This article describes the types of survey currently available within the FutureLearn platform. If you need to use a different type of survey in your course(s), please contact your partnership manager.
If you would like to send an additional survey to learners, please discuss your requirements with your Partnership Manager who will advise you on the best method. Alongside the FutureLearn surveys, there are currently two survey methods available for partners:
Sharing a survey link in a course step
Suitable for research that is relevant to a particular step or moment during a course.
- If the survey does not collect personally identifiable information (PII), then it can be linked to learner_id. You should contact your Partnership Manager who can enable this for you.
- The step containing the survey link must have a purpose within the learning design and not solely be used to promote the survey. All learners must feel able to mark the step as complete regardless of their participation in the research.
Within the step, the link must be described using suitable copy, informing learners about aspects of the study.
Adding a partner survey that does not collect learner_id
1) Create a survey using one of our recommended platforms: SurveyMonkey, Typeform or Qualtrics
2) Login to Course Creator and click the Partner survey button
3) Copy and paste your survey URL (from your chosen survey provider), into the URL field. Make sure you include the http:// or https:// part of the URL.
4) Click submit to create a FutureLearn URL. Use this URL to link to your survey from course steps. The FutureLearn survey URL will never change - you can edit your original survey and any changes will automatically apply to the partner survey.
Adding a SurveyMonkey partner survey that collects learner_id
1) Set a custom variable under Design Survey. Name the variable lid. Learn more about custom variables and how to use them.
2) Copy the URL up to the question mark
3) Login to Course Creator and click the Partner survey button
4) Paste the part of the link that you have copied, into the URL field. Make sure you include the http:// or https:// part of the URL.
5) Click submit to create a FutureLearn URL. Use this URL to link to your survey from course steps. The FutureLearn survey URL will never change - you can edit your original survey and any changes will automatically apply to the partner survey.
6) Ask your Partnership Manager to enable learner_id. Once enabled, FutureLearn will pass the learner_id in the URL, as a parameter called "lid".
Adding a Typeform partner survey that collects learner_id
1) Add a hidden field to your survey
2) Name the hidden field lid
3) Go to the share tab where your link is. Copy the URL up to the question mark.
4) Login to Course Creator and click the Partner survey button.
5) Paste the part of the link you have copied, into the URL field. Make sure you include the http:// or https:// part of the URL.
6) Click submit to create a FutureLearn URL. Use this URL to link to your survey from course steps. The FutureLearn survey URL will never change - you can edit your original survey and any changes will automatically apply to the partner survey.
7) Ask your Partnership Manager to enable learner_id. Once enabled, FutureLearn will pass the learner_id in the URL, as a parameter called "lid".
8) You can find the learner_id in Typeform, by clicking on the Results tab.
Adding a Qualtrics partner survey that collects learner_id
Instructions are in the To display Embedded Data from a survey URL in the survey data part of this page.
1) Navigate to the Survey tab and open the Survey Flow.
2) Click Add a New Element Here.
3) Select the Embedded Data element.
4) Add a New Field for lid. (This stands for learner_id). Do not assign a value for these fields; the value will be pulled dynamically from the survey URL for each participant.
5) Publish the survey and copy the URL.
6) Login to Course Creator and click the Partner survey button.
7) Paste the URL that you have copied in the URL field. Make sure you include the http:// or https:// part of the URL.
8) Click submit to create a FutureLearn URL. Use this URL to link to your survey from course steps. The FutureLearn survey URL will never change - you can edit your original survey and any changes will automatically apply to the partner survey.
9) Ask your Partnership Manager to enable learner_id. Once enabled, FutureLearn will pass the learner_id in the URL, as a parameter called "lid".
Sending a survey link in targeted email
The FutureLearn team needs at least 10 working days' notice before they send targeted survey emails.
Suitable for research that needs to be sent on a specific date, up to six weeks after the enrolment period ends. At FutureLearn’s discretion, and where there is sufficient reason to believe that the research will be relevant and interesting to learners, this period can be extended. However, it would not be recommended to email learners who have enrolled on a run that finished more than one year ago.
- Surveys in targeted emails can be sent to learners on a course run who have opted to receive research emails from FutureLearn.
- FutureLearn is happy to promote up to two additional learner research engagements or surveys on behalf of partners per course run. For example, one pre- and and one post- impact survey. This limit intends to prevent learners from being overwhelmed by requests from FutureLearn to take part in research.
- At FutureLearn’s discretion, and where a survey does not potentially identify learners without their consent, it is possible to send emails to specific samples of learners on a course run.
- URLs (e.g. survey links) sent in this way may be linked to learner_id, but only if no data that could be used by a partner to identify a learner is collected. Identifying data includes IP addresses, which are often recorded by default by survey platforms. You must check your survey or study settings and turn this tracking off to avoid collecting data that can identify a learner.
Linking to learner_id allows you to correlate results across your surveys results or studies, and to correlate them with other FutureLearn datasets.
Should you wish to track learner_id per respondent, it is your responsibility to set up your survey or study to track the ID, to provide FutureLearn with the variable name used to do so, and to confirm that your survey or study records the ID correctly when FutureLearn sends you a test email. The ID will be appended to the URL querystring.
If any data that could be used to identify a learner is collected during the research, the survey or study must not link to learner_id.
If you would like to submit a targeted research email, please share the copy and the link to the survey with the partner support team, via partnersupport@futurelearn.com.
Terminology on this page that you aren’t familiar with? Check out our glossary.
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.