Course Evaluations

Are you using custom start/end dates on your survey? If so, survey availability can be complex. There are many scenarios that play into the dates and times to open and close a given survey and when to show past due. To illustrate this, the following table includes the various data items that affect when a survey is available and when it can still be taken in a past due situation.

Overview

Survey availability is complex. There are many scenarios that play into the dates and times to open and close a given survey and when to show past due. To illustrate this, the following table includes the various data items that affect when a survey is available and when it can still be taken in a past due situation.

Complicating matters is easy. Just set up a custom window that starts (or even ends!) before the survey start or set up a custom window that starts after the published deadline… worst of all, check the Extend until close feature!

Don’t worry, no matter what you end up doing Course Evaluations can handle it. Once you understand the logic, you can use the rules to your advantage. Go ahead, try it out. You can test all sorts of scenarios using the auto-open and close features to set survey boundaries before you ever actually open a survey! Wondering what the Extend until close feature will do? Check the option and see for yourself.

Course Evaluations version 3.78 introduced a new algorithm that considers all of the data items listed above and calculates the survey availability dates and times. This provides a quick and easy way to understand when your students and faculty will be required to take surveys and when they won’t.

The actual available from and to dates and times are visible in the Survey Detailed Settings list. Make a change to any of the items listed in the table above, then hop over to the Detailed Settings page and select the Action to Reset Availability:

You may also notice Report Availability information shown on this page. That is another topic, but quickly, the same logic is in play along with the Auto-Release date and time and the Survey Access settings.

Extend Until Closed

This document includes several models to help you understand the “normal” scenarios and the exceptions. Most are pretty easy to understand until you click the dreaded Extend Until Close option. This option is useful, but it is important to understand the benefits and consequences of this feature.

Extend Until Close - What does it do?

In simplest terms, the published deadline, custom window close dates and times, and block end dates are ignored until the survey is closed.

The availability windows are still calculated as they would be without this feature checked, but students and faculty will be alerted in the Course Evaluations Response Portal with a past due notice once the Available To date and time has passed: Past Due XX days

That’s it! Simple, right? Not so fast. In a few cases the survey close date (or auto-close date if set and the survey is still open) will become the Available To date and time. Please refer to the models below for examples of when this could happen.

Standard Surveys

So many complicated scenarios… Fortunately, most people get by with the “normal” cases. But, be assured that we tried to think of everything so there are no surprises if odd-cases occur.

The model below depicts scenarios that could occur with Standard surveys. Notice the samples for Common and Exception scenarios.

Extend Until Close

Selecting the option to extend until close allows users to continue taking surveys until the survey actually closes. Once the survey availability date passes for a particular course the user will be presented with a past due message to help spur some urgency.

The model below attempts to illustrate the overall survey close (scenarios A, B, C). Admittedly, this is complex! While reviewing the model keep in mind that only one of the scenarios could happen on a given survey.

Rotation Surveys

The availability scenarios for rotation blocks are very similar to standard survey custom windows. The two differences are:

• There is no Published deadline. This simplifies things a bit.
• Block start and end are just dates, no times:
• Block start is assumed to include the entire day so it starts at 12:00 am
• Block end is assumed to include the entire day so it ends at 11:59 pm

Extend Until Close

This option functions similarly to standard surveys. The biggest difference is that there is not a published deadline so after the block ends the user will see the past due message.