Course evaluations in Canvas

Course evaluations can be done directly in Canvas using the survey tool KI Survey. With just a few clicks, teachers or course administrators can create surveys and course evaluations based on a template, directly in Canvas.

Facts: Course Evaluation in Canvas (undergraduate and advanced level)

  • With just a few clicks, teachers and course administrators can create surveys and course evaluations for their courses directly in Canvas.
  • Students can respond to the survey within Canvas but will also receive a link to the survey with information that the survey is open and reminders via email.
  • Reports are created automatically, and teachers, administrators, and students can access them in Canvas. If preferred, you can review and edit the reports before publishing them in the course.

Access

To access the survey, you must be listed as an authorized user. If you are not authorized, you will still see the survey in the list, marked with a padlock icon. The name of the owner of each survey is displayed in the survey list. Add authorized users when creating the survey directly in the Canvas tool (further instructions are provided further down this page).

Manual: Course evaluations in Canvas

Once the tool is activated in the course, you can access Course Evaluations in Canvas through the link 'Kursvärdering’ in the course navigation.

Start page/Overview

From the start page, you can access all available surveys for the course you are currently in. You can see the status of each survey (draft, ongoing, closed) and the set publication dates.

You will see all surveys created in the course and can open those for which you are an authorized user. The name of the owner is shown to the right in the list. If you need access to a survey you did not create yourself, contact the owner who can assign you access rights.

Click on an existing survey to review and edit it or click ‘New Survey’ to add a new survey to the course.

Creating a survey

Step 1 - Select templates

  • It is mandatory to choose a ‘Main template’. The main template defines design and all survey settings, header, footer, introduction text and pre-defined reports. It can also contain questions, but must not. The language in brackets after the survey template name [English] indicates the default language.
  • If you wish, also add content templates. These let you add additional questions to your survey. Hoover over the speech bubble for each template, to see which languages are active for that template.
  • A content template that is not available in the default language of the selected main template will be marked grey, but can still be selected. This is to alert the teacher of the fact that texts might need to be added.

Step 2 - Enter basic settings

Survey name - is fetched from the Canvas course name, and can be edited

The survey is opened: is automatically set to one day after the last date of the course, but can be edited. Start date cannot be earlier than ‘tomorrow’. At the start date the survey will be automatically published and activated. Students that are connected to the course at this time will be added to the survey as respondents.

The survey is closed: at this date the survey will be automatically closed, and thereafter reports generated. The dates are mandatory fields.

Click ‘Create’ at the top of the page to create the survey.

For respondents, please note:

  • If students are added to the course after this time, the teacher must add them as respondents in Survey&Report manually.

Important information about respondets

  • Students that have not accepted the course when the survey is published will be connected as respondents without an email address in Survey&Report.
  • The student’s email address is the connection between the survey tool and Canvas. A respondent that has no email address will not be able to see surveys or reports in Canvas.
  • The teacher can manually add the email address for the student in both systems, to create this connection for students where the email was missing at publication start.

Survey status: Construction

Tab ‘Settings’

When you have added the survey, you can edit all information added in the first step and you can also edit the survey languages. On the top of the page, you can find two buttons:

Publish survey now - publishes the survey immediately, instead of at the date selected under ‘The survey is opened’. The same actions are taken as at ‘The survey is opened’ (see above).

Open in SR - If allowed in the LTI settings the teacher can click this button to open the survey tool in a new tab in the same web browser. The user will automatically be logged into the program. Changes made in survey name, content or publication date in the survey tool, will be visible in Canvas (it is the same survey, to which changes can be made from both places).

The user can add additional teachers as authorized users to the survey in the survey tool. By doing so the added teachers can also see the survey in the course in Canvas, and thus cooperate on the survey also there.

Survey status: Construction

Tab ‘Content’

Tab ‘Content’

The tab ‘content’will be visible once you have created your survey. Please note: This is not a necessary step: the survey can already be completely ready after creating the survey unless you want to change or add something. 

