How to make an engaging learner survey (together with the digital attendance sheet via Virtualbadge.io)

Want to get better at hosting webinars and online training sessions? One word - surveys!

‍

A post-webinar and training learner survey is your free pass to unwrapping participants’ needs and preferences and working to improve your future sessions so they can match up to their expectations. 

‍

So how can you start creating an engaging learner survey? 

‍

Dive into this guide to uncover what learner surveys are about and get your hands on a tool to automate surveys. 

‍

In this article, we’ll be exploring: 

‍

• Why should you run engaging learner surveys 
• The best tips to create surveys
• The types of questions your audience will love answering post-webinar or online training
• A hands-on digital attendance tracking and participant survey automation tool

‍

Why should we do learner surveys?

Learner surveys uncover the participants’ perspective, which is otherwise hard to gauge. They also save participants’ time from writing lengthy reviews and testimonials. 

‍

Here are more reasons why you could consider making engaging learner surveys:

‍

• They help collect post-session feedback directly from participants, which in turn can be used to identify the session’s areas of improvement

‍

• They let you curate future training, webinars, and online courses exactly how participants expect – in terms of quality, timing, content, and more

‍

• They let you gather participant contacts who have attended the session and found them valuable

‍

• They expose trends and changes in participants’ attitude towards a new online course or training

‍

• They help measure satisfaction, engagement, and attendance rates

‍

Tips for creating engaging surveys post-completion of an online training or course 

Learner surveys are not just about gathering a couple of questions. They need thorough planning to engage participants in a way that gets them to be transparent and authentic with their responses. 

‍

Below are some actionable tips to create an engaging survey post-webinar/course/training:

• Mix up question types 

The best way to gather feedback and not overwhelm participants is to use different questions. For example, ask multiple-choice questions, yes/no questions, scale questions, etc. (more on this in the next section).

‍

• Keep it short and easy to understand

Participants are less likely to respond if your survey is too long and complex. So, frame questions that are easy to understand at first glance. Don’t forget to keep your survey short and to the point.

‍

• Make submission mandatory 

Most online participants postpone submitting survey responses and eventually forget about them. So, one way to ensure a 100% response rate is to make survey responses mandatory.

‍

For example, Virtualbadge.io’s digital attendance and certificate distribution workflow involves an interim mandatory survey submission step. This way, participants are persuaded to submit survey responses before moving on to accessing their digital certificate. 

‍

• Notify participants beforehand 

At the beginning and end of the online session or webinar, notify your participants about the survey and steps to complete it to avoid any last-minute confusion. 

‍

Types of questions to include in an engaging learner survey

As mentioned before, you can use a mixture of question types to engage participants and not make submission monotonous. 

‍

Now, let’s explore the types of questions you can include in a learner survey for a high response rate:

1. Multiple-choice questions 

Let participants choose from a set of predefined answers. These won’t take much time as there is no typing needed. 

‍

Examples:

‍

The webinar’s topic relevance was:

‍

a) Very relevant b) Somewhat relevant c) Slightly relevant d) Not relevant at all

‍

The training today was:

‍

a) Easy and engaging b) Relatively easy c) Somewhat difficult and dull d) Very difficult and boring

‍

2. Scoring on a scale of 1-10

Feedback is not just about words. You could also collect scores from your participants, asking them to rate the webinar or a segment. Finally, you could sum up all participant scores to find a common ground. 

‍

Examples:

‍

• On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest), how was the trainer’s knowledge of the topic?
• On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest), how likely are you to recommend this online course to your peers?

‍

3.  Likert Scale questions

Likert questions are used to measure how much a participant agrees or disagrees with a given statement. They can choose from about five options to put forth their views. 

‍

Example:

‍

I can see myself using the tips offered in the webinar in my everyday work

‍

a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neutral d) Disgaree e) Strongly disagree

‍

4. Open-ended questions 

So far, we’ve seen mostly multiple-choice and scores-based questionnaires, but what’s more interesting are open-ended questions.

‍

For these, your participants can write freely without being confined to predefined answers. They can pitch in insights, thoughts, suggestions, and more.

‍

Examples:

‍

• Could you share any topics that you wish were covered in the webinar but were not?
• What’s your biggest takeaway from today’s session?
• Name some webinar topics you’d love to attend in the future.

‍

Going about pointlessly with every type of question in your survey can lead to mixed results. 

‍

So, before you plan on running a survey, sit down and brainstorm what you wish to achieve from it. Is it to gauge participant satisfaction levels? Is it to get feedback on your online course curriculum? Is it to gather trainer feedback? Etc. 

