Bulk Survey Basics

Modified on Thu, 3 Oct at 3:36 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 Canvas admins
Note that bulk surveys can only be distributed by admins in Canvas. By default, only root account admins have access to bulk survey functionality from the Institute Level of the Qualtrics LTI. However, they can also enable department admins to be able to use bulk surveys at the Department Level of the LTI within their settings page. If you are a Department admin and would like to use bulk surveys, please contact your root account admins. Instructors 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 linked to the Qualtrics LTI for that institute or department. See this article for more information on collaborating in Qualtrics.
For root account admins, go to the Institute surveys page of the Qualtrics LTI in Canvas. For department admins, go to the Department surveys page of the Qualtrics LTI.
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 “Instructor 2”, for example. The name you give the Custom text field here is the name you will see when you will further configure the custom text field with a CSV upload, and 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 wizard 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 assignments within Canvas courses.

To distribute your bulk survey into assignments in Canvas courses, first go to the Institute surveys page (or Department surveys page, for department admins), and click on the "Bulk surveys" tab in the top banner (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 various sections of tabs, where you can view all your bulk surveys based on their current stage (Draft, Validated, Unpublished, Live, Deleted, and Reverted). The meanings of each of these stages are as follows:

Draft: The bulk is still in the process of being drafted, e.g. the admin user has not yet clicked "Generate bulk" at the end of the wizard.

Validated: The user has finished drafting the bulk and has clicked 'Generate bulk' at the end of the wizard. However, the bulk has not yet been created, meaning that the Canvas assignments, announcements, and reminders set up in the bulk have not yet been created in Canvas.

Unpublished: The bulk has been created (the Canvas assignments, announcements, and reminders have been created in Canvas). However, the assignments have not yet been published in the Canvas courses.

Live: The assignments created by the bulk have now been published.

Deleted: A draft bulk was deleted (discarded). Nothing has changed in Canvas.

Reverted: A bulk which was previously Unpublished or Live has been reverted, meaning that all Canvas assignments that had been created have now been removed from Canvas, and any unsent announcements or reminders will no longer be sent.

On this table, you can see the survey and assignment name, the number of courses the bulk survey is distributed in, the date that the assignments, announcements, and reminders are created, the date that the assignments are published, when each bulk was last edited (and by whom), the status of the bulk, and action items.

Under the 'Action' column are three buttons that will appear in one of two configurations:

The pencil icon on the left hand side allows you to edit a bulk that is still in the draft stage (not yet generated). Once the bulk has been generated it can no longer be edited, so this icon will be greyed out (see image 2 above).

The icon on the right hand side will display as either a trash can (Delete, shown in image 1 above) or an Undo arrow (Revert, shown in image 2 above) depending on what stage the bulk survey is in. Only bulks that are still in the Draft stage can be Deleted (Image 1). Bulk surveys that are in all other stages can be Reverted (Image 2).

The middle icon is the same regardless of what stage the bulk survey is in, and it will bring up the bulk survey details page (see the image below). This bulk survey details pop-up window provides more information on that specific bulk survey. Here, you can toggle between the Status updates (see when the assignments have been created in the courses, when the announcements and reminders have been sent, and if there have been any errors), the Summary of the bulk survey settings, which Courses the assignments have been created in, and if there were any Opt outs (if instructor opt outs were enabled by the admin).

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 wizard will appear, which will guide you step by step through setting up your bulk survey (see the image below).

The bulk survey wizard 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 Course Selection method when you're a beginner, and to only use the CSV upload method when you are used to creating bulk surveys and when you have to create bulk surveys for many courses at once.

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 wizard in the image above under 'Course selection mode'.
CSV Upload Course Selection Method
- This method is useful for distributing a bulk survey to many courses at once. It is shown on the right side of the bulk survey wizard in the image above under 'Course selection mode'.