Data Fields: v2

Modified on Fri, 27 Jun at 3:59 PM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Overview
What changed?
New ‘Create Data Field’ modal
Use Case Example
What about my existing data fields?
- Mapping
Feedback

Overview

We recognise that the old ‘+ Add Data Field’ UI was a little confusing. The new UI has been designed to be easier to understand, less intimidating to use, and to be more descriptive about where your embedded data field values are coming from and what sources are available to you.

What changed?

UI: The Institute → Data fields → ‘+ Add Data Field’ modal has been overhauled.
UI: ‘+ Add Data Field’ has been renamed to ‘+ Create data field’.
UI: ‘Survey → Data fields’ has been renamed to ‘Survey → Embedded data fields’ in order to distinguish them from institute-wide data field definitions.
UI:The tables displaying all of your data fields have been updated in the following locations:
- Institute/Department/Personal Surveys → Data fields
- Survey → Embedded data fields
UI: Clarification for the ‘Copyability’ of a data field has been added to the new tables. See the copying assignments guide for more information.
Functionality: Data fields created through the new modal (’v2 data fields’) will be functionally equivalent to their old counterparts (’v1 data fields’).
Functionality: Existing v1 data fields will be unaffected and will still work in both existing and new surveys.

See the images below for a comparison of the old vs. new 'Create Data Field' modal.

Fig 1. The old ‘+ Add Data Field’ modal.

Fig 2. The new ‘+ Create data field’ modal. New elements include the ‘Value’ sub-header, within which are the ‘Retrieved on’ and ‘Data source’ radio buttons and a ‘Source configuration’ sub-header, within which is shown the Custom field’s ‘Field name’ input box.

ALT

As seen in Fig 2, the new UI has removed the radio buttons for ‘Fixed’, ‘Teacher Selection’, and ‘Student Selection’ as well as the dropdown menu. We felt that these no longer described embedded data fields in the best and most intuitive way. Instead, we have a more precise and descriptive UI instead, made up of the following elements:

Value - Retrieved on

Some data fields have their values set when the student launches the surveys (e.g. when data is fetched from the launch for a ‘Custom field’). Others have their values set when the assignment is being set up in the ‘External tool’ window (e.g. a value the teacher must select from a dropdown that is populated by a response from the Canvas API).

The option you choose will determine the data sources that are available for those locations.

Value - Data source

After selecting a ‘Retrieved on’ option, the new UI will show you the data sources that are available to that retrieval location. This is important, as some things are unavailable to some locations (e.g. the student’s ‘Custom field’ data is unavailable in the assignment setup window).

The data source you choose determines where Qualtrics LTI will retrieve the value for the embedded data field.

Value - Source configuration

Each data source needs to be configured so that Qualtrics LTI knows how to interact with the data source to retrieve the value. This can be as simple as supplying a fixed text value, or building a custom list of text options to select from, or specifying which Canvas API endpoint to call.

Use Case Example

I want an embedded data field called ‘Student name’ to be sent to my Qualtrics survey that contains the student’s given name:

I click ‘+ Create data field’.
I fill in my desired name for the data field, ‘Student name’.
I want the value to come from the student’s launch, so I click ‘Student launch.’
I want the data source to be one of the launch’s custom fields, so I click ‘Custom field’.
I want the student’s given name, so I click ‘Person name given’, which is the name I defined in the LTI Key when I installed Qualtrics LTI.

See Fig 2.

What about my existing data fields?

Don’t worry, they will still work! Every existing (v1) data field could be recreated with an equivalent new (v2) data field — but for the time being, we have left your v1 data fields alone.

Later in 2025, an automatic migration will take place to convert v1 data fields to their v2 equivalents. This won’t require any action on your part.

Mapping

Old (v1)	New (v2)
Fixed → User parameter	Student launch → Custom field
Fixed → Text value	Student launch → Text value
Fixed → API value	Assignment Setup → API value
Fixed → API value → Custom…	Assignment Setup → API value → Custom…
Fixed → Custom user data	Student launch → API value
Teacher Selection → Text list	Assignment Setup → Text selection
Teacher Selection → API list	Assignment Setup → API selection
Student Selection → Text list	Student launch → Text selection
Student Selection → API list	Student launch → API selection

Feedback

Feedback helps us to continuously improve Qualtrics LTI. If you would like to give us your thoughts on this feature, please fill out this brief (<2 mins.) survey.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to support: support@drieam.com