The OEI Rubric for online courses highly recommends that faculty give students an opportunity to give anonymous feedback about the course. It’s part of the regular effective contact that is required in online courses.

I set up a short anonymous survey about four weeks into a course to see how students are faring in the early stages of a class and then I do another one at the end of the course to get feedback from students about their overall experience with the class. I ask a combination of multiple choice and open-ended written response questions. It is easy enough to get the results from the multiple-choice but if a survey is anonymous, the written responses do not show up in Speedgrader. Instead you get this message:

This student has submitted an assignment

This student’s responses are hidden because this assignment is anonymous

Here are two files that can help with this issue –

How to set up anonymous survey and give extra credit

How to get written responses to surveys

Thanks to Jackie Schwegel for the the tech tip idea! If you have any questions about Canvas, let me or Jenn Azzaro know!

–Lynn Hawley