> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.deandesk.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Surveys
> Collect feedback from students with course surveys — multiple choice, rating, and short answer questions with built-in analytics.
**School-level feature** — managed within your school portal at `yourschool.deandesk.com`.
Every course includes a **Surveys** tab where teachers and admins can create surveys for enrolled students — end-of-unit feedback, check-ins, course evaluations, and anything else you want to ask. Surveys support three question types, optional anonymity, repeat submissions, and automatic analytics with charts.
## Creating a survey
Course staff (the course's instructors and TAs) and admins can create surveys.
Navigate to the course and click the **Surveys** tab.
The **Create Survey** button appears at the top of the tab for course staff and admins.
| Field | Description |
| ----------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Survey Title** | The name students see (required) |
| **Description** | What the survey is about (required) |
| **Due Date / Due Time** | Optional deadline — set both together, or leave both empty for no due date |
| **Section** | If the course has sections, optionally limit the survey to one section. Leave as **None** to make it available to all sections |
Two switches control how responses are collected:
| Setting | Effect |
| ------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Keep Responses Anonymous** | Staff see responses without student names — see [Anonymous surveys](#anonymous-surveys) |
| **Allow multiple submissions** | Students can submit the survey more than once, and analytics track how answers change across attempts |
Add at least one question — see [Question types](#question-types) below.
Click **Save Survey**. The survey appears immediately in the course's Surveys tab.
To change a survey later, open the Surveys tab and click **Edit** on its card, or click **Edit** from the survey's analytics page.
## Question types
Click **Add Question** to add questions. Each question has a **Question Text** field, a **Type** dropdown, and a **Required** switch (on by default — optional questions are labeled "Optional" for students).
| Type | How it works |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Multiple Choice** | Students pick one option. Each question needs 2–8 answer options. |
| **Rating** | Students pick a number on a scale you define with **Min** and **Max** values (default 1–5). Optional **Min Label** and **Max Label** (e.g., "Low" / "High") appear under the scale. The max must be greater than the min. |
| **Short Answer** | Students enter free-form text. |
## How students find and take surveys
Students discover surveys in two places:
* **The course's Surveys tab** — each survey appears as a card showing its description, question count, an **Anonymous** or **Identified** chip, a **Multiple submissions** chip when repeat responses are allowed, the due date, and a status chip: **Submitted**, **Past due**, or **Not submitted**.
* **The dashboard Surveys widget** — surveys that still need a response (not yet submitted, or open for another submission) appear as clickable chips in a **Surveys** panel on the student dashboard, sorted by due date, with overdue surveys flagged.
Click **Take Survey** on the survey's card (or click its chip on the dashboard).
A progress bar at the top tracks how many required questions have been answered. Answered questions are marked with a green check.
The **Submit Survey** button activates once all required questions are answered. After submitting, students can review their responses on the same page.
Surveys can still be completed after the due date — students see a warning that their response will be recorded as late, but it is accepted.
If the survey allows multiple submissions, a **Submit Another Response** button lets the student respond again. Each response is saved as a separate numbered attempt.
Parents viewing a child's account can open the child's surveys in read-only mode, but cannot submit responses on the student's behalf.
## Viewing responses and analytics
Course staff and admins open a survey with **View Analytics** on its card. The analytics page shows:
* **Class summary** — how many enrolled students have submitted vs. are missing, total submissions, and average attempts per respondent.
* **Question Analytics** — per-question charts: a bar chart of option counts for multiple choice questions; the latest average, a distribution chart, and a class rating trend over time for rating questions; and the list of text responses for short answer questions.
* **Respondent Analytics** — per-student attempt history. For surveys with multiple submissions, this includes rating trends across attempts and a timeline of answers that changed between attempts.
* **Submissions** — every individual submission with its full answers and timestamp.
## Anonymous surveys
When **Keep Responses Anonymous** is on:
* Students see an **Anonymous** chip on the survey so they know before responding.
* Staff analytics and submission lists replace student names with labels like **Anonymous respondent 1**, **Anonymous respondent 2**, and so on. Attempts by the same student stay grouped under the same label, so multi-attempt trends still work without revealing identities.
When it's off, the survey is labeled **Identified** and staff see each respondent's name.