Individual Distributions Guide

Last updated: October 7, 2026

This article will teach you about the two Individual distribution methods.

Want to distribute to a large number of courses? Check out our 📄 Bulk Surveys Guide.

Introduction

In Qualtrics LTI, we have two different ways of distributing surveys into Canvas courses individually (i.e. one at a time).

The first is our the more traditional method, using Canvas's Course → Create assignment → External tool window flow.

Because this user flow can be quite time-consuming, Qualtrics LTI also has its own Individual distribution wizard which can massively speed up the process.

The Goal

The ultimate goal for distributing your survey, regardless of how you choose to do so, is:

  1. Choose your assignment settings.

  2. (Optional) Choose your Embedded Data values.

  3. (Optional) Choose your Notifications settings.

To that end, all of our distribution methods — even the Bulk distribution wizard — follow very similar processes. So feel free to pick the one that suits you best!

Qualtrics LTI: Distribution wizard

Use Cases

The Individual distribution wizard allows you to rapidly distribute surveys into your Canvas courses. Instead of navigating through myriad Canvas course pages and their somewhat slow Create assignment workflow, you can instead use this wizard to create assignments within seconds of each other!

This feature is all about speed! It is therefore useful if:

  • You distribute surveys into many Canvas courses manually (e.g. for Course evaluations, see Fig 1).

  • You distribute surveys into many Canvas courses, with slightly different assignment settings each time (e.g. for Instructor evaluations, see Fig 2).

  • You currently use Bulk Surveys feature but find that you only use it for a small number of courses.

Fig 1. An animation of the Individual distribution wizard being used for a 'Course evaluation' survey, with Survey mode: Standard. Shown is a user rapidly creating assignments with the same settings in 3 different Canvas courses.
Fig 2. An animation of the Individual distribution wizard being used for an 'Instructor evaluation' survey, with Survey mode: Looped. Shown is a user rapidly creating assignments with a different set of instructors for 2 different Canvas courses.

About the wizard

The Individual distribution wizard is available on the following levels:

  • Institute (Root account)

  • Department (Sub-account)

  • Personal Surveys

Assignments created through this wizard are functionally equivalent to assignments created through Canvas's External tool window.

The wizard is currently only available for Survey Configurations with Survey mode: Standard or Looped.

Using the wizard

  1. Navigate to the Survey configuration of your choice.

  2. Click on + Create distribution.

  3. Select a Course of your choice.

    • Only courses that are under the Canvas account you're on (when on Institute/Department levels) and what you have access to are available.

  4. Fill out your the details of your assignment.

    • This section is a mirror of Canvas' Create assignment page.

  5. (Optional) Choose or review your Embedded data values.

  6. (Optional) Set up Notifications (Announcements & Reminders).

  7. Click Create or Create and publish.

  8. Repeat for as many assignments as you like!

The form does not clear its values when you create an assignment, allowing you to quickly tweak any settings and create even more assignments. Perhaps you would like multiple assignments per course with slightly different names or Embedded data values, or the exact same assignment but across multiple courses.

FAQs

Who can use the individual distribution wizard?

Any user who has access to either the Institute, Department, or Personal Surveys levels. For more information, see 📄 Qualtrics LTI Levels: Institute, Department, Personal Surveys.

Users must also have the necessary permissions to create assignments in Canvas courses.

Which permissions do I need in order to use the distribution wizard?

For Canvas, you need to have the ability to both retrieve a list of courses and to create assignments within your selected course.

For Qualtrics LTI, you only need to be a Manager, Sub-account admin, or Institute teacher (by virtue of needing access to one of the levels).

For more information, please consult 📄 Canvas Roles: List of Minimum Permissions and 📄 Qualtrics LTI Roles: Mapping, Custom Roles.

Which embedded data fields work with the distribution wizard?

All embedded data fields are compatible with the distribution wizard, just as with the External tool window.

Any Assignment setup → Text/API selection embedded data fields can have their values selected in the Embedded data values tab.

Which courses can I distribute surveys into?

Any Canvas courses that you have access to. If you are on the Department level, then you will only be able to see courses that are under the corresponding Canvas sub-account.

Canvas: External tool window

Use Cases

This approach is useful if your survey distributors (e.g. instructors) do not have access to the Qualtrics LTI admin interface in any of our levels, as they would not have access to the Individual distribution wizard.

See 📄 Qualtrics LTI Levels: Institute, Department, Personal Surveys for more information.

About the external tool window

This is the traditional method of distributing surveys into courses using Qualtrics LTI.

With this approach, you predominantly use Canvas's user interface to navigate to a course, create an assignment, select a Qualtrics LTI-powered survey, fill out the rest of the assignment details, and publish.

Doing this repeatedly for several courses can be time-consuming, so we recommend checking out the Individual distribution wizard described above.

Using the external tool window

Each time you want to distribute the survey into a Canvas course, follow these steps:

  1. Go to a Course in Canvas.

  2. Go to Assignments and click + Assignment.

  3. Under Submission Type, select External Tool.

A screenshot of the Submission Type section of a Canvas assignment's settings. The Submission Type is set to External Tool.
Fig 3. A screenshot of the Submission Type section of a Canvas assignment's settings. The Submission Type is set to External Tool.

  1. Click Find → Qualtrics LTI to see a list of all Survey configurations that you can choose from to attach to the assignment.

Fig 4. A screenshot showing Qualtrics LTI inside the External Tool Window of Canvas’s ‘Create assignment’ flow. Shown are a list of Surveys by their Configuration: ‘Course Evaluation (Standard)’, ‘In-Class Pulse Survey (In-class)’, ‘Instructor Evaluation (Standard)’.

  1. Select the Survey configuration you want to link to the assignment from the pop-up window. You may need to navigate between the different tabs depending on which level of the LTI the Survey was added to.

  2. (Optional) Set values for embedded data fields.

    1. If you have activated certain embedded data field types that require configuration during assignment setup, you can set their values here.

  3. (Optional) Set an announcement and/or reminders for the survey.

The Notifications step when adding a Qualtrics LTI survey to a Canvas assignment in the External Tool Window
Fig 5. A screenshot showing the Notifications step when adding a Qualtrics LTI survey to a Canvas assignment in the External Tool Window. Shown is the 'Set announcement' tab, where you can select a date and time, along with an announcement title and content message. In the second tab you can set up to 5 reminders.

For more information on setting up notifications, please consult the 📄 Notifications (Announcements & Reminders) Guide.

  1. Click Save, then Select again on the External Tool window 

  2. Save & Publish your assignment in Canvas

Once the Canvas assignment is created with the Qualtrics LTI survey attached to it, you will see the Instructor Dashboard when opening the assignment.

Instructor dashboard shown when an admin or instructor opens a Canvas assignment with a Qualtrics LTI survey attached
Fig 6. A screenshot showing the Instructor Dashboard, which is shown when an admin or instructor opens a Canvas assignment with a Qualtrics LTI survey attached to it. Shown are buttons to either preview or take the survey, along with a direct link to view the survey results in Qualtrics. Shown also are the Survey Details (Qualtrics LTI survey settings) and Notifications, along with the Response rate.

Example: Connecting a Qualtrics LTI survey to a Canvas assignment

The animation below (Fig 7) shows a walkthrough of the steps to take each time you want to distribute a survey into an assignment in a Canvas course.

Fig 7. An animation showing the ‘New assignment’ view in Canvas. Shown is a user opening the Submission type: ‘External tool’ window, before selecting Qualtrics LTI, selecting the survey they wish to add to this assignment, setting a value for the activated embedded data field, and then saving the assignment.