Adding Custom Questions to Course Evaluations in SPOT


Introduction

Student Perceptions of Teaching (SPOT) Evaluations are run using Course Evaluations & Surveys (CES), formerly EvaluationKIT, an external tool that is on Canvas.

This article covers adding custom questions to course evaluations in SPOT as an administrator or instructor. This is a two-part process:

  1. Creating a Custom Question Survey - Your Custom Question Survey will house the questions you want to add to your courses' SPOT evaluations. You can reuse these questions in future semesters. You can create different custom surveys for different courses, but you can also choose which questions in your Custom Question Survey to add to a given course's SPOT. So, if you prefer, you can keep all your custom questions in the same Custom Question Survey.
  2. Attaching Survey to a Department or Course Evaluation - Once you create a Custom Question Survey and add your own questions, you can attach it to the current term's SPOT project and to your courses' SPOT evaluations.

For other topics pertaining to SPOT Evaluations, please refer to the main article, Using SPOT - Guide for Department Administrators and Instructors. For student resources, see Using SPOT - Guide for Students. 

Contents

Instructions

Question Types

Single Selection Question
The student will pick from one of many options. This works best for yes/no and likert-type scale questions and can be formatted both vertically and horizontally.
Multiple Selection Question
Allows the student to check all that apply and is appropriate when asking the student to select multiple or potentially multiple responses from multiple options.
Matrix Question
This is for a common response scale or multiple items being evaluated on the same response scale. The student would go through and respond to the different items from one response scale.
Numeric Selection Question
Allows you to setup numeric ranges using a slider and the student can then input a numeric selection based on that range.
Open Ended Text Response
This is used for write-in responses and or comments.

Creating a Custom Survey

  1. Navigate to the Course Evaluations & Survey site and log in. See Logging in and Viewing Courses in SPOT if you'd like to log in through Canvas.
  2. In the CES bar at the top, click Custom Questions.
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  3. Click Custom Questions Surveys to load the Survey page.
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  4. Click Create New Survey to load the Survey Edit page.
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  5. Write a Title and Description for your Custom Question Survey and click Save.
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  6. In the Question Management section, click Add a Question.
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  7. In the drop-down menu, click + Create New.
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  8. Click the drop-down menu for All Questions Types and click on the question type you'd like to use.
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  9. Click Continue.
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  10. Fill out the Question Text fields and Response Options. You can further customize using Question Properties.
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  11. Scroll back up to the top and click Save & Add. Once saved, a green banner stating The survey has been saved will appear on the bottom of the screen.
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  12. Repeat steps 6 through 11 to add questions until you are finished adding custom questions.
  13. Click Done at the top of the Edit Survey page when you've finished adding questions.
  14. Go to the next section to learn how to attach a survey to a department or course evaluation.

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Attaching Survey to a Department or Course Evaluation

  1. In the CES bar at the top of the screen, click on Custom Questions.Image of the above instructions
  2. Click on Custom Questions Projects.
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  3. Find the project for the semester where you want to add the custom survey and click on the project name.
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  4. Under My Surveys in this Project, click Add Survey. 
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  5. Click on the survey you want to add. Selected surveys will be highlighted. Click Select Courses.
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  6. Click Next.
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  7. Choose the destination for the survey.
    • If are a SPOT administrator, your screen will also have the option to choose a department level as a destination.
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  8. Click Finish & Add.

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Removing a Custom Survey

  1. In the CES bar at the top, click Custom Questions.
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  2. Click on Custom Questions Projects.
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  3. Under the section My Surveys in this Project, locate your custom survey that you've added and click on the circle with the three dots.
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  4. Click on Remove from Project.
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  5. Click on Remove Survey to confirm.
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Updating an Existing Survey

  • To update an existing survey, make a copy of the current survey. Once the copy is created, you can edit it.
  • Do NOT edit an existing survey, as this will cause the data to be deleted from the system, and our unit will be unable to correct this.

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Getting Help

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