Jisc Online Surveys adds drag-and-drop editing, and why it matters for student feedback survey design

Updated Sep 07, 2026

Jisc’s Online Surveys v3.36.0 release on 1 May 2026 added drag-and-drop ordering and insertion between questions. The public explanation followed on 5 May. Release history; product announcement.

The builder changes

Authors can move questions or notes within a page, drag page tabs into a different order and insert content at a divider. These are editing controls, rather than evidence that a revised questionnaire produces better answers.

Jisc presents the controls as a way to arrange content with fewer repositioning steps. The announcement does not measure completion rates, questionnaire validity or the time an institution saves.

Keep a record of the instrument

Our practical suggestion is to save the questionnaire before editing it. Record changed wording, response options, page order and routing, together with the date and reason for each change. Assign someone to approve the version used for collection.

Preview the full respondent journey after moving items. Check that instructions remain next to the relevant question, routing still reaches the intended destination and the exported answers can be matched to the correct version. Use a staff–student design review to investigate whether the sequence is understandable.

When reporting across cycles, show which instrument each group completed. Stable wording alone is insufficient to establish that two collections are comparable; examine the broader collection context before drawing conclusions.

Open comments can help reviewers explore what respondents meant, but they cannot make differently collected data automatically equivalent. The comment-analysis governance checklist offers a starting point for documenting those interpretation choices.

Review note, 7 September 2026: confirmed the distinct release and announcement dates, checked the documented controls, and removed unsupported claims of guaranteed speed, participation or comparability benefits.