In This Article:
Overview
Genius CE & Enterprise can connect to Qualtrics so that learners complete surveys — for example a pre-course questionnaire or an end-of-course evaluation — as part of taking a course. You attach the surveys once at the course level, and every section of that course uses the same survey settings.
This is useful when you want a learner to finish an evaluation before the course counts as complete, and you are not using a connected Learning Management System to collect that evaluation. Because a course certificate is issued when the course reaches a completed status, requiring a survey to complete the course also requires the learner to finish the evaluation before the certificate becomes available.
How Survey Integration Works
You connect Genius to your organization’s Qualtrics account once, using a set of system parameters.
On each course, you choose which survey appears before the course (a Pre Test Survey), which appears after the course is completed (a Post Test Survey), and you can add one or more Follow-up Surveys that go out a set number of days after completion.
When a learner is enrolled, Genius adds them to Qualtrics as a contact so their survey responses can be matched back to the enrollment.
Genius checks Qualtrics for completed responses on a recurring schedule. When all required surveys for an enrollment are complete, the course moves from active to completed on the learner’s dashboard.
If a survey is marked as required to complete the course, the course cannot reach a completed status — and the certificate cannot be issued — until that survey is finished.
Before You Begin
You will need:
A Qualtrics account for your organization, with permission to create surveys and mailing lists.
The connection details from Qualtrics: the web address Genius should use to reach your Qualtrics environment, an access token, and the identifier of the mailing list that enrolled learners should be added to.
Administrator access to Genius, including the Parameters and course management areas.
Note: The exact place in Qualtrics to generate the access token and to find the mailing list identifier is a Qualtrics task. Confirm the current Qualtrics steps with your Qualtrics administrator.
Step 1 - Enable the Qualtrics Parameters
The connection to Qualtrics is controlled by system parameters.
Navigation: Administration → System Setup → Parameters
On the Parameters page, locate each parameter below by its name, enter the value, and save. Turning the feature on reveals the survey settings on course pages and on the learner dashboard.
Parameter | What it controls | What to enter |
QUALTRICS_SURVEYS_ENABLED | Turns the whole Qualtrics survey feature on or off. Until this is on, the survey settings do not appear on courses or on the learner dashboard. | Set to on (a value of 1) to enable the feature. |
QUALTRICS_API_URL | The web address Genius uses to reach your Qualtrics environment. | The Qualtrics connection URL for your organization’s data center. |
QUALTRICS_API_TOKEN | The access token Genius uses to authenticate with Qualtrics. | The token generated in your Qualtrics account. |
QUALTRICS_MAILINGLISTID | The Qualtrics mailing list that enrolled learners are added to as contacts. | The identifier of the mailing list from Qualtrics. |
QUALTRICS_CONTACT_PREFIX | A short prefix added to the contacts Genius creates in Qualtrics, so you can tell which environment a contact came from. | A short label of your choosing (optional). |
Note: The access token is a credential. Treat it like a password - do not share the value outside your administrator team.
Step 2 - Attach Surveys to a Course
Once the feature is enabled, open the course you want to add surveys to and find the Surveys section on the course page.
Navigation: Administration → Courses → (select the course) → Surveys
In the Pre Test Survey dropdown, choose the survey a learner should complete near the start of the course. Leave it blank if you do not want a pre-course survey.
In the Post Test Survey dropdown, choose the survey a learner should complete after finishing the course.
The Post Test Survey Required to Complete Course setting indicates whether the post-test survey is mandatory.
Important: We strongly recommend setting this to "No", so it is not required. When this is required, the course cannot be marked complete until the learner finishes the survey. There is no Admin override to re-send a unique survey link if a learner loses their link.
To add surveys that go out later, use Follow-up Surveys → Add survey. For each follow-up survey you can set how many days after completion it is sent (Send X days after completion) and an Expiration Period.
Save the course.
You can also attach pre-test and post-test surveys to several courses at once from the course bulk actions area, rather than editing each course individually.
Step 3 - Activate the Survey Integration Jobs
Navigation: Administration → Recurring Jobs → Edit Jobs
If the Survey Integration jobs are not already active, click on "Add new scheduled job" and activate both of the following jobs:
SurveyIntegration.DownloadLearnerResponsesForSurvey
SurveyIntegraton.ImportSurveys
Program your desired download frequency and timezone, ensure the Status is set to Active, and Save.
How Sections Use Course Surveys
Survey settings live on the course, not on individual sections. Every section created from a course uses that course’s survey settings automatically — there is no separate survey configuration on the section page.
Important: Changing a course’s survey settings affects every active section and every learner still enrolled in those sections. Change survey settings on a course with active enrollments only when you intend the change to apply to those learners.
Keeping Survey Completion In Sync
Genius does not update survey status the instant a learner finishes in Qualtrics. A recurring process checks Qualtrics for completed responses approximately every 5 to 10 minutes, then updates each enrollment and moves fully-completed courses to the completed area on the learner’s dashboard. Because this runs on a schedule, a learner may see up to a few minutes’ delay before their status updates.
If you need to update statuses immediately rather than wait for the next cycle, an administrator can run the survey-response process on demand.
Navigation: Administration → Recurring Jobs → (locate the Qualtrics survey response job) → Run Now
Important: Running this process manually can briefly affect site performance for all users. Run it during quiet periods when possible, rather than repeatedly during peak hours.
Troubleshooting
Issue | Possible cause | Resolution |
Survey settings do not appear on the course page | The Qualtrics feature is not enabled | Confirm QUALTRICS_SURVEYS_ENABLED is on under Administration → System Setup → Parameters, then reopen the course page. |
Course will not move to completed even though the learner finished the work | A required survey has not been completed | Check the learner’s enrollment for an outstanding required survey. The learner must complete it. |
A learner completed the survey in Qualtrics but their status has not updated | The recurring sync has not run yet | Wait for the next cycle (about 5 to 10 minutes), or run the survey-response process on demand. |
Surveys are not appearing for enrolled learners at all | The connection details are missing or incorrect | Recheck QUALTRICS_API_URL, QUALTRICS_API_TOKEN, and QUALTRICS_MAILINGLISTID on the Parameters page. |
A course change unexpectedly affected learners in active sections | Survey settings are course-level and inherited by all sections | Review the course’s survey settings; changes there apply to every active section and enrolled learner. |
Best Practices
Enable the feature in a test environment first: Confirm the Qualtrics connection and a sample survey work end to end before turning it on for live courses.
Only require the surveys that must be required: Use "Post Test Survey Required to Complete Course" for genuine completion gates. Every required survey is one more step between the learner and their certificate.
Change course survey settings deliberately: Because sections inherit from the course, edits ripple to all active enrollments. Make survey changes on courses with live learners only when you intend them.
Communicate the evaluation step to learners: If a certificate depends on an evaluation, tell learners up front so they know why the course has not completed yet.