Case Study: Madison Area Technical College achieves rapid remote-learning insights and targeted faculty training with SurveyMonkey

How Madison Area Technical College evolved to support instructors and students in the COVID-19 era using SurveyMonkey

Madison Area Technical College faced a rapid shift to fully remote instruction when COVID-19 struck, creating urgent challenges for its 1,275 instructors and thousands of students. The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning formed a survey design team to capture how faculty and students were adapting, identify gaps in resources and communication, and inform a COVID-19 response and health-assessment plan.

Using SurveyMonkey Enterprise and its text-analysis tools, the team deployed targeted surveys in April 2020 and quickly surfaced patterns—28% of instructors and 30% of students would likely choose remote learning, while instructors feared diminished student learning and students worried about grades, time management and motivation. The findings drove clear recommendations to leadership: launch instructor training (18 sections of the Preparing to Teach Online course with 150 participants), create online training pathways, implement reliable exam proctoring, and scale support as the college moves toward 70% online courses in the fall.

Madison Area Technical College

Robin Nickel

Director of Assessment