Creating an Onboarding Survey

1. From your homepage, select Users > Registration.
2. In the left menu, select Onboarding Survey.
   Note

   Only one onboarding survey is supported for your public site. However, each Panorama can have its own onboarding survey.

3. Next, begin building your survey by clicking Add a Question. There are four question types available.
   • Single Field: when you want just a few words as a response from your learner.
   • Long Text: when you want an answer that is at least one sentence.
   • Drop-down List: when you want your learner to pick just one option from a list of choices.
   • Select Boxes: when you want your learner to be able to pick more than one option from a list of choices.
     
4. Once you've selected the type, enter your question. 
5. Toggle Required Question to Yes if you want to make it mandatory.
6. You also have the option to attach questions to reference data points (learner reference 1, learner reference 2, etc.), and these reference points will display in most Thought Industries reports. Since there are 10 learner reference fields, you can attach 10 of your survey questions to learner reference fields.
   Warning

   You can also attach Custom Learner Fields to Learner Reference Fields for reporting purposes. However, these onboarding survey selections will override any attachments between Custom Learner Fields and Learner Reference Fields.

7. Click Add Question.
   
8. Repeat steps 3-7 for each additional question you'd like to add to your survey. Add as many questions as you'd like.
9. Click Preview to view your onboarding survey. At any time, you can click the pencil icon to make edits, or the trash icon to delete a question.
   Tip

   If you want learners to stop seeing the Onboarding Survey altogether, click Delete All to remove all questions and make the survey inactive.

Each Panorama can have its own onboarding survey. The client-specific survey will override the global survey for any learners associated with that client. If a client does not have a specific Onboarding survey set up, the global survey will display by default.

1. From your homepage, select Panorama.
2. Then select the panorama you wish to update by selecting its Panorama Title.
3. From here, select Users > Registration.
4. In the left menu, select OnboardingSurvey and configure based on the steps above.

Reporting

Onboarding Survey Log

You can view survey responses in the Onboarding Responses Log. Questions do not have to be attached to a Learner Reference Field in order to be recorded in the Onboarding Responses Log. To view this report, go to Reporting > Reports > Site Activity > Onboarding Responses Log.

You can use the Onboarding Responses Log to review all learner survey submissions, identify trends, and inform decisions about your content strategy or survey design. Each row in the report represents an individual learner submission, with columns corresponding to each onboarding survey question.

Use the available filters to refine your data, including filtering by date range or by client (useful when managing multiple surveys across Panorama). Reviewing response patterns can help you better understand your learners. For example, if a majority of learners identify as “Beginner,” ensure your introductory content is robust and that auto-assignment rules are aligned to that audience.

You can also export the report for sharing with stakeholders or for further analysis in external tools.

Learner Reference Fields

If you've attached the survey questions to a Learner Reference Field, any data collected via an onboarding survey is saved in the user's profile.

Learner Reference Fields are also available in a variety of reports as well as custom looks and dashboards so it's a great way to slice and dice your learner data in a way that is meaningful to your business. Natively, there are two different collection methods to attach data to learner reference fields: Custom Learner Fields and Onboarding Survey Responses. There are 10 Learner Reference Fields available. Make sure to pay attention to which fields are in use if you collect information in both ways. If you map both a Custom Learner Field and an Onboarding Survey Response to the same Learner Reference Field, the Onboarding Survey Response will take precedence.

Below is a comparison of Custom Learner Fields and Onboarding Survey Responses functions:

Feature	Custom Learner Fields	Onboarding Survey	Notes
Prompts learner with a question	X	X
Appears at point of registration	X
Appears after registration but before the dashboard is shown for the first time		X	When using SSO, an onboarding survey is the only option for a learner to submit responses since they will not complete a native registration flow through Thought Industries.
Ties learner response to Learner Reference Field	X	X	If both are mapped to the same number, onboarding responses will take precedence.
Learner can edit response after initial submission		X
Admin can edit response after initial submission	X		If an onboarding survey response is tied to Learner Reference fields, an admin can change the response in the Learner Ref field, but cannot edit the survey response.
Limited to 10 fields	NA	NA	Only 10 responses can be associated with Learner Reference Fields

Notifications

To be notified when a survey is submitted, go to Users > Notifications > Manager Notifications.

You can set up a webhook notification to receive Onboarding Survey data as it's submitted. Questions do not have to be attached to learner reference fields in order to come through via webhook.

You can update an onboarding survey at any time as your business needs evolve. However, different types of updates will impact learner experience and reporting in different ways.

Review the scenarios below before making changes to understand what will and will not be affected.

Change	Does survey reappear?	Who sees it?	Reporting Impact?
Question Title	No	New learners and existing learners who edit responses	Creates a new column in log once a record exists
Question Responses	No	New learners and existing learners who edit responses	Will report the value when chosen
Add a New Question	No	New learners and existing learners who edit responses	Creates a new column in log once a record exists
Delete & re-add all questions	Yes!	All learners when they navigate to dashboard	Past data remains intact; if question titles match, no new column; if new question titles, new columns appear