Today, we are thrilled to announce a new feature for Qualtrics LTI that will help you measure the impact of your surveys and course evaluations: on-demand Response Rates.
1. What does this new feature do?
The new Response Rate feature introduces a dedicated dashboard in Qualtrics LTI that allows administrators to pair a specific Qualtrics survey with one or more Canvas courses to calculate engagement metrics.
Users can see at a glance a crystal-clear breakdown of exactly how many students received the survey and how many filled it out, broken down by Canvas course and even individual assignments.
2. Why is this important?
Accurate response rates aren’t just a ‘nice to have’, they are often a requirement for meeting accreditation standards and they provide profound insights into student satisfaction and faculty effectiveness.
By giving institutions a definitive look at their survey reach, decision-makers can confidently evaluate engagement, optimize course evaluations, and back institutional strategies with contextual and real-life data.
Having access to accurate response rates also allows for timely interventions. If you see a low response rate mid-week, you can take immediate action to send a reminder, rather than realizing participation was low after the survey has closed.
3. How does it work?
Behind the scenes, the feature does the heavy lifting by securely syncing with Canvas to cross-reference data. It calculates the mathematical ratio of completed Submissions against total Distributions, beautifully organizing the results from individual assignments up to entire courses, and finally into a macro-view of the whole survey.
While the core logic is simple, we added several cross-checks and safety measures to make the system more robust:
- We use Canvas permissions: The tool utilizes Canvas’s native permissions system, meaning administrators only ever see data for courses they are already authorized to view.
- We use fresh data: Because student enrollment (drops/adds) and survey submissions change by the minute, we don’t rely on “stale” background syncing. When you click the button, we fetch the most current data available at that exact second.
- We filter out the noise: The system automatically filters out “noise” that could skew your data, such as Canvas “Test Student” responses, unpublished assignments, or submissions falling outside your custom date filters.
- We account for anonymity: The Response Rate feature works beautifully with standard non-anonymous surveys, but also includes smart logic to calculate response rates for anonymous (“No Canvas submission”) surveys.
4. How can I get started?
Ready to see how students engage with your surveys? You can find the Response Rate dashboard in your Canvas root account → Qualtrics LTI → Response rate tab.
If you’d like to know more about the prerequisites, terminology used or calculation logic, please check out our updated documentation or reach out to our support team!
