Setting up Survey Questions

Use the group questions child form in the Survey Profile to record survey questions. Survey questions can request whatever information you wish, and you can set each question to request a different type of response.  For example, certain questions may ask the user to write their answer in a text box, while other questions may have them choose from a list of possible answers.

Questions are categorized under groups. You can also enter sub-questions under survey questions, and set up questions that allow respondents to enter repeat responses.

Creating a Survey Question Group

To add questions to a survey, you must create groups under which to organize questions on various subjects.

  1. In the Survey Profile, click the add record icon on the group questions child form.
  2. The Survey Group pop-up will appear. Enter a title in the survey group field. The group name should be brief and descriptive of the questions to be organized under that group.
  3. In the group order field, enter a number to indicate where in the list of groups this question group will appear. Groups with the lowest numbers in the group order field (i.e., 1, 2, 3) will appear at the top of the group list.

    Note: Allow "space" between group order questions by entering numbers in intervals, for example, of 5 or 10. This allows you to return to the survey and insert questions wherever you wish in the list without having to return to each question and change its position via the group order field.

  4. Click Save to save and close the Survey Group pop-up. The new group will appear under the group questions child form. Note the Order field, and that groups with the lowest order numbers appear at the top of the list.

Adding Survey Questions

Use the group questions child form in the Survey Profile to record survey questions. Survey questions can request whatever information you wish, and you can set each question to request a different type of response. For example, certain questions may ask the user to write their answer in a text box, while other questions may have them choose from a list of possible answers. You can also enter subquestions under survey questions, and set up questions that allow responders to respond multiple times.

Questions are categorized under groups. Survey questions are added on the group questions child form within a group name folder of a survey group (discussed in the preceding section).

To add a survey question:

  1. Click the folder icon next to the survey group name to which questions will be added.

    Note: gray folder icons indicate that no questions have been added to the survey group. Yellow folders indicate that questions have been entered.

  2. The question detail grandchild form appears. Click the add survey questions hyperlink to add questions to the survey group.
  3. The Survey Question Setup pop-up form appears. Enter details about the question to appear in the survey. Text, type, and group fields are required.
    • text: Enter the text of the survey question in this field.
    • type: Select the type of question being asked from this drop-down field. Choose from such question types as Check box, Yes/No, Text field, and more.
    • group: Select the group under which the question should be saved. Note that even though you clicked the add survey questions hyperlink under the desired group in the child form, you still have the option to select a different group to organize the question under.
    • order: In the order field, indicate where in the group question list the question will appear. Questions with a lower order number (1, 2, 3, etc) will appear higher in the question list. If no order number is entered, questions will be listed by order of creation.

      Note: Allow "space" between group order questions by entering numbers in intervals, for example, of 5 or 10. This allows you to return to the survey and insert questions wherever you wish in the list without having to return to each question and change its position via the group order field.

    • field width: Indicate, in pixels, the desired width of the answer fields. If no value is entered, a standard width will be used.
    • allow repeat response?: Enabling a repeat response allows you to cause follow-up questions to appear based on the respondent's answer to the main question. The response field must contain a answer that, when given by the respondent, will cause additional questions to appear. If the allow repeat response? check-box is clicked, sub-questions created under this question will appear only if the response indicated in the response field has been met. If the check box is not clicked, repeater questions will appear as regular sub-questions.

    • response: In the response field, enter the response necessary to initiate repeat response questions. In the example question setup screen shot above, the question being created is a drop-down list with a "Yes" or "No" answer. If the respondent's answer is "Yes", as indicated in the response field, repeat response questions will appear.
    • repeater minimum: Enter a number in this field to indicate the minimum number of repeating questions to appear when the allow repeat response? check box is clicked and the value in the response field has been met by the respondent. The default value for this field is 1.

    • repeater maximum: This is the maximum number of repeating questions to appear. The respondent can only choose to enter up to the maximum number of repeat responses.

