e-Learning Blog

In educational settings, surveys are widely used as a means to grasp students' understanding and satisfaction with the class. For example, reflection surveys conducted after lectures are very effective in understanding how well the content has been retained and identifying areas for improvement. Furthermore, by using tools like clickers that allow sharing results during class, it is also possible to immediately reflect students' reactions in the lesson.

Such surveys function not merely as a means of collecting opinions but as "interactive learning activities" that create two-way communication between teachers and students. The experience of having one's opinions reflected in the class increases students' motivation and leads to more proactive learning. In other words, surveys can be considered an important tool for transforming students' learning styles from "passive" to "participatory."

1-1. Surveys Made Easier with LMS

In recent years, many educational institutions have introduced LMS (Learning Management System), significantly streamlining the implementation and management of surveys. Unlike traditional paper-based methods, using an LMS allows the entire process of creating, distributing, and collecting surveys to be completed online, enabling surveys to be conducted without being constrained by time or location.

>What is a Learning Management System (LMS)? – From Basic Functions to Implementation Benefits and Recommended Systems –

1-2. Benefits of Conducting Surveys with an LMS

There are various advantages to conducting surveys on an LMS. Among the biggest benefits is that aggregation is done automatically, making it easy to analyze the results. As soon as responses are collected, they are displayed as graphs or lists, allowing instructors to immediately grasp students’ reactions and trends and smoothly incorporate them into their lessons.

Furthermore, compared to paper surveys, it is easier to maintain anonymity, creating an environment where students can freely express their opinions without worrying about grades or evaluations. This makes it easier to draw out students' honest thoughts, resulting in more meaningful feedback. The ease of responding via smartphones or PCs is also a significant advantage in terms of reducing burden, which in turn leads to higher response rates.

Surveys are an important tool for capturing students' voices and helping improve classes. However, even if conducted, if the number of responses is low or if the answers are mostly superficial, the effectiveness cannot be fully realized.

How can we ensure that surveys do not end up as mere formalities but become meaningful tools that contribute to education? Here, we introduce three practical tips that are useful in the field.

2-1. Clarify the Purpose of the Survey

First and foremost, clearly define the purpose by asking, "What do we want to learn from this survey?" Whether you want to check students' understanding of the lesson, gauge satisfaction with the teaching method, or grasp their requests—if the purpose remains unclear, the questions will be vague, and the quality of the information collected will decline.

Also, if those responding cannot see "what the purpose of the survey is," it becomes difficult for them to answer enthusiastically. Simply adding a brief note at the beginning of the survey, such as "the purpose of this survey" or "how the results will be utilized," can help elicit a more positive attitude toward responding.

2-2. Creating an Environment and Questions That Make It Easy for Students to Respond

To gather honest opinions, it is essential to create an environment where students feel safe to answer. For example, if students worry, "Will this affect my grades?" or "Will writing something negative give a bad impression?", they tend to provide safe answers rather than their true feelings. To avoid such biases, it is necessary to clearly communicate at the beginning of the survey that "the results will not affect grades" and "responses are anonymous."

Also, having too many questions can become a burden, leading to increased dropouts or unanswered items. Balance the questionnaire by including both multiple-choice questions that are easy to answer and open-ended questions that allow respondents to freely express their opinions.

2-3. Utilize Feedback After Responses

It is important not only to collect survey results but also to utilize them. When students feel that their opinions are being reflected in the lessons, it becomes a factor that increases their willingness to cooperate with future surveys. For example, sharing the results during the next class and providing feedback on any questions or opinions can boost students' motivation to participate and increase the response rate for the next survey.

Moodle is an open-source learning management system (LMS) used by educational institutions and companies worldwide. It supports multiple languages and offers flexible customization options. Currently, it is said to have millions of users and broadly includes the functions required in educational settings.

Among these, the survey function is an important tool for capturing learners' voices and enhancing the quality of education. Moodle offers multiple survey functions such as "Feedback," "Polling," and "Quizzes," each of which can be utilized for different purposes and situations. Let’s take a closer look at the features and usage methods of each below.

>What is Moodle, the LMS used worldwide?

3-1. Feedback｜Highly Flexible Surveys

The "Feedback" feature is a module that allows you to create highly flexible surveys. It supports various question formats such as multiple choice, descriptive, and numeric input, making it suitable for post-class reflections, satisfaction surveys, and collecting opinions for class improvement.
Particularly useful are the settings for anonymous responses and automatic aggregation of results. This allows students to comfortably provide honest feedback, and instructors can use the aggregated data to improve class content and delivery methods.

However, feedback is not suitable for obtaining immediate responses, so if you want to hear opinions in real time during class or use it like a clicker, use the "Polling" feature introduced next.

▽ In Feedback, you can set various question formats such as multiple choice and descriptive types.