All questions that have been added to the survey are presented on this page, together with header, footer and introduction text that have been fetched from the main template. If desired, the authorized user can modify the questions and the pages here. The templates used defines which changes can be made to the existing questions.

Language - The language of the template will be either Swedish or English depending on the program template. Swedish programmes use surveys in Swedish, and international programmes use surveys in English. It is not possible to select multiple languages for a survey created in Canvas.

At the top of the page, you’ll find five buttons:

New Page – Adds a new page. This only works when you are on the last page of the survey.

Delete Page – Removes the current page and all its content.

Import Questions – Opens a window to import questions into the survey.

Preview – Displays the survey as it will appear to students.

Open in KI Survey – Takes you out of Canvas and into the main tool Sunet Survey (Survey&Report). There, you can make additional settings, such as adding question types that are not available in Canvas. After closing Sunet Survey, you can continue working on the survey in Canvas.

Adding Questions
To add questions, click the plus button and select a question type from the list. Following question types are available for creation of new questions:

Single-choice

  • Yes/no
  • Radio buttons
  • Rating

Multiple-choice

  • Check Boxes

Text

  • Field

Informational texts

  • Text

Any question types the teacher does not have the right to use according to the user’s user groups in Survey&Report, will be hidden.

More advanced editing of the survey

If you wish to make more advanced editing of the survey, or to use question types not available in Canvas, click the icon on the top of the page ‘Open in KI survey’ to continue editing in the survey tool instead.

For help with the settings and functions on this page please see the help in Survey&Report.

Log in as a student

Links to a student’s surveys is presented in the Canvas ‘To-do’. A student can click a ‘To do’ in order to reach the survey.

By clicking the button for the survey tool ‘Kursvärdering’ the student will see a list of surveys for the selected course. Each survey displays information if the student has replied or not and publication status. Surveys that have not yet been published are hidden. The student can click a survey to answer (the same link is presented as the one sent from the survey tool).

The second tab lists all reports that are available to the student for that course. The student can click a report to view it.

For each survey, information is displayed about the dates during which the survey can be answered, as well as information about whether the student has answered the survey or not. 

Active and closed surveys

The teacher has corresponding rights as in Survey&Report as to which changes can be made to a survey after the construction phase is passed.

Reminders

Two reminders are sent out during the publication time of the survey. The first reminder is automatically sent out four days after the survey is published, and a final reminder is sent out eight days after. It is possible to add additional reminders, but this can only be done in KI Survey under Distribution/Channels.

In Canvas, students can access the survey via a link in the ‘To Do’ section under Course Overview in the course. Alternatively, students can click on the link ‘Kursvärdering’ in the course navigation menu, where all available surveys for the course will be displayed to the student

Reports

Reports are generated automatically after the survey has closed and are available directly in Canvas. Under the ‘Reports’ tab, all reports accessible to authorized users in the course are displayed. In addition to viewing them in Canvas, reports can also be downloaded as PDF files.

By default, the following reports are shown:

  • Course evaluation without free-text answers (also visible to students - Short)
  • Course evaluation with free-text answers (not visible to students - Full)

Quick Guide: Create a Course Evaluation Survey in Canvas

  • Select the program template of your course
  • Name the survey using the format: course code_course name_term
  • Set the dates for when the survey should open and close
  • Save the survey (click the disk icon in the upper left corner)
  • Add authorized users who should have access to the survey and the report in addition to yourself
  • Edit the content (under the Content tab) if necessary

If you wish to add or remove participants from the survey, you must first publish the survey.
The easiest way to do this is to finish construction in KI Survey.

Support in KI Survey

If you have questions related to course evaluations, you can contact zoe.saflund@ki.se
Currently, KI does not offer additional support for KI Survey. Instead, refer to the built-in help sections, which are always accessible in the upper right corner next to your name. Once logged in, you’ll also see a news feed in the right-hand column where you can find updates.