If we’ve learned anything over this past year, it’s that we need to be quick to adapt to changing circumstances. And quick to collect information we may not have needed previously. TIM Tools clients should remember that they already have a convenient Survey Tool in place that has a distinct advantage over other survey options:
Your TIM Tools instance already “knows” the role and location of each teacher, administrator, or staff member you’ve entered into the system, so it’s easy to create an internal survey and then designate the role(s) and location(s) of the members it will be made available to.
1. Select the Roles You Want To Survey
The default respondents for an internal survey will always be “All Members,” but that can be changed to any of the standard roles in TIM Tools or to any additional roles you may have created in the system. Perhaps you’ve created new roles for “Coach” or “Team Leader.” You can select as many different roles as you wish.
2. Select the Target Areas You Want To Survey
Next select the target areas you want to survey. You can select “All Schools” or any combination of schools. If you’ve organized your schools into zones, you can also select by zone or any combination of zones and individual schools.
Using both the Respondents selector and the Targets selector, you can for example create surveys for combinations such as these:
- All teachers at three specific schools
- All school leaders at all middle schools
- Every member at one school
- All teachers in elementary schools, etc.
Notifications
The Survey Tool can also be used as a form. You can designate one or more email addresses to receive notification each time a survey is submitted. You could, for instance, create a PPE Request form listing various items (masks, gloves, sanitizer, etc.) and have it email a custodian each time a teacher submits a form.
Public Surveys
The Survey Tool can also be used to survey people outside the school or school system. One option is “Self-enroll.” Anyone with an Internet connection can participate in these surveys. These are useful when you want to survey an entire community.
A second type of public survey is the “Entry Code” survey. These can be taken by anyone you have given a particular entry code to. You can create as many different entry codes as you like. In the following example, separate entry codes were created for parents of elementary, middle, and high school students.
Public surveys with designated entry codes are great for keeping in contact with parents or guardians during periods of remote learning. You can build your own surveys from scratch within the Survey Tool or select one of the pre-made surveys from the Survey Tool library and use it as it is or modify it to meet your needs. Here are some of the pre-made surveys that might be particularly useful at this time:
Weekly Student Check-In (Single Teacher)
A short form for students to check in weekly during a distance learning emergency. Results can be used by the teacher, school, or district.
Weekly Student Check-In (Multiple Teachers)
A short form for students to check in weekly during a distance learning emergency. Results can be used by the teacher, school, or district.
Weekly Parent Check-In
A short form for parents or guardians to check in weekly during a distance learning emergency. Results can be used by the teacher, school, or district.
Weekly Teacher Check-In
A short form for teachers to check in weekly with a supervisor or mentor during a distance learning emergency.
Our Schooling at Home Experience
This survey captures the experience parents had with their children’s online learning experience during the COVID-19 school closure so that a school or district can better prepare for such events in the future.
Working from Home Staff Survey
This survey captures the experience non-instructional staff had working from home during the COVID-19 school closure so that a school or district can better prepare for such events in the future.
Teaching from Home Survey
This survey captures the experience teachers had teaching from home during the COVID-19 school closure so that a school or district can better prepare for such events in the future.
Roy Winkelman is a 40+ year veteran teacher of students from every level kindergarten through graduate school. As the former Director of FCIT, he began the Center's focus on providing students with rich content collections from which to build their understanding. When not glued to his keyboard, Dr. Winkelman can usually be found puttering around his tomato garden in Pittsburgh.
