ACCUTRACK FEEDBACK SURVEYS

When you click on Feedback Surveys from the System Administration scren, you will see the following options:

  • Create Feedback Survey: Allows you to create surveys to present to students for activities and/or for tutor feedback collection.
  • Custom Surveys: Allows you to create your own surveys using various form elements.
  • Publish Custom Surveys: Used to determine when, where and to whom your custom surveys will be presented.
  • Custom Survey Reports: Allows you to view reports for the publications of your custom surveys.


Video Learning Series: Collecting Student Feedback
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P7qTMjri1M

The following sections have more information on the above screens.

CREATE A TRADITIONAL FEEDBACK SURVEY

Purpose: To define the survey questions used in collecting feedback from students on services or tutors.
Access: System Administration > Feedback Surveys > Create Feedback Survey

In this screen, you can decide which questions are displayed to Students, enter the questions asked and define how they look on the screen. You can also define the scale of all the answers. In this section, we will have an explanation of the elements of this screen.

These Surveys can only go out to Students and use the same answer scale for all of the 10 possible questions. Each Local Lab or Center cannot have a unique version of these surveys but can configure when they go out and the frequency so they are usually reserved to collect general feedback.
These traditional feedback surveys come in 2 forms that can be displayed to students:
  • Activity-based Survey
  • Tutor-based Survey

You can choose to use both or only one of them but each have their own setup options.

Some Centers or Lab choose to create a general “Center Assessment” for the Activity-based Surveys that provide feedback on how well the Center services are performing.

QUESTION PREVIEW

The “Question Preview” box shows how the selected question will appear in the survey. You can change the different options and see how they affect the appearance of the question.

QUESTION

The Question box allows you to edit the text of the selected question. The question is selected by clicking on the question number in the Question Navigator.

STATUS BOX

The Status Box allows you to define the status of the selected question. There are three options available:

  • Show: Check this box if you want the question to be visible in the Feedback screen. If you do not need this question, uncheck the Show box.
  • Frame: Check this box if you want a frame or a border to appear around the question and the answer box.
  • Answer Required: Check this box if you want students to answer this question. When this box is checked, AccuSQL/AccuTrack will not allow the student to proceed with the sign out until an answer is selected from the drop-down box.

FONT BOX

The font box allows you to define the appearance of the question:

Use the Question Preview box to see how the question will appear when you make changes in the Font box.
If you want all questions in the Survey screen to have the same font and status as the current question, click on “Apply to all” button.

QUESTION NAVIGATOR

The Question Navigator box allows you to select the question you want to set up. The Survey screen has the capacity to show up to 10 questions. These questions are arranged in a single column. To select one of the questions, simply click on its position in the “Question Navigator” box. For example, to select the first question in the first column, simply click on it.

The selected question will appear highlighted in a solid color.

Questions that are set as invisible will have a transparent block and will not appear to the Students:

Questions that are set as visible will have a gray block and will appear to the Students:

OTHER TEXT

This box allows you to change the instructions and open comments text. Here is how:

Changing the Header

To change the header title of the Feedback screen, click the “Header” box and type in the new header in the Page Header text area. Click “Save” to keep the changes.

Changing the Survey Instructions

To change the survey screen instructions, click the “Instructions” box and type in the new instructions in the Instructions text area. Click “Save” to keep the changes.

Changing the Open Comments Text

You can change the text appearing above the open comments text box. Simply click “Text box header and type in the new text in the Text Box Header text area. Click “Save” to keep the changes.

SCALE DEFINITION

Use the scale definition box to define the scale for the survey. Make sure to enter a weight for each item. AccuSQL/AccuTrack will use the weight when calculating the average response score for the question.

This scale definition will apply to all the questions so these traditional surveys only allow for the same type of questions.