    • has multiple values?: Click this check box to indicate that the question has multiple possible answers.
    • list of values: Enter multiple choice values in this text box. Separate values using a semicolon.

Click Save. The question will appear under the group that you indicated during the question setup. In the example below, three questions have been added to the "Fruits" question group.

Note: if a list order has been specified, it appears under the Order column. The Type column briefly describes the type of question, and List of Values indicates whether a question offers a list of answers for the respondent to choose from, as opposed to a text field allowing them to create their own answer.

Enabling Repeat Response Fields in a Survey

When setting up a survey question, you can choose to allow users to enter multiple responses for the question being created.

For example, in the screen shot below the question being created asks the respondent if they will enter the names of seminars that they enjoyed in a conference. It is set to be a drop-down list requiring the respondent to choose "Yes" or "No".

This type of question is suitable for allowing the respondent to create repeat responses. It requests optional information from the respondent, and allows them to enter as many or as few responses as they need, based on their personal experience.

To allow the respondent to make repeat responses, ensure that the following settings are in place when setting up or editing a survey question.

  • The allow repeat response? field must be checked. Repeat response fields will not generate if this check-box is not clicked.
  • In the response text field, enter the respondent response that will cause repeat response fields to appear. In the example above, the desired response is "Yes", indicating that the respondent does wish to enter a response to the question. In this example, if the respondent selects any answer besides "Yes", repeat response fields will not be generated.
  • Use the repeater minimum field to indicate the minimum number of repeat response fields to display. The default value for this field is 1. In the repeater maximum field, enter the maximum number of repeat response fields to display. This is the maximum number of responses that the respondent is allowed to enter for this question.

Once you have made all necessary settings in the Survey Question Setup form, create a subquestion to appear as the repeat response question. In the screen shot below, a subquestion has been created that will allow respondents to enter multiple repeat responses.

Note: It is recommended that you limit the number of sub-questions under a question requiring a repeat response. The subquestion will appear each time the respondent opts to enter a repeat response. If more than one question is entered, all questions will appear each time the respondent opts to enter a repeat response—questions are not displayed one at a time.

Using Repeat Response Fields in a Survey

When the respondent completes the survey, repeat response fields appear as displayed in the Add-Survey Response form in the screen shot below.

Note that the respondent selected "Yes" as their response to the main question—this matches the desired response indicated during question setup, therefore repeating response fields will appear.

Because the desired response was selected, the subquestion "Enter the seminar name and/or number here" appears. The respondent can click the Add hyperlink to cause additional instances of the subquestion to display, as highlighted in the screen shot above.

The respondent can enter up to the maximum number of repeat responses designated in the repeater maximum field when the main question was created.

Note: You can also click the Remove hyperlink to remove an instance of the repeat response from the survey.

Adding Subquestions to a Survey

Once a question has been created in a group of survey questions, you can enter subquestions to appear under a main question. This allows you to gather more specific data related to a question that has been asked.

Use the following steps to create subquestions in a survey:

  1. Click the folder icon next to the question under which the sub-questions will be listed. This expands the great-grandchild form.

    Note: gray folder icons indicate that no sub-questions have been added under the main question. Yellow folders indicate that subquestions have been entered.

  2. Click the add survey group questions link in the great-grandchild form under the main question.

    The Add—Survey SubQuestions pop-up will appear. The fields in this pop-up are similar to those in the Survey Question Setup. However, sub-questions cannot be set up to have repeat response questions, so the allow repeat response? and related fields will not appear.

  3. Enter subquestion information and values, or answers, to the question.
  4. Click Save. The new subquestion appears under the main question on the Survey Profile.

In the example above, two subquestions have been created under the main question. If repeat responses have been set to "on" for the main question, the subquestion(s) under it will appear as repeat questions based on the respondent's response to the main question.

Important! Once a survey response is logged, either via eWeb or via the survey response child form, survey questions are locked and no further questions can be added to the survey.