1. It is recommended you don’t ‘bury’ your survey inside an existing content area or
menu. So create a new menu link called (for example) Survey by using the Add Menu
Item button (green plus at the top left of the menu) and choosing Create Content Area
(remembering to make it available to users or else your students won’t see it)
2. Click Create Assessment > Survey
3. In the Add Survey box you will get a list of all surveys which haven’t yet been used
elsewhere in that module (i.e. already deployed) so select the appropriate one and click
Submit
Dr Les Ellam (April 2012) e-learning team (http://studentfolio.brighton.ac.uk/elearning) 11
4. You’ll see the Name and Description boxes are filled in for section (1) Survey
Information – but you could amend these if you choose
5. You can choose to have the survey opening in a new window if you wish. If the survey
is about the study area – e.g. module evaluation, you might as well leave it opening
inside the module area. If it is about something outside of the teaching area, you might
want to choose to open the survey window separately
6. In section (2) Survey Availability, carefully choose the options you want :
You probably certainly want to Make the Link Available (Yes)
You might want to Add a New Announcement for this Survey (this automatically
adds a standard announcement to that study area)
Are Multiple Attempts to be allowed or is this a ‘one off’? Most surveys are
probably single attempt only
Note that the Force Completion option means that the survey must be
completed the first time it's launched - it cannot be started and then resumed at
a later time. If you use this option it may well be a good idea to state this in the
Instructions
Note that the Set Timer option will record when the survey is submitted. You
get an additional option of allowing the student to continue after the time
expires or saving and submitting automatically at time expiry. These options are
probably not appropriate for a survey
Display After and Display Until options are as usual
You could choose to set a Password – but this option is more frequently used in
a Test
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7. In section (3) Due Date you could set a date when submissions would be marked as
Late in the Grade Centre although they will still be accepted
8. In section (4) Self-assessment Options you probably want to leave the tick out as this is
a survey and not a graded test
9. In section (5) Survey Feedback, you may wish to tick both boxes so the student knows
they have completed and could print out their responses
10. In section (6) Survey Presentation, the recommended setting is All at Once
11. When you have worked your way through these options, click Submit
12. To edit any of the survey options at a later date, click the options arrow to the right of
the survey and choose Edit the Survey Options
13. To edit the survey itself at a later date, e.g. add, delete or amend questions, choose
Edit the Survey
Dr Les Ellam (April 2012) e-learning team (http://studentfolio.brighton.ac.uk/elearning) 13
After the survey has been completed, you will want to know the responses. One of the
benefits of using the studentcentral survey tool is that the results are stored in the Grade
Centre where they can be viewed and downloaded for further and more detailed analysis
How to view the survey results from the Grade Centre
1. From the Course Management Control Panel (below the left hand side menu) choose
Grade Centre > Full Grade Centre
2. Use the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the list of students to scroll along to the
column that is titled with the name of your survey.
3. Click on the survey title in the Information Bar and select the option arrow to the right
4. Choose Attempt Statistics
Use this scroll
bar to scroll
along so you can
view your survey
column
Dr Les Ellam (April 2012) e-learning team (http://studentfolio.brighton.ac.uk/elearning) 14
6. This will bring up a summary of all the survey results – percentages and any free text
answers which you could copy and paste into a Word document
How to download the survey results from the Grade Centre
1. To download the results into an Excel
format you choose Download Results
from the options arrow to the right of the
survey title
2. Choose Click to Download Results (you
can leave all the options as the default
settings)
3. You’ll get a (heavily formatted) Excel
spreadsheet but this will be sufficient for
you to use the Data > Filter tools to cross
correlate one or more columns
Dr Les Ellam (April 2012) e-learning team (http://studentfolio.brighton.ac.uk/elearning) 15
The Survey tool is useful for things like questionnaires and evaluations, when you want an
online form that users can complete anonymously. Sometimes you may wish to use the same
survey in different areas – for module evaluation for example. On other occasions you may
want to repeat the survey with a different group or cohort. It is not recommended to re-use an
existing survey by simply opening it again It is better practice to export the existing one and
re-import it back into the same area so it is empty and can be used fresh.
How to export a survey in studentcentral
1. From the Course Management Control Panel area (below the menu) choose Course
Tools > Tests, Surveys and Pools
2. Choose Surveys from the screen that follows
3. Click the small options option to the right of the survey you wish to export and choose
Export
4. You will get a window asking if you wish to Open
or Save the file (it will be a zip file) – choose
Save and remember where you have saved it
(your Desktop would be a good idea if you
intend to Import immediately)
5. That will bundle the entire survey up as a zip file
ready to be imported into another area on
studentcentral
Dr Les Ellam (April 2012) e-learning team (http://studentfolio.brighton.ac.uk/elearning) 16
How to import a survey in studentcentral
1. Go to the module area where you want the survey to be copied – this could be a new
area of the same one if you wish to redeploy the same survey to a new group of
students
2. You now repeat the process you have just done namely go to the Course Management
Control Panel (below the menu) and choose Course Tools > Tests, Surveys and Pools
3. Choose Surveys from the screen that follows
4. This time choose Import Survey
5. Browse to the zipped file you have saved
6. Click Open
7. Click Submit
8. You get a Success Receipt if all has worked
9. Click OK down the bottom of the screen
10. If you have imported the survey back into the same area as exported, you’ll see two
surveys with the same name. It is best to change the name of the imported one
immediately so you don’t get confused later
11. To do this simply click the options arrow beside the survey that says No in the Deployed
column and choose Edit so that you can rename it
Dr Les Ellam (April 2012) e-learning team (http://studentfolio.brighton.ac.uk/elearning) 17
12. Once the survey is imported it is ready to be deployed as you would do when creating a
new survey
13. You may need to do some tweaking or editing of the new item – simply click the options
arrow beside the newly added survey to edit the options or the survey itself