Course Evaluations

Category Sorting

If there are a lot of question categories on a survey, it can be difficult to sort and to understand when categories have been purposefully pinned to the top or bottom. Here is how the sorting feature works:

• The subcategories and questions are collapsed by default so only Categories are seen
• The expand and collapse buttons enable users to find and view subcategories and questions, if needed
• The category name is colorized for the department and course specific question categories
• Categories that are marked to be forced to the top or bottom of the survey are noted and marked as defaults.This is useful to sort overall and people categories properly.
• A new button was added to re-sort using default rules:
  • Categories with forced placement at the top or bottom of the survey will be obeyed. This default placement can be changed.
  • Overall question categories will be grouped together at the top of the survey.
  • People-based question categories will be grouped together at the bottom of the survey.
  • Within Overall/People-based, categories are sorted based on type (Standard, Department, Custom/Course Number) then alphabetically by name.
  • Sub-Categories retain the ordering on the survey. If order has not been changed they will be sorted as in the question manager.
  • Questions retain the ordering on the survey. If order has not been changed they will be sorted as in the question manager

Course-based questions can be sorted to show up anywhere on the survey. If the a school is using a lot of course based questions on a survey (e.g. for learning outcomes) there can be hundreds of question categories. The page became so large that it is not responsive.

If there are over 100 categories, the sort order changes from a drop-down option and allows the user to type in the order.  To sort the questions quickly, enter very high numbers to sort categories to the end of the survey or low numbers to sort categories to the beginning. Ties will be broken on save so sorting is quick and easy. NOTE: that in this scenario, the sort order of subcategories and questions cannot be changed. The order will remain in the default order from the question manager.