With today's ubiquitous technology, the most common type of survey that you'll see administered is a digital or electronic survey. Paper and pencil surveys have really become a thing of the past. We just don't tend to use them anymore because of their lack of convenience. In contrast, digital survey tools provide fast, easy, and reliable survey data for users at all levels.
So in this tutorial, we'll examine some of the benefits of digital survey tools. And then I'll share with you four different commonly used digital survey tools. Let's get started.
First, what are some of the benefits of using digital survey tools? First, these digital tools are simply easier, faster, and less expensive to administer than paper and pencil surveys. They offer the opportunity to quickly, honestly, and privately answer questions.
There isn't that level of pressure that comes with a face-to-face interview, for example. Many of these digital tools are completely free of charge. And not only do they offer a wide array of online user support options, but many of them also offer analysis of the results, and even easy reporting of the results for free as well.
There are many different digital survey tools that are available to both create surveys and then to administer those surveys and collect and analyze the data. We're going to look at four different examples. First up is Survey Monkey.
Survey Monkey is a free online tool that is aimed specifically at professionals. Survey Monkey offers you options to create, deliver, and analyze information. Since this tool is aimed at professionals, if you've taken a survey within the context of a work-related meeting or conference, it may well have been on the Survey Monkey platform.
Let's see how to use Survey Monkey to create and deliver a survey. At surveymonkey.com, click on Create Survey. You can give your survey a name and select a category. Then click Let's Go.
You can use the Question Builder at the left side of the window to build individual questions, or you can search the Question Bank for prewritten questions that might fit your needs. When you're finished creating questions, you can click Preview and Test in order to see what the finished version of the survey will look like.
When you're ready to administer the survey, click Collect Responses. You can share a web link with your desired sample or audience for the survey. You can share the survey on Facebook. Or you can embed the survey into a website.
Next, let's look at Google Forms. Google Forms is an online digital tool from Google. Google Forms allows you to create a variety of different types of forms, including polls, quizzes, and surveys. Google Forms also allows you to collect and organize your information all for free.
In your Google Drive, click New. Hover over the More option at the bottom of this dropdown menu, and then select Google Forms. A new tab will open with your untitled form. You can give the form a name and then create the first question of your survey.
You can use the dropdown Question Type menu to select the type of question that you would like to create. Type the question and any desired answer choices, and select any options that are unique to the specific question type. To add another question, click the Add Item button. Or if you're finished, simply click Done.
When you're finished creating questions, click the Send Form button at the top right corner of the window. You can share the direct link to the form or share the link on Google Plus, Facebook, or Twitter. You can also send the form via your Google email account. Google will automatically create a spreadsheet in your Google Drive that will track the responses to the form.
Next, let's take a look at Poll Everywhere. Poll Everywhere is a live, interactive online tool. Poll Everywhere allows you to gather information in real-time as people respond to your questions on their mobile devices, through Twitter, and through web browsers. Poll Everywhere definitely can be used as a student response system. But it also is useful in other situations like meanings and conferences and assemblies.
A unique feature of Poll Everywhere is that it does not require you to sign up for anything. You can simply click Create your first poll, type in the text for your question, select the possible answers for your question, and click Create. Click the Activate button to activate your poll.
And then the audience can respond using the website, using text messaging, or if you've linked your Twitter account, they can also tweet their responses. Results of the poll are displayed in real-time. Note that the free version of Poll Everywhere will not allow you to export any type of report on your data.
Let's examine one more digital survey tool. Now, let me be very honest with you here. There is some level of disagreement on how to pronounce the name of this resource. In my educational experiences, I've always heard it pronounced as "sock-rative," like Socrates. But the introductory video on the service's website actually pronounces it "so-crative."
Socrative is a digital survey tool from Mastery Connect. Socrative features real-time questioning and real-time aggregation of results. When you log into the teacher side of Socrative, to create a complete quiz or survey, click Manage Quizzes. Select the option to create a quiz. Give the quiz a name. And then build your questions using the three available question types.
When you've finished creating all of your questions, click Save at the top right corner of the screen. Then to administer the survey, simply click on the Start a Quiz option on your dashboard. Select the desired quiz or survey. And select your desired options. When you're ready, click Start. And survey participants who have logged into the student side of Socrative will be able to respond to the survey on their digital device or in a web browser.
Now that you've seen me model four different online survey tools, here's your chance to stop and reflect. Take a few minutes to actually go try out one or two of these digital survey tools that seemed to best fit your needs.
For more information on how to apply what you learned in this video, please view the additional resources section that accompanies this video presentation. The additional resources section includes hyperlinks, useful for applications of the course material, including a brief description of each resource. Thanks for watching. Have a great day.
Create a survey using Google Forms
This helpful step-by-step page from Google will walk you through the use of Google Forms to create a survey that will analyze the results of your data.
https://support.google.com/docs/answer/87809?hl=en
Create a Survey in Google Docs
This useful video takes you step-by-step through the process of creating a survey using Google Docs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwQ4KAIykq4
(00:00 - 00:38) Introduction
(00:39 - 01:34) Benefits of Digital Survey Tools
(01:35 - 02:57) SurveyMonkey
(02:58 - 04:32) Google Forms
(04:33 - 05:48) Poll Everywhere
(05:49 - 07:17) Socrative
(07:18 - 07:54) Stop and Reflect