Canvas @ Yale

Feedback & Accessibility Barriers Tool: Overview

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The Feedback & Accessibility Barriers tool (or Feedback & Accessibility Barriers in the Course Navigation) in Canvas allows students to provide anonymous feedback to instructors at any time during the semester, or to report accessibility barriers with content in a course. When enabled, students can go to the tool and enter in textual feedback into an open-ended text entry field. 

Although the Feedback & Accessibility Barriers tool does not allow instructors to create text prompts for students to respond to, instructors can provide questions in advance to students so they can include it in their responses.  

Only official instructors within the course can use this tool. If there is more than one user in the Canvas site with the role of Instructor, all of these Instructors will be able to see the student feedback.

Please keep in mind that this tool differs from the Mid-Semester Feedback tool. Please refer the "Mid-Semester Feedback: Overview" article for information on that particular tool.

Why use the Course Feedback & Accessibility Barriers Tool?

This tool was developed to allow students to anonymously share feedback about the course or to describe any accessibility barrier they may have with the content in the course to the instructor of a course. Students are asked to be as descriptive as possible in describing their accessibility barrier or in providing feedback as it is  not a two way communication tool, and feedback shared is visible only to the instructor(s) of the course.

Anonymous online surveys can be effective teaching tools, helping instructors gather feedback on their teaching, assess prior student knowledge, or perform active learning exercises.

Use Cases for the Feedback & Accessibility Barriers Tool

The Anonymous Course Feedback & Accessibility Barrier Tool can be used to collect feedback on:

  • The pacing of the course consistently throughout the term of the course.
  • Appropriateness of the assignments and activities.
  • Student comfort or accessibility barriers with the course content materials.
  • Suggestions for what students would like to see improved / changed.
  • What aspects of the course are working well.
  • Other suggestions / comments.

How do I get started using the Feedback & Accessibility Barriers Tool?

To learn more about how to use the Anonymous Feedback tool, please reference:

What will my students see?

Students will see "Feedback & Accessibility Barriers" in the course navigation. However, they will see something different than instructors when they go to the feedback tool.

  1. Students will be able to enter text feedback.
    1. They can write up to 1000 characters of feedback.
  2. Clicking the "Submit" button will submit the feedback entered.
    1. Students can submit feedback as often as they would like.

For individuals who are NOT official instructors or the following student based roles (Student, Auditor, Visitor, Guest Student), they will receive this error message:

Additional Resources

Explore the Poorvu Center website to learn more about:

Check out the "Mid-Semester Feedback: Overview" article to learn more about that tool.

For more help, please contact [email protected].

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