Questionnaire - Creating A Public Template

Creating a Public Template is a great way to save time when setting up a questionnaire within a course. Instead of manually rebuilding the same feedback forms or assessments for every new course, a "master copy" can be created with the LMS can instantly plug into the questionnaire being added to a course page training.

Below is an outline of how to create a master copy of a template questionnaire and how to apply the template within any questionnaires being added to a course. 

Preparation:

Before building a template, create a secure, organised place to store it would be recommended. Think of this as the "Master Library" - a dedicated space where the original templates reside, safely tucked away from live courses.

Why a "Template Course" is a Must:

Rather than hiding templates inside active courses where they might be accidentally edited or deleted, creating a dedicated Master Template Course offers several benefits:

• Easy Maintenance: always knowing exactly where the "source of truth" resides.
• Version Control: can update the master version in one place without cluttering user-facing areas.
• Privacy: It remains hidden from learners, ensuring they never stumble upon draft work.

Pro-Tip: Use a "Hidden" Administrative Category:

For the cleanest setup, place Template Course within a specific Administrative Category.

• If there is one currently: Move the Template Course into a "Templates" or "Admin Only" category.
• If one has not been created: Create a new category titled "Admin": Set this entire category to Hidden. This creates a "back-office" environment where administrators and trainers can collaborate on content behind the scenes without it ever appearing in the public course catalog.

Step 1: Creating A Master Template:

1. Create a course page and give it a clear name - such as Questionnaire templates.
2. Enter the course and Turn editing on.
3. Select Add an activity or resource and choose Questionnaire.
4. Name it clearly: Use a title to easily identify the template.
5. In Content options, ensure Create New is selected.
6. Click Save and display.
7. Set up the questions to be added to the template by clicking on - Add Questions - and build out the questionnaire as it is to be used throughout the course pages.

Once the questionnaire has been set up and all the questions added, it is time to set the questionnaire as a public template to allow it to be used within courses. 

Step 2: Setting the Questionnaire as a public template: 

By default, the questionnaire is to private. To be able to use it as a public template, it needs to be "published".

1. Inside the Questionnaire, look for Advanced settings (Questionnaire administration > Advanced settings).
2. Locate Questionnaire Type.
3. Change it from "Private" to Public.
4. Save changes. The template is now live in the site-wide library!

Step 3: Setting the template within a Questionnaire:

Now that the public template is set up, when creating a questionnaire, the workflow is much faster as the content within the questionnaire is generated from the template automatically. 

To have the template questions pull through to a new questionnaire the below steps:

1. Add a Questionnaire activity to a course page.
2. Give the questionnaire a name.
3. Set the response options as desired.
4. Under content options, select - use public.
5. Select the template from the list.
6. Set the activity completion settings.
7. Click save and return to course. 

Reporting:

When using a Public Questionnaire, the reporting behaviour changes because the data is actually stored in the original course where the template was first created. 

The Benefit to this is a single, consolidated list of every response from across the entire site in one place. This helps with reporting, as rather than having to go to each individual questionnaire and downloading the responses, a single report can be downloaded from within the master copy of the public template. 

How to Report on Site-Wide Responses:

To see the results from every course using that template:

1. Navigate to the Master Template Course.
2. Open the Template Questionnaire activity.
3. Click Download All Responses In Text Format.

This will download a text document with all the responses, it is advised to open the document within excel - as this will format the data in a more user friendly format. 

The report will provide a column, that can be filtered for in excel, that will confirm the course page that the response has come from. This will allow for the data to be pulled from one source and provide the ability to confirm responses from each individual course page. 

Final Note:

If public templates had been created previously, and had not been included within a template course - it is possible to locate the courses that these had been created in by using the following guide - Questionnaire - Finding a Public Template.