3-2. Voting｜Display Results in Real Time

The "Voting" feature is a module that quickly aggregates a simple single-question multiple-choice survey and displays the results in real time. Since the results are also visible to students, it is very useful for instantly collecting student opinions during class or for scheduling adjustments.

For example, by conducting a vote such as "Which topic would you prefer for the next class?", you can grasp the students' interests. Also, by preparing general options like "Agree / Disagree," it is possible to use it like a “clicker” that allows students to respond instantly during class. Such immediate participation is expected to enhance students' engagement with the class, and furthermore, since the voting results are visually displayed in graphs, it naturally integrates into the flow of the lesson and helps promote understanding.

▽Voting results are visually displayed in graphs.

3-3. Quizzes｜Incorporating Survey Responses into Evaluation

The "Quiz" feature is usually used for learning assessment, but it can also be used like a survey. Feedback and voting do not appear as items in the gradebook, so even if responses are submitted, they cannot be scored. On the other hand, quizzes allow you to assign scores using question formats similar to surveys, such as multiple-choice or descriptive questions. If you want to reflect survey responses as grades, such as assigning 10 points, use quizzes.
Note that when using quizzes for survey purposes, some ingenuity is required in setting up the questions.

▽If it is a quiz, it will be displayed in the gradebook.

In this way, Moodle offers multiple survey functions tailored to different purposes, meeting diverse needs in educational settings. In the next chapter, we will focus on the "Feedback" feature among these functions and explore its configuration and utilization methods.

The Moodle feedback feature is characterized by its intuitive operation for creating and editing questions. It is especially useful in situations where you want to gather students' genuine voices, such as reflections after class or satisfaction surveys.

4-1. Basic Feedback Settings

From here, we will explain how to set up feedback following the Moodle 4.5 interface screen.
■Setup method:
1) Select "Feedback" from Add an activity or resource.

2) The feedback settings screen will be displayed. The details of each setting item are as follows.

4-2. Feedback Question Settings

Feedback questions can be set in various formats. Understand the question formats and set them appropriately while differentiating their use.

Format Name	Details	Question Image
Multiple Choice	This question type allows selecting one or multiple options from the choices.
Numerical Response	This question type requires a numerical answer.
Short/Long Text Response	This question type requires a written answer.

Additionally, if you want to paste text or images, insert a "Text and Media Area"; if you want to change the page, insert a "Page Break."

We use the feedback feature that many teachers utilize to gather feedback from students after class. Here, we provide answers to frequently asked questions received by the support desk in this context.

5-1. Allowing teachers to also respond to feedback

A: It is possible to allow teachers to respond by adding the student role to them.
Feedback cannot be answered by participants with only the teacher role. From the participant settings, assign the student role to the teachers you want to have respond.

5-2. I want to branch questions based on answers

A: By setting "Depend on item," it is possible to branch questions based on answers.
If you want to control which questions are displayed depending on the answers, try using "Depend on item." For example, only if the answer to the question "Are you currently working part-time?" is "Yes," the question "About how many hours per week do you work part-time?" will be displayed.

■Setup Procedure
1) First, register the question where you want to set the branching. At that time, enter a string in the label field that can identify the question.


2) Next, set the question you want to display after the branch. From "Depends on item," select the label entered in step 1). In "Depends on value," enter the choice that will be the condition for display.
3) Finally, set a "page break" between the questions set in steps 1) and 2).
Please be careful, as it will not work if there is no page break before the branching question.

Surveys are an important means of incorporating students' voices into classes. Especially in realizing interactive learning, feedback that grasps learners' understanding and satisfaction and leads to improvements in class content is indispensable.

Moodle offers a variety of survey functions such as “Feedback,” “Polling,” and “Quizzes” that can be used according to the purpose, allowing broad utilization from post-class reflections to gathering opinions during class. A major advantage unique to LMS is that not only can you easily create and distribute questions, but aggregation and analysis are also automated, enabling smooth progress from implementation to utilization. Furthermore, by using it like a clicker, students can more easily express their opinions on the spot, which is expected to enhance their sense of participation in class.

However, effectively mastering these functions requires a certain level of knowledge and operational know-how. Since it can be difficult for individual instructors to handle everything alone, it is important to establish an organizational system to support LMS utilization.

At Human Science, as an official Moodle partner, we provide support closely aligned with the field, from system implementation and operational support to training for instructors. If you have any difficulties with Moodle operation, please feel free to contact us.

▽How to Support Moodle Operation? Here Are Case Studies of Introducing a Specialized Help Desk
>Instantly Solve Moodle “Troubles” with a Highly Specialized Help Desk (Gakushuin University)
>Inquiry Response Time Reduced to One-Tenth with a Help Desk for Faculty and Manual Publication! (Tokyo University of Science)