AEFIS - Eval Survey Template - Question types, settings, and configurations (Admin and Instructor) [UW-Madison]
This document describes the different question types that are available for AEFIS surveys. AEFIS administrators have the primary responsibility for creating survey questions. Instructors may be able to create survey questions if provisions have been made by their college and/or department AEFIS administrators.
When you create an AEFIS survey question, you will be asked to choose a question type. There are several question types, however, we recommend sticking to a small subset of available question types.
The question types described below are available to AEFIS admins. Instructors may have more limited options.
Recommended Question Types
- Multi-Choice, Single Answer: Students can choose one response from a list. This question type should be used for feedback on course content. Use Instructor Multi-Choice for feedback on course instructors.
- Text/Memo: This field allows students to enter text comments about the course. Use Instructor Text/Memo to give students the option to enter text comments about their instructor(s).
- Instructor Text/Memo: Students can provide free-form comments about each instructor based on the question provided. Unless otherwise specified, this question will be asked for each of the instructors associated with a particular course.
- Instructor Multi-Choice: This multiple choice question will reflect on the instructor’s performance. Unless otherwise specified, this question will be asked for each of the instructors associated with a particular course.
- Rollup Questions Placeholder: This question type is available to AEFIS admins only and is highly recommended for new survey templates. Survey templates cannot be edited after they are published, but including a Placeholder will allow you the ability to add new questions to a published template. The Placeholder will also allow instructors and other admins to add course and section-specific questions to survey instances.
- Text Block, No Answer: This type of "question" is used to provide explanatory text within the body of the survey.
Other Question Types
- Multi-Choice, Multi Answer: Similar to Multi-Choice, Single Answer, but students can choose multiple responses.
- True-False: Students are asked to reply to a true or false statement about course content.
- Single Line Text: Similar to Text/Memo, but responses are limited to a single line of text. If you need to gather text feedback, consider using Text/Memo or Instructor Text/Memo instead.
- Document Request: Other institutions require uploading a document.
- CLO Placeholder – Student: Course Learning Outcomes Placeholder. This question type allows students to self assess if they learned course learning outcomes (CLO). However, the CLOs must be available in AEFIS. CLOs are displayed in AEFIS if the CLOs are listed in Lumen courses. This question also allows students to record their learning level before and/or after this course for each CLO.
- Drop-Down Select: Similar to Multi-Choice, Single Answer, but students select their response from a drop-down menu.
- Auto Complete Drop-Down
- Student Assessment
Question Configuration Options
Question configuration options are accessible after a question has been published.
- Answer Required: Students must answer this question in order to submit their survey. Since including too many required questions in a survey will discourage participation, we recommend that administrators and instructors avoid required questions or use them sparingly.
- Add Comment Field: This allows students to provide a brief text response after a multiple choice question.
- Display Options Horizontally: By default, multiple choice response options are displayed vertically. Check this box to display them horizontally.
- Ascending Numeric Value: We recommend leaving this unchecked, but if you decide to use it, be consistent! It can confuse students and mess up reporting data if some of your survey questions are sorted by ascending value and some are descending.
- No Answer: If you wish to provide a neutral response for a survey question -- for example "No answer", or "N/A" -- you must use the "No Answer Option" (shown in the image above, immediately under the four possible answers). Choose the "No Answer Option" drop-down box, and select either "Prepend" or "Append". This "No Answer Option" is not assigned a numeric value, and will not be included in the compiled and averaged scores for the survey question.