Summary 

Faculty have the ability to add custom questions to their surveys for students. This article will explain how to customize the Student Experience of Learning Survey questions.

• Customizing Question Types
• Previewing Questions as part of the Survey
• Editing Questions

 

How-To

Faculty are able to add up to 5 customized questions total.  This can be 5 open ended questions or 5 likert scale question or a mix of both, but a total of 5.  Question types are fixed, meaning they can't be changed from a likert scale to a written text question. 

Faculty Custom Questions can only be completed during the 7 day period before surveys are released to students.  Faculty will receive an email from the Blue Admins alerting them that the period has started and faculty should review their courses, surveys, and add any questions at this time.  Once surveys are open to students, no changes can be made.

 

Customizing Question Types

Instructions

Step 1 - Click on the Blue SEL Survey menu item in Canvas. This will direct you into the Blue browser based application (SEL Survey stands for Student Experiences of Learning Survey)

Step 2 - Choose 'Instructor' from the Blue log in screen if prompted

Step 3 - Instructors can customize questions for each of their courses. To begin, Click on a course that has the Edit Icon   and states "Create Custom Questions for..."

Step 4 - Here, you will see the full SEL survey for your students:

• The first section will be the 7 standard questions for all courses as provided by the institution
• Customizable Questions is where you will be able to manipulate and add custom questions by type:  Free Form, Likert "Agree", Likert "Y/N"

 

Step 5 - Sections can be expanded or collapsed by clicking on the caret (up arrow)  to the left of the section name

Step 6 - To customize a question, expand a section by clicking the caret, then select click Customize on a question you want to customize.

 

Step 7 - Type in your custom question text.  Once complete, simply click the X in the upper right to Save and close the window.

 

Step 8 - You now see your custom questions. They are automatically set to "Include" in the question set for the survey.  You can always, select Exclude if you choose.

 

Step 9 - Continue to add questions to each section, as needed.  Remember you can only add 5 total custom questions to the survey.  They can be all of one type or a mix of types, but no more than 5 total.

Step 10 - Once you have included the questions you want, use the Submit icon in the upper right to add the selected items to that course's survey.  If you would like the same questions for each of your courses, you need to click into each course to submit the same questions.

 

Outcome

Faculty can now update their surveys to contain questions that are Course specific.

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Previewing Questions as part of the Survey

Instructions

Step 1 - Select Preview at the top of the page, this will open the survey as it will appear to your students from within Blue. 

Step 2 - Custom questions will reside at the end of the survey. Click Next through the pages to see all your questions.

 

Outcome

You can preview what your questions look like to students taking the survey.

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Editing Questions

Instructions

Step 1 - To edit any customized questions, you will need to navigate back to the browser tab for question personalization (see first task above)  and select Update at the top right. 

Step 2 - Manipulate the question.

Step 3 - Save and close the question box by clicking the "X" in the upper right.

Step 4 - Select Update in the upper right to commit your changes.

 

Outcome

Faculty can edit an existing question.

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Further Readings

UNH Student Experiences of Learning (SEL) Survey 

 

Need additional help?

Please fill out this Course Feedback webform with as much detail as possible, or contact the ET&S Help Desk team on your local campus.

For additional Training please visit the Teaching and Learning Technologies Training Calendar.