Bulk Survey Basics

Modified on Mon, 3 Jun at 5:19 PM

This article will review what bulk surveys are and the first steps to making a bulk survey.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What is a bulk survey?
1. Connect your Qualtrics survey to Qualtrics LTI
2. Configure survey settings & embedded data fields
3. Bulk Survey Home Page Navigation
4. Distribute your Bulk Survey

What is a bulk survey?

A bulk survey is a survey distribution method where one survey is distributed into multiple courses at once. It is a great way to compare results across different courses with one survey (such as for an end-of-course evaluation survey). This article goes over the beginning steps for how to prepare and generate a bulk survey, which are as follows:

Connect your Qualtrics survey to Qualtrics LTI as a “Bulk Canvas Assignment” survey type
Configure your survey settings & embedded data fields
Bulk Survey Home Page Navigation
Distribute your Bulk Survey

Can only be used by Root account admins
Note that bulk surveys can only be distributed at the Institutional level by a root account admin in Canvas. Instructors and department level admins do not have access to bulk surveys.

You can't use Selection data fields in bulk surveys
It is also important to know that “selection” embedded data fields (such as Faculty Selection) do not work in a bulk survey. If you would like to use a “selection” embedded data field, you will need to instead use a “Custom Text” field in the Qualtrics LTI. Since “selection” data fields do not work with bulk assignments we will work only with “fixed” data fields and “Custom Text” data fields when configuring a bulk survey.

1. Connect your Qualtrics survey to Qualtrics LTI

The first step to creating a bulk survey is to connect your survey from Qualtrics to Qualtrics LTI.

In Qualtrics, make sure the survey is published and collaborated with the root Qualtrics account that is connected to the Qualtrics LTI. See this article for more information on collaborating in Qualtrics.
Go to the Institute surveys page of the Qualtrics LTI in Canvas
Click the “+ Add Survey” button
A pop-up screen will appear, and then select the “Bulk Canvas assignment” survey type.
The last step is to select which survey you would like to connect to Qualtrics LTI. You can search for and select the survey you want to add, then click the blue “Add survey” button at the bottom right corner of the pop-up window.

Now that you have connected your Qualtrics survey to the Qualtrics LTI as a Bulk Canvas assignment type, the next step is to configure your settings and embedded data fields.

2. Configure survey settings & embedded data fields

Once your Qualtrics survey is added to the Qualtrics LTI by following the steps above, you will automatically be brought to the settings tab of that survey in the Qualtrics LTI (see the image below).

Here you can configure your survey settings and click the blue “Save” button in the bottom right hand corner.

Next, if you would like to add optional embedded data fields to your survey, go to the “Data Fields” tab to the right of “Settings.” This is where you can add the embedded data fields that you want to be collected with every survey submission. See the GIF below for the steps to follow to activate data fields for your survey.

 Note that instead of “selection data fields,” we use “Custom text” embedded data fields for bulk surveys.

If you are using a “Custom text” field, we recommend renaming the field to something you can recognize (e.g., Instructor 1). If you want to use multiple similar Custom text fields (such as for multiple instructors), you can duplicate the Custom text field and rename the other one to “Instructo 2” for example. The name you give the Custom text field here is the name you will see when you want to add the Custom text field to the Qualtrics survey itself using the Piped text functionality.

To rename a Custom test data field, once it is activated click on the “More” button, and then click “Rename.”

If you would like to personalize your surveys using embedded data, then make sure that in the Qualtrics survey you add the specific Custom text field that you have activated using the Piped Text functionality (read this article for more information on Embedded data fields and using Piped text in Qualtrics). Always make sure to publish your survey again in Qualtrics once you have edited it by adding Piped text, and then reload the pages in both Qualtrics and Canvas to ensure the latest version of the survey is linked in the Qualtrics LTI.

With “Custom text” embedded data fields in a bulk survey, you will use a CSV file upload to specify which values you want to use per course. We will go over this step later in this article, as the CSV file for custom text data fields is configured at a later stage. But know that if you activate a custom text embedded data field for your survey, the bulk survey form will automatically prompt you to add a CSV file once you get to that step.

Once your settings are configured to your liking, the embedded data fields you would like to use are activated, and the embedded data fields are added to the Qualtrics survey as piped text (optional), you are now ready to distribute your bulk survey into courses.

To distribute your bulk survey into courses, first go to the Institute Surveys page and click on the blue “Menu” button in the top right corner, and then click “Bulk surveys” (see the image below).

You will be brought to the Bulk surveys home page. This is where you can manage and check the status of all your bulk surveys.

The Bulk surveys home page consists of two sections: “Pending Bulks” and “Bulk survey history.”

Pending Bulks: this section shows the surveys that are not live yet. They can have the status "draft," "validated," "creating," "unpublished," or "publishing."

Bulk survey history: this section shows all the bulk surveys you have published. These bulk surveys can have the status “live” or “closed.”

4. Distribute your Bulk Survey

To add a Bulk survey to distribute into courses, you can use the blue “Add bulk survey” button on the top right corner.

After you click the “+ Add bulk survey” button, the bulk survey form will appear, which will guide you step by step through setting up your bulk survey (see the image below).

The bulk survey form and the steps to take from here on out differ depending on which distribution method you choose. Please see the following help articles for the next steps on how to distribute your bulk survey depending on which method you would like to use. We recommend to start with the Manual selection method when you're a beginner and only use the CSV upload method when you're more advanced and when you have to create bulk surveys for many courses.

Manual Course Selection Method
- This method is useful for distributing a bulk survey to just a few courses. It is shown on the left side of the bulk survey form in the image above.
CSV Upload Course Selection Method
- This method is useful for distributing a bulk survey to many courses. It is shown on the right side of the bulk survey form in the image above.