Collecting anonymous feedback from your class using Forms

Note: Work that has an impact on student grades shouldn't be collected through Microsoft Forms. For administering graded quizzes or exams, please review the Canvas guides or refer to the information provided by the Exam Support team regarding final exams.

Surveys in Canvas Classic Quizzes can be set to display anonymous results, however the option to keep results anonymous can be turned off even after students have submitted. If you'd like to collect fully anonymous responses from your students or don't have any need to collect names, Microsoft Forms provides a good alternative and is available with your NELB Microsoft 365 account.

Sample uses for anonymous surveys through Forms include:

Scheduling a make-up class session
Gathering feedback from your students beyond what's included in the campus-wide course evaluations
Gauging student familiarity with upcoming topics and materials

Creating a survey

In your web browser of choice, navigate to forms.office.com
Click "+ New Form".
When your new form loads, click where it says "Untitled Form" in the main form content area to edit the title and description that your students will see.
Under "Quick start with", select the format for your first question.
- The example used in the next step is a Choice / multiple choice question.
- Other question formats you might find useful include Text to allow students to type in longer feedback and Likert to gauge how strongly students agree or disagree with a statement.
- For surveys that require more complex organization, you can choose "Section" instead of a question type. See Add sections to your survey or questionnaire for more information.
Set up your question by editing the filler text, adding any additional options, and adjusting the settings in the row below the question.
- For Choice type questions, click the toggle next to "Multiple answers" to allow students to select more than one answer. This is useful for gathering student availability when scheduling.
- Click the toggle next to "Required" to ensure that your students must select or enter an answer before submitting.
- If you don't see a setting you're looking for, click the ellipsis icon for additional settings.
- In the additional settings menu, choose "Subtitle" to add context or instructions to the question for your students.
- To have your survey take students to certain questions or sections depending on their answers, select "Add branching" from the additional settings menu.
Click "+ Add new question" for each additional question you want your students to answer.

Sharing a Forms survey with students in Canvas

(Optional) If you'd like your survey to be open only during a certain time period, you can add start and end dates.
1. At the top of your form, click Settings.
2. Under the "Options for responses" heading, check the box next to start date and/or end date. Use the date picker and dropdown to adjust these dates as needed.
Once you're ready for your students to see the survey, click the "Collect responses" button at the top of the form.
By default, "Only people in New England Law | Boston can respond" should be selected. This means anyone in the NELB community who gets the link to your survey can submit a response. In most cases, this setting should be sufficient as you'll only be providing the link to your students.
- If you want the survey to be accessible to only your students, you can select "Specific people in New England Law | Boston can respond". You will need to enter in the email addresses of all of your students if you choose this option. See Downloading your students' email addresses from Canvas for instructions on how to get that list.
Under your chosen sharing setting:
- Uncheck the box next to "Record name" to keep your survey anonymous.
- If it's not already checked, check the box next to "One response per person".
To the right of the sharing settings is a box with a link in it. Check the box next to "Shorten URL", then click "Copy link".
In Canvas, open the course you want to share the survey with.
Use the course navigation to access the content you want to add a link to. The following steps will use an announcement as an example.
- Note: Any content in Canvas that uses the Rich Content Editor (RCE) interface will allow for linking OneDrive files. See the Canvas guide What is the Rich Content Editor (RCE)? for more information.
Click "+ Add Announcement" and enter the message you want to send to your students.
Add the link to your survey by clicking the link icon, then choosing "External Link" from the menu that opens.
Enter the text that will display as a link to your students, then paste the URL copied in Step 5 into the "Link" box.
Click Done.
Add any other additional context in the announcement and adjust any settings as needed. Click Publish to notify your students.
- By default, students will receive an email to their NELB email account when a new announcement is posted. See Announcements in Canvas for more information.
After students have started taking the survey, you can view the results at any time by visiting the survey's page in Microsoft Forms.