‍

For example, you could ask Likert Scale questions to measure satisfaction levels, multiple-choice for pre-defined answers, and thought-provoking open-ended questions for valuable insights. 

‍

Automate surveys and integrate a digital attendance solution using Virtualbadge.io

Ever wondered if you could track attendance, distribute training certificates, and collect survey feedback simultaneously? Individually, these tasks can be extremely time-consuming. 

‍

But with Virtualbadge.io, you can now execute these tasks simultaneously, all under a single platform. That means less chaos and more work done in less time. 

‍

Here’s a step-wise guide to take you through the process of automating surveys and integrating digital attendance tracking:

‍

Step 1: Admin login to Virtualbadge.io

Course admins can log in to Virtualbadge.io here. If you're a new user, you can sign up here to start the 7-day all-access free trial. 

‍

Step 2: Grant access to trainers 

If you’re an admin, you must invite trainers so they can approve attendance and issue certificates post-course completion. 

‍

Head to the Users and Roles tab under Account > Settings. 

‍

Click Invite User to send invitation requests to trainers. 

‍

Step 3: Access the dashboard and create a digital certificate

Trainers and admins get access to their own dashboards by logging in to Virtualbadge.io. Before launching the trainer module, you must create a digital certificate to distribute to your webinar or training participants.

‍

Choose from a set of ready-to-use Virtualbadge.io templates or create a certificate design from scratch. 

‍

Read this guide to learn how to use Virtualbadge.io to create digital certificates for free. 

‍

Once ready, add your certificate to a new collection by clicking the + Add new collection option, name your collection, and select Create. 

‍

Click Edit to add one or more certificates to this collection which will be linked to the training module in the next step. Don’t forget to enable the “Shared collection” option:

‍

‍

Click Update to save changes.

‍

Step 4: Launch the training module

On the dashboard, you can spot the “Trainings” section next to Certificates. 

‍

‍

Click on it to launch the training window. Next, click Create Training:

‍

Add training details, such as:

‍

• Training name
• Training date
• Certificate delivery type - send to trainer or participants post-completion
• Trainer selection
• Certificate

‍

Click Add under Certificate Selection to tag a certificate to this training module. This will be the one sent to your recipients.  

‍

‍

Click Save when done.

‍

‍

Step 5: Participants scan the QR code after training completion 

Virtualbadge.io auto-assigns a unique QR code that you can display post-completion of your online training or webinar. 

‍

At the end of the session, you can just display this QR code and ask attendees to scan it on their smartphones to log attendance.

‍

‍

“Link to form” option can be used to access the form’s link where the QR code attendance data is entered and saved. 

‍

Once participants scan the QR code, Virtualbadge.io displays a login screen to collect participant data and a survey form to collect feedback. 

‍

‍

Step 6: Add certificate recipients 

Add certificate and survey form recipients manually or upload a CSV file as per the template provided once you select Upload CSV file. 

‍

‍

Step 7: Create an engaging learner survey to collect valuable feedback

You’ve done the groundwork for a digital attendance sheet and digital certificates. It’s finally time to set up a mandatory learner survey that every participant must submit to access their certificates.

‍

Follow these steps:

‍

Account > Settings > Trainer Module.

‍

On this page, you can set the form’s activation period (number of hours accessible post-session completion), certificate dispatch approvals by trainer and/or admin, survey forms for recipients, and custom trainer forms. 

‍

Follow these steps to create our learner survey:

‍

• Expand Recipient Form Fields to add custom survey questions

‍

• Click Add new field to start adding questions. For multiple-choice, select Options Field from the drop-down menu under Field Format. 

‍

Similarly, for yes/no questions - select the CheckBox field, and Input Field to enable recipients to enter custom responses to open-ended questions. 

‍

‍

• Enable the Mandatory slider to make answering specific or all questions mandatory before your recipients can access their certificates. 

‍

• Click Add new field to include any number of survey questions. And click Save when done. 

‍

And now your learner survey is all set in just three simple steps!

‍

Get participants to scan your QR code post-training or webinar to record attendance and submit survey responses to access their digital certificates. 

‍

Wrapping up

Creating learner surveys is not hard. However, what you need is a painless management of certificate distribution and feedback management. 

‍

That’s when we step in. Integrating surveys with a well-connected digital attendance tracking and certificate dispatch solution like Virtualbadge.io is like a golden ticket for every online trainer or webinar host. 

‍

And the best part? You can test this all within the tool’s 7-day free trial! Start now!

‍

‍