Editing Live Survey Projects

This guide covers the actions an Account Owner can take while a Survey Project is live: starting a survey early, resetting a student's response, extending or closing surveys, reopening them, and fixing the warnings you may see.

All of these actions are in the Survey Project's Course Sections table: go to Survey Setup → Survey Projects, open the Live Survey Project, and use the Draft, Live & Upcoming and Closed tabs. Most section actions are in the three-dot menu (⋮) on each row.

💡 Tip: If a background task is running on the project (for example a sync or bulk update), other actions are blocked until it finishes. Check progress in the Activity Monitor (upper right, next to Account).

Project Go Live Now

Use this to start a scheduled (Upcoming) Project immediately instead of waiting for its start date.

Section Go Live Now

Use this to start a scheduled (Upcoming) section's survey immediately instead of waiting for its start date.

One section

On the Live & Upcoming tab, click ⋮ on the section → Go Live Now.
Review the confirmation and click Go Live.

The survey becomes available to enrolled students immediately and starts collecting responses.

Many sections

On the Live & Upcoming tab, click the three dots next to Add Course Sections → Bulk Go Live.
Select the sections and click Next. Opted-out sections cannot be selected.
Check the confirmation box and click Go Live.

Bulk Go Live runs in the background. When it finishes, you'll see which sections went live and which were not changed.

⚠ Important: Going live cannot be undone. A live section can't be moved back to Upcoming; it can only be closed.

If a section won't go live, hovering over the warning message tells you why:

"Not made Live: no questions apply to this section." – No template questions match this section. Check the template's display conditions, opt-outs and added questions, then try again.
"Not made Live: Course Section must have at least one instructor, teaching assistant, or support staff assigned." – Assign an instructor.
"Not made Live: Course Section must have at least one student enrolled." – Enroll students.
"…cannot be set to Live because it has been opted out." – Opt the section back in first.

Reset a student's survey response

Use this when a student needs to retake a survey, for example if they submitted for the wrong instructor.

On the Live & Upcoming tab, click the Live section's row to open it.
Go to the Student Enrollments tab.
Click the reset icon (circular arrow) next to the student.
Click the red button to confirm.

⚠ Important: This permanently deletes the student's submitted answers and cannot be undone. The student can then take the survey again while it is open. The reset is only available while the section is Live, and only for students who have submitted. No email is sent to the student, so let them know they can resubmit.

Change survey dates on a live section

Click the section's row to edit it. What you can change depends on its status:

Draft / Upcoming: start date, end date and release dates can all be changed.
Live: end date and release dates can be changed; the start date is locked.
Closed: only release dates can be changed. To extend the end date, use Reopen Survey.

To extend many sections at once, use Add Course Sections → Bulk Update Course Sections. Fill in only the new End Date; blank fields keep each section's current value.

Close a section's survey early

On the Live & Upcoming tab, click ⋮ on a Live section → Close Survey.
Check that the dialog shows the right course section, then click Close Survey.

The survey stops accepting responses and the section's report is generated immediately. Release dates still control when admins and instructors can see results. No emails are sent. Sections close one at a time; to close everything, use Close Project.

Close the Survey Project

Click Close Project on the Survey Project header.
Click Close Project to confirm.

Closing the project:

Closes every Live section survey immediately and generates their reports.
Returns any Upcoming sections that never went live to Draft. These show the note "Section was Published but never went Live when the survey project was closed."

⚠ Important: Make sure every section you want surveyed has gone live before closing the project. Large projects close in the background.

Reopen a closed survey

One section

On the Closed tab, click ⋮ → Reopen Survey.
Enter a New End Date. It must be at least one hour from now and no later than the Survey Project's end date.
If needed, push back the New Admin Results Release Date and New Instructor Results Release Date (on or after the new end date, and no later than the project's release date).
Click Save.

If you delay the release dates, admins and instructors won't see results until the new dates.

Many sections

On the Closed tab, click the three dots next to Add Course Sections → Bulk Reopen Surveys. Select the sections, then choose:

Go Live – reopens the surveys as soon as you confirm.
Publish (Schedule) – reopens them on a start date you choose.

Enter the new dates and click Reopen & go live or Reopen & publish.

A closed Survey Project

Click the three dots on the project header → Reopen Survey, then enter a new end date and results release date. This reopens the project only. Its sections stay closed until you reopen them individually or with Bulk Reopen Surveys.

Remove a section from a live project

Click ⋮ → Delete. This removes the section's survey from the project but not the course section itself.

⚠ Important: In a Live project, deleting a section's survey permanently deletes the responses it has collected. To stop a survey but keep its responses, use Close Survey instead.

Troubleshooting warnings and errors

Sections with a problem show an icon next to their Section ID: a yellow triangle for a warning or a red circle for an error. Hover over it to read the message. Project-wide warnings appear in a banner at the top of the Survey Project.

Message	What it means	What to do
Error in Course Section going Live. Use 'Go Live Now' option to make it Live.	The section's start time passed more than an hour ago, but it didn't go live.	Use Go Live Now.
Survey distribution generation failed	The survey couldn't be created when the section tried to go live. It is still Upcoming.	Try Go Live Now. If it fails again, contact support.
This course section was opted out and will not go live.	The section has been opted out.	Opt it back in if it should be surveyed.
This course section's survey dates have already passed, so it will not open.	The section's start date is in the past.	Update the section's dates.
Minimum enrollment of {N} students is required to enable course section surveys.	The section has fewer students than the project's minimum enrollment.	Add enrollments, or leave it unsurveyed. Minimum enrollment can't be changed once the project is live.
Survey withdrawn: no questions apply…	A change to instructors, opt-outs, added questions or the template left the survey with no questions, so it was hidden from students.	Restore the questions (check display conditions, opt-outs and added questions).
Survey not updated: this would leave the Live survey with no questions.	A change was blocked to protect the live survey. Students keep the current version.	No action needed unless the change was intended.
Template updated to the latest revision. Some submitted responses no longer show in reports.	A template update removed questions that already had answers.	Contact support if you need those responses.
Auto-sync failed for this course section	Sync Course Sections couldn't update this section.	Read the detail in the message and fix the section, or contact support.
Survey response validation failed / Report generation failed	Something went wrong while closing the section.	Contact support.

For sections stuck in Draft, see Troubleshooting Survey Projects.

💡 Tip: A survey can take up to 30–40 minutes to go live after its start time. Wait before using Go Live Now on a section that only just reached its start date.