SURVEY TYPE SELECTION

The Survey Type options group is located in the lower right portion of the screen. To define the activity feedback questions, make sure that the “Activity Feedback Survey” option is selected. To define the tutor ratings' questions, make sure that the “Tutor evaluation Survey” is checked. The Feedback Survey Setup screen is really two setup screens in one. If you select the Activity Feedback Survey radio button at the bottom left of the screen, then you are setting up the survey that can be presented to students when they have selected a particular activity when they sign in. If you select the Tutor evaluation Survey radio button in the bottom left of the screen, then you are setting up the survey that can be presented to students to evaluate the tutor they have selected when they sign-in.

DEFINING THE SURVEY SCALE

accutrack-accusql-feedbacksurveysetup-scaledefinition.jpg

To answer the survey, visitors will need to select one of the options in the drop-down menu. AccuSQL/AccuTrack allows you to define these options. The options can be any appropriate scale such as “Excellent, Good, Poor”, or “Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly Disagree”. All questions will have the same options, so you only need to enter the scale once.

In addition to entering the scale, you also need to define its weight. The weight is an integer number from 0 to 99. AccuSQL/AccuTrack uses this weight when calculating the average response for each question. For example, if your scale and weights are like this:

  • Always: 5
  • Most of the times: 4
  • Sometimes: 3
  • Occasionally: 2
  • Never: 1

And 100 people answer this question as follows

  • Always: 10 people selected this option
  • Most of the times: 25 people selected this option
  • Sometimes: 45 people selected this option
  • Occasionally: 15 people selected this option
  • Never: 5 people selected this option

AccuSQL/AccuTrack will calculate the average response to this question like this: (10*5 + 25*4 + 45*3 + 15*2 + 5*1) /100 = 3.3 (Sometimes)

The answers you enter in the Scale Definition area are used by every survey question. When you enter the questions for the survey, keep that in mind so the answers will make sense for every question.
When entering non-answer options such as Not Applicable, N/A, and “Don’t Know”, use a weight of 0 and AccuSQL/AccuTrack will exclude this answer from the average calculation.

Tutor Evaluation Survey

You can also use the Feedback Survey Setup screen to collect tutor ratings. The process is identical to what we did above but instead of collecting feedback on activities we will be collecting feedback on the tutors.

Entering the Tutor Survey Questions

To set up the Tutor Rating module, start by setting up the tutor rating survey. From the System Administration screen click on Student Setup then click on Survey. You will an options group at the bottom of the screen that allows you to select whether you are setting up a service rating survey or a tutor rating survey. Click on the “Tutor evaluation Survey” option to set up the tutor rating survey.

Enter the questions exactly as you did when setting up the Activity Feedback Survey.

If you are not sure how to do this check the sections above for details.

CUSTOM SURVEYS

Purpose: To define custom survey questions used in collecting feedback from students and or tutors at sign in or sign out.
Access: From System Administration, click on Feedback Surveys > Custom Surveys.

The Survey Manager offers the following advantages over the other AccuSQL/AccuTrack feedback module:

  1. You can create unlimited numbers of surveys.
  2. Each survey can have an unlimited number of questions.
  3. You can present the survey to either students or tutors.
  4. You can present the survey to a specific Local Lab.
  5. You can present the survey to specific students or to a student group.
  6. You can present the surveys in the Web Gateway plugin module.
  7. Several question formats are supported (radio buttons, checkboxes, drop-down windows, Listbox, and text entry).
  8. Surveys appear in HTML format.
  9. You can get powerful reports on published surveys, which include charts.
  10. You can run a report that contrasts your survey responses with your student profile answers.

When you click the Custom Surveys screen, the first step is to click the Add button to add a new survey to the system. After you click Add from the Custom Surveys screen, you will be presented with the Survey Creator, where you can build the survey.

In the Survey Creator screen start by typing in the survey’s title and instructions for completing the Survey.

Next type in the first question and select the type of answer from the Answer Type menu on the right (radio button checkboxes, etc.). Now click “Save Question” to add the question. If you want the answer to be required (survey takers cannot close screen unless they answer the question), then click the Answer required checkbox.

