About Surveys

Question Blocks are a simple, yet powerful tool when creating a survey. Just as the name implies, they are blocks, chunks, or groupings of questions. On the simpler side, they are a great way to organize or categorize different areas of your survey by putting questions of a similar nature or topic within the same question block. You can expand your question block when you are ready to work with it, and minimize it when you are finished.

On a more advanced note, they really become useful when you need to do advanced survey logic (it allows you to do more than what typical Skip Logic allows), as well as use loop and merge (repeat the question block according to what they selected on a previous question). The results still come through the same as if they were all in the same question block, but you were able to accomplish a lot more when creating the survey.

One of the largest challenges in running a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is collecting the data. Often companies would like every leader in the company to complete the analysis so new goals and strategies can be developed. Unfortunately, most time email isn't the best option for these as anonymity is compromised. Also paper and pencil versions cause a great time lag due to the input of data.

A much more simpler option for a SWOT analysis is to use an online survey tool. Online survey tools will provide two critical improvements from formats of the past. First, they will provide anonymity to the respondent. Many employees are apprehensive about critiquing the company's policies and processes. With an online survey, anonymity can be guaranteed, thus resulting in a larger disclosure of information from the employee.

The second problem that online surveys resolve is the tedious process of data collection and analysis. Unlike, traditional methods of survey distribution survey software automatically collects the data and provides a simple analysis. The amount of analysis depends greatly on the software, but the majority of programs will also let you export your results into either SPSS, Excel, or some other type of statistical analysis tool.

The Chi-square statistic is the primary statistic used for figuring out the significance of the cross-tabulation table. It is used to test for independence between the variables.  If the variables are independent of each other (or in other words they have no relation), then the Chi-Square test will be non-significant.  If the variables are found to be related, then the results of the statistical test will be "significant" and we can state that there is some relationship between the variables.

Survey Skip Logic is a great function to use if you want to skip survey respondents around in an online survey based on how they answer certain questions.  For example, you can skip someone from question #3 to question #20, if they choose a specific answer choice in question 3 (questions 4-19 may not apply to a respondent, if they answer a certain way in question 3).  I use skip logic often when creating surveys.

A 360 evaluation is a technique used to gather information about an individual from all around them.  This is usually done through a survey.  The same survey is distributed to people with different relations to the individual.  For example, the feedback would come from subordinates, peers, and managers in the organizational hierarchy.  It is also common to obtain a self-assessment from the individual.  It is called a 360 Evaluation because the feedback comes from all-around the individual.

This is helpful because some individuals can be two-faced, and act and behave on one way to those above them, and completely different to those underneath them. With a 360 Evaluation, you can determine what different levels feel about the individual and get a better perspective of the whole picture.  Qualtrics surveys are great for doing 360-Evaluations and provide great reporting tools so you can easily understand what the feedback is saying.

Often when working online, you are in need of a spell-check feature. Let's face it, if you're like me, a spell-check feature comes in handy when you're typing faster than you're thinking. I create a lot of surveys and I've found, thankfully, there are some very simple options that are very helpful when creating survey questions. 

The latest versions of Mozilla's Firefox and Apple's Safari browsers both provide built-in spell-check features. If you are using Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7, then you can install a simple add-on that will accomplish this for you (IE7Pro and ieSpell both provide a nice option for spell checking as well as instructions on how to use them).Now, any time you are entering text for a survey question, you will see the red underline when you have a questionable spelling. Hopefully you find these alternatives as helpful as I do!

Recently I had the opportunity to travel to Japan and conduct several cross-cultural psychology experiments. For the majority of our experiments we used pencil and paper surveys. What a pain! We were collecting data from several colleges around the country, more specifically Hiroshima, Tokyo, Nagasaki, Aomori, Saporro, Kyoto, Sendai, and Osaka. Luckily we had about seven research assistants because it took forever to put all the information into a spreadsheet and then analyse it in SPSS. After putting all the information in the computer we also had to seperate different surveys from one another. It took about two months to complete. One of the other experiments, studying surnames and affluency, was completed using  an online survey tool. Although we had a lot of respondents in total our team probably only spent a couple hours having to analyze the results. It was so much easier to simply export the data into SPSS, rather than having to code, type, and then analyze. It saved us loads of time.

As the online survey software market grows, so do the features that are offered with various programs. Most have capabilities in other languages, depending on the language installed on the respondents computer. Many can even do multiple languages in the same survey. This is especially helpful when collecting data with a multilingual population. You can give the respondents the survey in the language that they would prefer. Thus, decreasing respondent comprehension errors.

Branch Logic works to navigate a survey respondent to a specific block or group of questions based on how they answered previous questions in the survey, or on certain data specific to that person (e.g., gender, age, ethnicity, department, class, major, etc.) For example: If a survey respondent indicates that he or she is a Psychology major, a block or group of questions may be created using Branch Logic will contain questions that are specific and applicable to Psych majors. Each person who indicates they are majoring in Psychology will navigated to this branch. Those who indicate a different major, will be taken to another branch created specifically for them.

Joy. Peace. Unadulterated Happiness, these are words that researchers often use to describe their mood when they are about to launch a project. Months of hard work and planning has come to a few simple days, and yet often one runs into bumps and problems. This happened to me the other week, when the night before the survey was to be launched, I remember I hadn't randomized any of the scenarios, participants were supposed to see. Stricken with panic, I quickly logged on to our online survey software, and luckily, found that the program could randomize it for me. No messing with latin squares or other annoying, vexing randomizing procedures. With a couple clicks of the mouse I was able to save myself from professional calamity.

The best part about my online software was I didn't even know which participants got which scenario until the results poured in. It made for a wonderful double blind experiment.  I'm now convinced that online survey software is the best way to randomize variables in a survey.

While conducting survey research, most academic and private sector organizations will adhere to the code of ethics and practices established by the American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR). This code calls for honesty, respect, and integrity in dealing with respondents, clients, and the public.

In this code of ethics, respondents should be given the content, sponsorship, and purpose of the survey so that they may make an informed judgment about whether they wish to participate. Any assurances, such as confidentiality or anonymity, must also be kept by the researcher.

Additionally, researchers are called to disclose fully to those who sponsor surveys the limitations and shortcomings of the survey and to avoid use of methods that deliberately introduce bias into the results. A survey report should include information on who sponsored it, who conducted it, exact wording and sequencing of questions, description of the population and how a sample was selected, sample sizes and sampling tolerance, and the method place and dates of data collection.

This information is seldom available in published research reports or media summaries, but should be obtainable with a phone call or letter to the sponsor of the survey. Today, online survey software has made this process of gathering the ethical information extremely easy. With a good survey software program, one can provide the relevant information and adhere to the code of ethics and practices with ease.