Instructors can pass course and user specific information to Qualtrics surveys through embedded data using the Qualtrics LTI. This allows instructors to personalize questions to their course and to the students taking the survey. These data fields also allows instructors to record and analyze the data in more meaningful ways.
Be sure to check out our Qualtrics LTI: Connecting Your Canvas Account to the Qualtrics LTI article if you have not already done so.
Table of Contents
This article will address the following information:
What Canvas Data Fields are Available
The data fields available are custom and specific to Canvas @ Yale.
| Course Information | User Information | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Canvas Field | Type of Data Field | Canvas Field | Type of Data Field |
| Section name | Fixed | Student first name | Fixed |
| Course name | Fixed | Student last name | Fixed |
| Canvas course ID | Fixed | Student email address | Student |
| Course code | Fixed | Instructor name | Selection |
| Number of students | Fixed | Instructor email | Selection |
| Term | Fixed | TA name | Selection |
| Assignment Name | Fixed | TA email | Selection |
| Assignment ID | Fixed | ||
| Assignment due date | Fixed | ||
| User role | Fixed | ||
| Module ID | Fixed | ||
You can also find the list of data fields by:
- Clicking on your "Account" icon in the Canvas Global Navigation menu.
- In the drawer that opens, select the "Qualtrics LTI" option.
- On the Qualtrics LTI dashboard, click the "Menu" button and select "Data fields" from the list.
Adding Embedded Course / Student Data to a Survey
- Navigate to the editing page for the Qualtrics survey you want to utilize embedded Canvas course / student data on. Click the "Survey flow" option in the left-hand toolbar.
- From the Survey Flow page, click "+ Add a New Element Here" option.
- From the "What do you want to add" box that opens, select the "Embedded Data" button from the list of options.
- In the new Embedded Data field, provide a "Name" that makes sense to you for the field.
- To add more than one Embedded Data field, click the "Add a New Field" link below the first data field. You can continue to add as many as you want.
The name you provide does NOT have to be the same name as the data fields listed above. For example, "Term" could be named "Semester," or "Student Email Address" could be shortened to "Student Email".
- Click the "Move" link along the bottom of the embedded data block and drag it above the "Default Question Block."
- This is a necessary step, as the survey will need to fetch the data from Canvas BEFORE the survey questions are displayed.
- Click "Apply" at the bottom right to save the Embedded Data.
- Navigate back to the "Builder" section in the left-hand toolbar and click into a survey question. From the text-editor for a question, click the "Piped Text" button.
- Select the "Embedded Data Field" option from the drop down menu.
- Click the arrow in the sub-menu drop down and select your embedded data value.
- Once selected, click the "Insert" button to add the embedded data to the survey question text.
- The piped embedded data will appear in your question text as a string starting with a dollar sign symbol.
- When you open or preview your Qualtrics survey, nothing will appear in its place. However, if you open the survey from Canvas, the data will now be passed over and you will see the appropriate text in its place.
- Once you have finished creating your survey questions, click the "Publish" button in the top-right corner and confirm that you want to publish this survey.
Now that the embedded data has been set up in your Qualtrics survey, you will need to connect them to your Canvas Data Fields. The following steps will allow the survey to fetch the correct data from Canvas and use that data within the survey questions.
- Navigate back to the Qualtrics dashboard in Canvas and click the "+ Add survey" button.
- Select your survey from pop-up box that opens and click the "Add Survey" button.
- After adding the survey to the Qualtrics dashboard in Canvas, click the "Data Fields" tab for that specific survey
- Set the "Type of Data Field" from the drop down menu, and the specific "Canvas Field" from the other drop down.
- Reference the What Canvas Data Fields are Available section above for information on which data field types are mapped to which Canvas data values.
- When done, click the "Save and enable" button to make the Qualtrics survey ready for use in a Canvas course.
For more help with the Qualtrics LTI in Canvas, please email [email protected].