Use the Survey tool in D2L

Surveys are an excellent way to solicit feedback from users regarding any aspect of your course. For example, they can be used as a method of collecting course evaluations, mid-year reviews, and assessing student progress. 

Create a Survey 

  1. Select Other Tools on the Navbar, then select Surveys 
  2. Select New Survey 
  3. Enter a Name for your survey 
  4. If you’d like the survey to be anonymous, select make results anonymous.  This option hides user data in survey results. Once a survey is made anonymous, it cannot be changed.  
  5. Select Save, then select Yes, if you have chosen to make the survey anonymous.  

Add Survey Questions 

  1. Select Add/Edit Questions 
  2. Select New, and then select the type of question you would like to create (i.e. True/False, Multiple choice, written response, etc.) 

Survey question types 

Question types available to the Surveys tool are like the questions available in the Quizzes and Self Assessments tools. Surveys can contain the following question types: 

  • True or False (T/F) 
  • Multiple Choice (MC) 
  • Multi-Select (M-S) 
  • Written Response (WR) 
  • Short Answer (SA) 
  • Multi-Short Answer (MSA) 
  • Fill in the Blanks (FIB) 
  • Matching (MAT) 
  • Ordering (ORD) 
  • Likert (LIK) 

Creating multiple choice questions 

  1. Enter Question Text 
  2. Enter an option in each answer field 
  3. Select the Options menu for additional options 
  4. A Preview of your question displays in the right frame 
  5. Select Save, Save and Copy, or Save and New 

Creating true/false and written response questions 

  1. Enter Question Text 
  2. Select the Options menu for additional options 
  3. A Preview of your question displays in the right frame 
  4. Select Save, Save and Copy, or Save and New 

Set Survey Restrictions 

  1. Select the Restrictions tab 
  2. Uncheck the “hidden” box. This allows users to see and take the survey.  
  3. [Optional]: Set Start and End Dates 
  4. Select the number of attempts allowed 
    1. Unlimited: User can take the survey as many times as they want 
    2. Single attempt that is editable: User has a single survey attempt that they can re-access to edit their responses if the survey is still available. 
    3. Limited: User can take the survey the specified number of times 
  5. Select Save and Close 

View Survey Results 

  1. To view survey results, select the arrow next to the survey name and select Statistics 
  2. If you wish to print or export the results, you must create a Survey Report (see below) 

Create a Survey Report 

Use survey reports to gather information on survey data. Survey reports collect and present more types of information than is available through statistics, and the report is printable. 

  1. Select the Reports Setup tab 
  2. Select Add Report  
  3. Enter a Report Name (such as Summary report) 
  4. Select a Report Type 
    1. Summary Report: You can display aggregate data for multiple choice, true and false, likert, multi-select, ordering, and matching question types. You can also display text responses for written response, short answer, and fill in the blanks question types. 
    2. Individual Attempts: This report displays each attempt individually. You can choose to hide the user’s first and last name when the Individual Attempts report is viewed. If you have created an anonymous survey, this box will be checked. 
  5. Select when to Release the report. Immediately after submission or based on a specific date and time. 
  6. IMPORTANT: In the Release Report To section, check the box next to the “Instructor” role. This will allow you to see the report. If you want students to see the report, select the box for Student. 
  7. Select Save 

Run a Survey Report 

After you have collected survey data, you can run a survey report. 

  1. From the main Survey page, select the arrow next to the Survey name and select Reports 
  2. Select the name of the Report you want to run 
  3. [optional] Enter date restrictions 
  4. Select the Generate CSV, Generate Excel or Generate HTML button 
    1. Generate CSV and Generate Excel: Creates a spreadsheet of the data 
    2. Generate HTML: Creates a visual online report that can be printed or exported 
    3. TIP: If you have open-ended responses, select the link to Expand Responses for each question before printing. 
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