Create midterm surveys for courses

Introduction

This guide will focus primarily on the project setup for midterm surveys for courses. A midterm survey allows instructors to collect student feedback in the middle of a course to address potential issues before the end-of-term assessment. Each instructor will have the option to participate in their own separate midterm survey. If the instructor decides to opt in and launch a midterm survey, they may be able to adjust the schedule, create or select questions, monitor response rates in real-time, and download the results.

What we are building

A midterm survey for courses that allows each instructor to opt-in to having their courses surveyed ahead of the end-of-term evaluations.

Our choices

The following parameters will be applied throughout this guide:

• Instructors choose to participate - Each instructor can opt in to have their courses surveyed for the midterm. If they take no action, their midterm surveys will not launch.
• Independent surveys for team-taught - For team-taught courses, each instructor will launch their own separate midterm course survey independent of other instructors belonging to the same class.
• Instructor questions only - Only questions that the instructor adds will be asked.
• Delegated timing - Instructors can adjust the timing of the survey.
• Instant results - Instructors are able to download anonymous responses the moment the survey ends, in addition to reports.
• Instructor reports only - Reports are shared only with the instructors.

What is needed for setting up this type of survey project:

General overview of steps

1. Add datasources - Include the data for the courses and instructors being surveyed, the students providing feedback, and their relationships to each other.
2. Create the Definition - Select what type of survey structure to use.
3. Define groups and privileges - Create the groups that will participate in the surveys and assign privileges to them.
4. Create the project - Select the project's Definition, audience type, confidentiality level, and automatic update option for groups.
5. Verify subjects and members - Check to see that the right subjects and group members have been automatically included in the project.
6. Build the questionnaire - Allow instructors to create questions or to select from a list of validated questions.
7. Configure tasks - Make midterms optional for instructors to participate.
8. Publish project - Set an overall schedule for the survey process and publish the project.
9. Schedule tasks - Set the schedule to collect the feedback.
10. Create reports (optional) - Reports can be created to provide a summary and record of the midterm survey, however, you may skip this step since instructors will be able download the results.

Common terms in midterm surveys for courses

Depending on your region, the terms used in your institution may vary. Common terms that are used in midterm course evaluations:

Course evaluation - The typical course evaluation refers broadly to the student end of class summative survey in a college/university. Other common terms used for course evaluation include "student evaluation", "learning feedback", "student feedback", "paper evaluation", "module evaluation", and "teaching effectiveness".

Instructor - Instructor refers to someone who teaches one or many courses. Other terms used for instructor include “professor”, “teacher”, and “lecturer”.

Course - Course refers to a unit of teaching that typically lasts one academic term. Other terms used for course include “class”, “module”, and “lesson”.

Program - A program refers to a collection of inter-related courses that define the focus or specialization of a student's degree. Other terms used for program include "major", "module", and "field of study".

Academic term - An academic term is a portion of a year during which an institution holds courses .Other terms used for academic term include “semester”, “trimester”, and “quarter”.

Course coordinator - Course coordinator refers to the person who coordinates and maintains teaching quality and materials for one or many courses. Other terms used for course coordinator include “course leader”, “module leader”, and “primary instructor”.

Midterm vs. end-of-term evaluations

Step 1 - Add datasources (if not already added)

The first step is to add datasources containing relevant information on courses, students, and instructors that will be involved in your midterm feedback process.

What you need for datasources:

Example of Entity Relationship Diagram for datasources:

Step 2 - Create the Definition

The next step after adding datasources is to create the Definition.

What you need for the Definition:

Step 3 - Define groups and privileges

As part of the Definition, you will also need to create the groups of individuals that will be participating in your midterm surveys and assign them privileges.

What you need for groups and privileges:

Step 4 - Create the project

The next step after defining groups is to create the feedback project.

What you need for creating the project:

Step 5 - Verify subjects and group members

Get started by navigating to the MEMBERS - EXPORT/IMPORT tab and select export members to download a CSV file of all courses and associated group members in your project. For more information, see Export or import project members.

Example of exported data (courses and their paired group members):

Step 6 - Build the questionnaire

The next step after creating the project is to build the questionnaire so that instructors can create questions or select from a list of validated questions.

What you need to know about building the questionnaire:

Example of setting up a midterm questionnaire:

Step 7 - Configure tasks

The next step is to configure the tasks associated with each privilege so that those tasks can be performed by the student and instructor groups.

What you will need to configure tasks:

Get started by navigating to TASKS and enabling the subject management, question personalization, and fillout tasks. For each task, select configure to configure its settings.

Step 8 - Schedule tasks

After you have configured the tasks, the next step is to schedule when each task starts and ends.

You may use the following schedule as a guideline:

Step 9 - Publish project

The next step is to publish the project, which is essentially activating the tasks so that they can be completed by all the groups.

What you will need to publish the project:

Step 10 - Create reports (optional)

Reports can be created to help make sense of the student feedback collected from the project. For midterm evaluations, reports are only shared with instructors. However, since instructors will be able to download their midterm evaluation's results in a CSV file, it may not be necessary to create reports for them and you may skip this step.

If you wish to create reports for additional analysis in your midterm evaluation, you will need: