AEFIS - Frequently Asked Questions (Instructor)

This document provides answers to common instructor questions about AEFIS, UW-Madison's course evaluation survey tool. For student FAQs, see AEFIS - Frequently Asked Questions (Student).

AEFIS (Assessment, Evaluation, Feedback & Intervention System) is an online tool for creating, distributing, and managing digital course evaluation surveys. At UW-Madison, it is primarily for conducting end of semester and midterm course and instructor evaluations.

Led by the Office of the Provost, UW-Madison entered a multi-year partnership with AEFIS LLC in 2016, with a goal of having all courses using the product by the end of 2018. For more information, visit https://assessment.provost.wisc.edu/digital-course-evaluation-surveys/.

Most departments release AEFIS course evaluations once a semester. By default, end-of-semester evaluations go out to students two weeks before the end of the semester. As an instructor, you will receive an email notification three days before evaluations are sent to students.

Departments may also send out midterm evaluations for some or all of their courses. Midterm surveys are usually sent out to students between weeks five to seven of the semester. You will receive an email notification three days before midterm evaluations are sent to students.

Your AEFIS Academic Contact will determine whether or not your college or department offers midterm evaluations and the exact dates that evaluations are released.

As an instructor, you can only create questions on your AEFIS survey if these conditions are met:

  • You are listed as the Primary Instructor for your course in AEFIS.
  • Your Academic Contact set aside a section for instructor questions on your evaluation.
  • Your evaluation will not be released to students for at least 24 hours.

Navigating to Course Section Question Designer

  1. Log into AEFIS with your NetID credentials.
  2. On your AEFIS Dashboard, find the My Course Sections & Syllabi module.
  3. Find the course section for which you would like to add questions. Select the blue pencil icon to make edits.
    Select the blue pencil icon to the right of the course section name
  4. You will be brought to your Course Sections page. Select Survey Questions from the left menu bar.
    Survey Questions is under Course Evaluations in the left menu bar
  5. If you have not yet created any questions, you will see the No Course Section Survey Questions have been added message. Click the blue Let's Begin button.
    Message: Course section questions added will display on the Student Course Evaluation designed by an administrator. All students enrolled in [your section] will be presented with the questions added here prior to the start of the Student Course Evaluation. To begin adding questions to your course section, click the Let's Begin button below.
  6. Select the blue Edit button on the upper right side of the page.
    The Edit button is on the upper half of the page, near Export

Creating a New Survey Question

On the course section question designer page:

  1. Click the blue + button to the right of your course section name.
    The add question button is to the right of the course name
  2. Select the type of question you would like to create from the left panel of the Add Question box. See AEFIS - Question Types, Settings, and Configurations (Admin and Instructor) for descriptions of each question type.
    Select a question type from the left menu bar
  3. Add your question text and, for multiple choice questions, your designated responses.
  4. Use the blue Save button to save the question.

Creating a Matrix Question

Course and instructor-type matrix questions function differently than other question types. To create a matrix question:

  1. Create all of the Multiple Choice or Instructor Multiple Choice questions that you wish to use in the matrix. The questions must have the same answer options to be grouped together.
  2. Press the gear icon at the bottom left of the first question in the matrix. Select the Configure button located next to the matrix question checkbox.
  3. A pop-up will appear in which you can add a matrix title and select the Multiple Choice questions that you wish to include in the matrix.
  4. To remove a matrix, select the gear icon, uncheck the box to the left of Matrix Question, then press the blue check to confirm the change.

Editing or Copying an Existing Survey Question

You will see a list of the questions you have created so far on the course section question designer page.

  1. Click on the Question-[Number] button.
    Click the question number to access editing options
  2. Select Copy to make a make a copy of your question.
    • A new dialog box will open with a copy of your question text and options. You can modify your question type, text, or options.
    • Save your question. The copy will not be created unless you save.
  3. Select Edit to make a change your question type or content.
    • Editing will reopen your question dialog box. You can modify your question type, text, or options.
    • Remember to save your changes.
  4. To make a question required or edit other configuration options, click the gear icon on the lower left corner of the question.
    • Check the boxes next to your desired options.
    • Click the blue check mark button to save.
    • To find out more about configuration options, including recommendations, see Question Configuration Options.

    Access configuration options by selecting the gear icon

Publish Survey Questions

You must publish your questions at least one day before you survey is scheduled to go out. Questions that have not been published and questions that have been published after the deadline will not appear on your survey.

  1. After you have added all of your questions, click the blue Exit button in the top right corner of the course section question designer page.
    The Exit button is by the Course Section Question Designer title
  2. You will see a warning that your questions aren't published. If you are done adding and editing questions, click the red Publish Questions button.
    Warning message: Survey Questions are Not Published. Survey Questions for this course section WILL NOT be added until the questions are published. After you have completed adding/editing your questions, click the Publish Questions button.
  3. You will be asked to confirm that you want to publish your questions. Note that once they have been published, you will not be able to edit your questions or to add any additional questions. Click Publish to continue.
    Confirmation message: This action will publish the survey questions for this course section. Once published, the questions will become available to survey participants. This action CANNOT be reversed. Are you sure?
  4. Once you have successfully published your questions, the warning message will be replaced by a notification that you have published your questions.
    Success message: Survey Questions for this course section were published on [date]. Published course section survey questions are available to surveys starting after the course section survey questions published date.

  1. Log into AEFIS with your NetID credentials.
  2. On your course dashboard, locate the My Course Evaluations module.
  3. Your courses will be listed by section. You may need to scroll down within this widget to see current semester. While a survey is running, you can see the current response rates on this screen. 
  4. Once results are available (day after grades are due), scroll over the blue button with three vertical dots to expand your menu.
    The blue button with vertical dots will be to the right of your course name
  5. Click on the gray bar graph button to view your results.
    The View Results button is gray and has an image of a bar graph
  6. View your results within AEFIS or export them using the Export button in the top right corner of the results page.

The AEFIS Academic Contact is a college or department level AEFIS administrator who is responsible for tasks such as setting up evaluations in AEFIS, creating and editing evaluation questions, and setting a distribution schedule for evaluations. You may wish to contact your Academic Contact if you have questions about a question or metric on your department's survey, or if you have specific questions about survey schedules.

The Academic Contact for your college or department will often be a Program Chair or Department Admin. Contact information will be listed in any emails you receive from AEFIS, including emails sent before course evaluations are distributed to students. If you do not have or cannot find contact information for your Academic Contact, email learnuwsupport@doit.wisc.edu.



Keywords:AEFIS aphis afis faqs faculty tas instructors results metrics surveys evaluations course questions   Doc ID:81158
Owner:Learn@UW Madison .Group:Learn@UW-Madison
Created:2018-03-27 12:49 CSTUpdated:2019-12-05 13:44 CST
Sites:DoIT Help Desk, DoIT Tech Store, Learn@UW-Madison
Feedback:  0   0