Desire Learn Overview

Quickguide: Surveys Tool

The Survey tool allows you to solicit feedback from students regarding any aspect of your course. For example, it can be used as a method for delivering general course evaluations, mid-year reviews, or surveys associated with learning styles and preferences.

How to Access the Surveys Tool

To access the Surveys tool, you must first add it to your Navbar. See the Navbar Quickguide for instructions on adding tool links to your Navbar.

In This Guide
Creating and Editing Surveys Creating Survey Questions Using Survey-Specific Questions Using Survey Settings Viewing Survey Results

Creating and Editing Surveys

Create a Survey
1. Click the New icon to create a new survey. The Properties tab displays by default when you create or edit a survey. 2. Enter a name for your survey. 3. Select the Anonymous option to hide student data in survey results. The responses to survey questions are available for all users, but the system will not report who made each response (Figure 1). Note: If you set a survey as anonymous, you cannot change that setting later. 4. Enter a text message to be displayed to students at the top of the survey in the Description field. 5. In the Submission Message text box, add a message that is shown to students after they complete the survey. 6. Click Save Survey.

Figure 1

Desire2Learn Quickguide: Surveys Tool (Page 2 of 5)

Creating Survey Questions

1. Click the Layout/Questions tab. 2. Click Add/Edit Questions. 3. To organize your quiz by section, select Section in the Create New drop-down list and click GO (Figure 2). 4. In the Create New drop-down list, select the question type you want to add. 5. Click GO. 6. Fill out all required fields for the question type you selected. 7. Click Save.
Figure 2

Importing Quiz Questions from the Question Library

1. Click the Layout/Questions tab. 2. Click Add/Edit Questions. 3. Click Import (Figure 3). 4. For the Import Source, select From an existing collection. 5. For the Source Collection, select Question Library. 6. For the Source Selection, select Collection Root (Figure 4). 7. The questions from your Question Library will appear below these selections. Select the checkboxes next to the questions you want to import. 8. Click Save. The questions you selected will now be available in your survey.

Figure 3

Figure 4

Using Survey-Specific Questions

Note: All quiz question types are available in the Survey tool, along with Likert scale questions, which are used only in surveys.

Create a Likert Question

Figure 5

1. Select Likert in the Question or Selection drop-down menu (Figure 5).

Desire2Learn Quickguide: Surveys Tool (Page 3 of 5)

2. Enter instructions into the Introductory Text box. 3. Choose a scale for your survey (Figure 6). 4. Select Include an N/A option if you want this option to be available. 5. In the Questions section, enter each item that you want to be rated. You must have at least one item to be rated. 6. More question boxes can be added by clicking Add Item. 7. Click Save.

Using Survey Settings

Mark Questions in a Survey as Mandatory
If you mark a question Mandatory, respondents cannot submit the survey until they have answered the question. 1. On the Layout/Questions tab, click Edit. 2. Select the Mandatory checkbox beside the questions you want to force students to answer. 3. Click Save (not Save Survey). Note: Mandatory questions cannot be used in conjunction with the Prevent Moving Backwards setting, and Mandatory questions also cannot be used with branching.

Figure 6

Prevent Moving Backward in a Survey

You can prevent respondents from returning to previous pages as they complete a survey. 1. On the Layout/Questions tab, click the gray lines between questions to divide your survey into pages (Figure 7). 2. Select Prevent moving backwards through pages. 3. Click Save Survey.

Figure 7

Desire2Learn Quickguide: Surveys Tool (Page 4 of 5)

Note: This setting cannot be used if your survey has any Mandatory questions.

Use Branching Questions

Branching allows you to set up questions that will only display to students who provide certain answers. It can be used to ask followup questions to students who entered a particular answer. Note: If you activate branching, all questions will be presented to students one at a time. Enabling branching will erase any paging layout and the Mandatory status of any question. 1. On the Layout/Questions tab, click the Branching Wizard button at the bottom of the page (Figure 8). 2. A confirmation window will appear. Click Yes to continue. 3. The wizard will display a list of the survey questions and their types, with corresponding answers. 4. Create the questions branches (Figure 9). In the Next field next to an answer, enter the number of the question that the survey will jump to if that answer is chosen. Select the Ends Survey checkbox next to an answer to terminate the survey if that answer is chosen. If the Next field is not filled out and the Ends Survey checkbox is deselected, the survey will go to the next question. 5. Click Save.

Figure 8

Figure 9

Viewing Survey Results

1. From the Manage Surveys page, click the Results icon beside the applicable survey (Figure 10). 2. You will see a list of all students or just the overall survey results if the survey was set up as anonymous.
Figure 10

Desire2Learn Quickguide: Surveys Tool (Page 5 of 5)

3. Click an individual attempt or Overall Survey Results (Figure 11). 4. Click Survey List to return to the main survey page.
Figure 11

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