Next, you need to add the answers for the question you just added. Verify that the question is highlighted, and type in an answer. You can optionally assign a numerical weight or a scale to this answer. Next, click the “Save Answer” button. If there are multiple answers, add one then click Save Answer for each answer until you have them all completed for the selected question. Note: If you are creating a Text answer type, you do not need to add answers.

You can now type in the next question, select its type, save it, and then enter its answers. Repeat this until all the questions and answers are entered. At any time you can click Preview Survey to see what the survey will look like:

To edit a question, click “Edit” in the question’s row in the Questions grid. To edit an answer, click “Edit” in the answer’s row in the Answers grid. To save he survey, click “Save Survey and exit”

If you try to edit a survey that already has responders, AccuSQL/AccuTrack will prevent you from doing so. Instead, you can click the Copy to New button to copy the existing survey then you can edit the copy. Also, you can delete an existing survey, but if you do so, you will lose all information about the survey responders.

Once you are happy with your survey, the next step is to publish it. If the students and/or tutors fill out the survey via AccuSQL/AccuTrack, it will look just like the preview. In Web Gateway, when the student/tutor signs in, they will first see that a new survey is available:

And when they click the survey they can fill it out online.

Publish Custom Survey

The first time you launch this screen it will be empty. To publish a survey you created earlier, click on “Add”. You will now be able to select the title of the survey using the “…” button.

In the Select survey screen, select the survey you want to publish, then press the Select and return button.

Back in the Publish Custom Survey screen enter the “Valid From” and “Valid To” dates to present the survey. Also, select the Students and/or Tutors checkboxes if you want to present the survey to students, tutors, or both students and tutors. If you prefer, you can click Set Filter and present only to specific students or tutors (if you do not click Set Filter. All students and tutors will be selected by default).

If you want to present the survey in a specific lab, select the lab from the Lab drop-down box. If you want to present it to one or more student groups, click Student groups and then the Set Filter button to select the group(s).

If you want to present the survey at sign-in (sign out is the default), click the Present at sign-in checkbox. After you have entered the above, click Save to publish the survey and begin using it.

While a survey is active, it will only be presented to the students and/or tutors once during the Valid From and Valid to period. You can also publish the same survey for different from and to date ranges and then compare them when you run the custom survey reports.

Custom Survey Reports

Once you have collected data via a Custom Survey that has been published you can view the report via the Feedback Surveys > Custom Survey Reports screen. Start by selecting the survey you want a report on, and then click the Show Report button.

If you click the Do Not Include Text-based replies and responders that added text answers will be omitted from the report output. If you have the same report that has been published for more than one from and to a date range (remember you can publish the same survey for multiple different from and to non-overlapping date ranges), click either the Only this publication or All publications of this (the selected) survey.

Here is a sample portion of a report:

Here is the same report with profiles:

The “with profiles” option will display the survey results in Excel with the Student Demographics uploaded on each Student. These show the demographic distributions of those who have taken the Custom Survey.

This is the only place to run Custom Survey Reports which are the only reports that are not included in the Reports or Reports Center sections due to the complexity of allowing you to pull one or multiple publications of the survey.

TRADITIONAL FEEDBACK SURVEYS vs. Custom Surveys

After you have created your traditional feedback survey using the Create Feedback Survey screen, you will need to decide when and how often you will present those surveys. Custom Surveys do not follow the rules in this setup options screen because of how they are published. Custom surveys allow for multiple Q & A types but can only be shown once per publication so if you need a recurring survey then you may want to use the traditional feedback survey. If you click Feedback Surveys module on the left-side navigation menu from the System Administration screen, then select Setup (in the lower-right), you will be presented with a Control Panel options view that shows your context-specific options for your Traditional Feedback Surveys (more specifically, your Activity Feedback Survey and your Tutor Evaluation Survey).

These Setup options only apply to Traditional Feedback Surveys! Custom Surveys are controlled directly from the Feedback Surveys > Publish Custom Surveys screen options and hence have no setup options in this section.

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