The Course Evaluations & Surveys User integration with Instructure’s Canvas LMS has several features which allow you to customize the Course Evaluations & Surveys user experience within Canvas for students, teaching assistants, instructors and Administrators.
This article is for configuring the behavior and user experience of your Canvas User Integration. If you have not yet set up your Canvas User Integration then see the Canvas User Integration Setup article.
User Integration Setup
The below settings enable the Course Evaluations & Surveys LTI links in Canvas. The "Show <role> Link" and widget provide direct access to Course Evaluations & Surveys. Display additional info in the Canvas widget to help drive adoption and urgency. Links for Instructors, Administrators, and Teaching Assistants will display at all times depending on course enrollment and course alignment to the CE&S hierarchy, but will only display for students who have active evaluations.
User Settings Navigation:
Under User Settings Navigation, you can display a customized static LTI link on the user account Settings page within Canvas to all Canvas users, even if they are not enrolled in Course Evaluations & Surveys Projects. This link will take users directly to their Course Evaluations & Surveys Dashboard
NOTE: This static LTI link is not available under User Integration Setup when the Canvas Web Service Token is created at a Canvas sub-account level. This is by Canvas design.
Instructors LTI link and widget settings:
Administrators LTI link and widget settings:
Teaching Assistant LTI link and widget settings:
Student LTI link, Survey Notifications, widget, and additional settings:
Course Widgets (Instructors, Administrators, Students)
Canvas Course Widgets can be used as an additional access point to Course Evaluations & Surveys, as well as display survey information.
- Under Widgets for each role, you can display a list of surveys on the right-hand side of Canvas, with a customized header.
- For all roles, choose to display the evaluation start date, due (end) date, days left, and current response rate for the course evaluation.
- For Instructors, Teaching Assistants, and Administrators, the Widget will display all the time on their Canvas Course Homepage once the project is deployed.
- For Students, the Widget will display on their Canvas Course Homepage and/or Dashboard, show a Completed timestamp after the survey has been submitted, and display for the duration of the survey (through your project or course-level dates).
- Clicking on the Widget will automatically take users directly into Course Evaluations & Surveys.
NOTE: If the same course code is used for a course in multiple projects, multiple instances of the course will display in the Canvas widget. So you may see the widget info for the course from previous terms. Once data starts being collected for the new course in the current term, the widget will begin displaying the new, current course at the top of the widget with older terms below.
Students - Survey Notifications (account-level)
This feature allows the CES Administrator to enable a Survey Notification that automatically displays in courses for only those students with an active survey to take, otherwise the Survey Notification is suppressed and does not display. You can customize your Survey Notification message and functionality. The Survey Notification automatically provides a single sign on button at the bottom of the notification to take the student directly to their survey in Course Evaluations & Surveys.
- Show Survey Notification on Canvas Course for Course Evaluation projects: If enabled, when a student accesses their Canvas course the system will check to see if the student has an active survey to take for that course, and if so, your customized survey notification will display along with a LTI link to take the user directly to the survey. If the student does not have a survey to take for the specified course the survey notification does not display.
- Show Survey Notification on Canvas Dashboard for Course Evaluation projects (Data Integration courses only: If enabled, when a student accesses their Canvas dashboard the system will check to see if the student has an active survey to take for any course they are enrolled in, and if so, your customized survey notification will display along with a LTI link to take the user directly to the survey. If the student does not have a course evaluation survey to take for any of their courses the survey notification does not display.
NOTE: This option will not be available if the Canvas Web Service Token is generated at the sub-account level in Canvas. - Show Survey Notification on Canvas Dashboard for Non-Public General Survey projects: If enabled, when a student accesses their Canvas dashboard the system will check to see if the student has an active general survey to take, and if so, your customized survey notification will display along with a LTI link to take the user directly to the survey. If the student does not have a general survey to take the survey notification does not display.
NOTE: The Show Survey Notification on Canvas Dashboard for Non-Public General Survey projects does not function if the Canvas Web Service Token is generated at the sub-account level in Canvas.
- Customize the Notification display size and header text.
- Customize the Notification body text, with plain text, or you can insert HTML.
- Customize the Go To Survey Button Text that displays at the bottom of the Notification and takes the student to the survey for the course.
- Do it Later Option
- Include a Do it later option. This will include a button at the bottom of the notification allowing the student to click Do it later, which will make the survey notification close and allow the student to interact within their Canvas course. The survey notification will display the next time the student logs into that course, as long as they still have an active survey to take for that course.
- Exclude the “Do it later” option will remove this option from the survey notification. This will force the student to go to their surveys before being able to interact within their course in Canvas. This option will lock the student out of the course until they have completed the survey for the course.
- Schedule the Do it later option to be removed automatically based on X number of days before your Survey End dates. With this option the system checks against your survey end dates setup in Course Evaluations & Surveys, and will remove this option accordingly, if you have enabled it. Again, once the “Do it later” option is removed, the student will not be able to interact with their Canvas course until they have viewed the survey for that course and taken further action.
- Hide Survey Notification on the course Quizzes page, when Do it later is enabled.
- Enable the Go Directly to Survey option to allow students to go directly to the survey for their Canvas course. If unchecked, the student will go to their Student Dashboard in Course Evaluations & Surveys.
NOTE: If you would like students in an unpublished course to access the evaluation from within Canvas, enable "Show Survey Notification on Canvas Dashboard for Course Evaluation projects (Data Integration courses only)". Because students cannot access an unpublished course in Canvas, consider enabling this option to allow the Survey Notification to fire on the Canvas Dashboard and provide access for these enrollments.
NOTE: The account-level Student Survey Notification can be overridden by the project-level Student Survey Notification Settings feature, which can be used to customize the notification for a specific project.
TIP: The Survey Notification can help set the expectation with the survey taking process, as well as enforce the evaluation culture at your institution. You can customize the Header and Body of the Survey Notification to help set the expectation up front, avoid confusion and frustration, and ultimately help achieve your response rate goals.
Add Calendar Items with Links Automatically via API
NOTE: If a course is copied, any existing Canvas Calendar event will also be copied. This could cause a duplicated calendar event that would need to be manually removed from the new course.
- You can also elect to automatically add a LTI link to access Course Evaluations & Surveys in student’s calendars in Canvas for all courses within a project. The calendar item and link will automatically display in the calendar on the survey start date scheduled (for either project-level or course-level dates, if added).
- Within Course Evaluations & Surveys, navigate to Account > Integrations (section) > Canvas > User Settings tab and scroll down to the bottom of the page to the Canvas Calendar Setup section.
- To automatically add calendar items containing a LTI authenticated link in student’s calendars in Canvas for all courses within a project, Click on Enable Calendar items with link.
- The calendar item and link will automatically display in the calendar on the survey start date scheduled (for either project-level or course-level dates, if added).
- The calendar item and link will automatically display in the calendar on the survey start date scheduled (for either project-level or course-level dates, if added).