Surveys: Blackboard and Qualtrics
Why Conduct Mid-Semester and End of Semester Surveys
Surveys can be used to gauge how students are feeling about your course, the materials, and the instructor. Well-constructed surveys can provide instructors with data to assess students’ experience and make adjustments to improve student satisfaction, if needed. "Not only are mid-semester surveys a great idea, but one that we encourage", says Julie Nash, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies and Student Success.
Mid-semester surveys provide feedback that can be applied immediately to the course. Students respond positively when their comments result in changes to the course, leading to improved student attitudes about the class and/or instructor (Keutzer, 1993). It is recommended to keep mid-semester surveys brief and to avoid administering additional surveys at the end of the semester, when end-of semester course evaluations occur, to avoid survey fatigue (Davies, 2019).
How to Build and Deploy Surveys in Qualtrics and On-Campus Blackboard
UMass Lowell Supports Qualtrics and Blackboard Survey Tools
Qualtrics is a web based survey software available to all faculty and staff. Surveys can be anonymized and deployed in Blackboard or anywhere outside of Blackboard. To create an account in one click, select Qualtrics, the same link can be found on the IT Software page. If the link is deployed within Blackboard, the date and time can be set to open at a specific time, otherwise, live deployment is required. The data is exportable to be viewed in Excel.
The Academic Technology Team has developed three mid-semester survey templates for your convenience. The survey templates can be modified to meet your individual needs or you can build your own survey.
- How to build a survey in Qualtrics (pdf)
- How to access mid-semester or end of semester templates (pdf)
- Examples of the templates are available for your review (pdf)
Blackboard surveys are a simple survey tool available to all instructors within a Blackboard course. They can be deployed in a content area in the course and will only be available to the people enrolled in that course. Once a survey is created, it can then be deployed in a content area and set to open and close on a specific date and time. The data is exportable to be viewed and analyzed in Excel or other data sorting software. If you do not have a Blackboard course, follow the Course Setup steps on the Information for Faculty page.
- Create a Survey in Blackboard (pdf)
- Deploy a Blackboard Survey (pdf)
- Download the Results (pdf)
- Format the Exported Excel File (pdf)
For more information, contact bbhelp@uml.edu.
- Keutzer, C. S. (1993). Midterm Evaluation of Teaching Provides Helpful Feedback to Instructors. Teaching of Psychology. 20, 4.
- Davies, J. (2019). Think you’re sending too many surveys? How to avoid survey fatigue. [Blog] Qualtrics XM. [Accessed 20 Aug. 2019].
- Survey Templates with Likert Scales provided by Yanfen Li, Assistant Teaching Professor, Biomedical Engineering, adapted from CITL University of Illinois with assistance from Karin Jensen, UIUC.