2 approaches to having several 'versions' of a survey
- Matt Kepple
There are two ways to having several ‘versions’ of a survey:
Single Survey (these use Core Questions {Waves})
Separate Surveys (these use Reusable Questions and Bespoke Questions)
Core Questions (Waves) is the recommended method for Longitudinal surveys and Tailoring surveys to specific projects
What we mean by ‘versions’ of a survey?
It refers to when you want to ask the same or similar people, the same or similar questions, potentially but not necessarily at different points in time.
The characteristics of the different ‘versions’ of a survey might be as follows:
Some questions are the same
Some questions are worded differently
Some questions are removed
Some questions are new
A key factor to determine which approach is best for you is: do you want to be able to aggregate results and connect results from across the different versions of the survey, in spite of the differences in questions across each version?
If the answer is Yes, use the Core Questions (Waves) method or the Reusable Questions method.
Comparison
FUNCTIONALITY | SINGLE SURVEY | SEPARATE SURVEYS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core Questions (Waves) | Reusable Questions | Bespoke Questions |
How it works | |||
CONTENT CREATION | |||
1 | Several | Several | |
1 per quantifiable question | 1 per quantifiable question | Several per quantifiable question because you need 1 per quantifiable question | |
1 per qualitative question | 1 per qualitative question | 1 per qualitative question | |
SURVEY EDITING | |||
Remove certain quantifiable questions from different versions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Change the wording of certain quantifiable questions in different versions | Yes | No | Yes |
Ability to change the wording of certain qualitative questions in different versions (using Custom Fields) e.g. Open Text questions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
ANALYSIS: Connecting Results from across different versions (e.g. for Longitudinal Surveys) | |||
Yes | Yes | No - unless all of your quantifiable questions are worded identically in each version (because they use the same Metric) | |
Yes | Yes | No - unless all of your quantifiable questions are worded identically in each version (because they use the same Metric) | |
ANALYSIS: Aggregating Results from across different versions | |||
Use Progress Boards and Progress Panels to calculate Totals | Yes | Yes | No - unless all of your quantifiable questions are worded identically in each version (because they use the same Metric) |
Series Analysis to connect results from across different versions | Yes | No | No |
Outcome Charts to connect results from across versions | Yes | No | No |