Introducing Fluid Surveys

We now provide two different survey tools for general use:

• Fluid Surveys
• Survey Tool

Fluid Surveys is expected to supercede the old U of S Survey tool.  It is better in almost every aspect.  Although we encourage all users to switch over, especially for new surveys, the decision whether to do so or not rests with the end users.  There are no plans to shutdown the older U of S Survey Tool, but updates and bug fixes will not be applied.

Survey owners are expected to create and operate their surveys.  We will provide:

• training
• support for problems or questions

No Migration Path to Fluid Surveys

Although we recommend switching over to Fluid Surveys, especially for all new surveys, it isn't possible to migrate surveys from the old Survey Tool to Fluid Surveys.    

Although it isn't possible to migrate a survey, it is possible to re-create it fairly quickly in Fluid Surveys.  Cutting and pasting from one into the other could make this process could be relatively quick to do.  But, it must be understood that this is a manual operation.

It isn't possible, even manually, to import old data and results into the new survey tool.  All data must be exported from the old tool into Excel and managed externally.  If the data must be merged, then this will have also have to be done externally in Excel.

Which Survey Tool Should I Use?

In general, we expect most people to use Fluid Surveys.  Some reasons for not doing so might be:

• people who have an existing Survey Tool survey that they wish to re-use, almost unchanged
• people who want to continue running a Survey Tool survey that is already gathering long-term data
• people who have a Survey Tool survey that is targeted to a large PAWS group.

Strengths

Fluid Surveys is a newer more modern tool:

• Cleaner, simpler, more powerful and friendlier user interface.  Surveys can be created and edited faster with less training.
• Greater range of question types, delivery modes, reports

The U of S Survey Tool is tightly integrated with other U of S systems:

• All users already have a user account and can log in with their NSID.
• Users can target U of S PAWS groups (with the assistance of an administrator).

Features

Who can use these survey tools?

• All current instructors‚ employees‚ and students of the University of Saskatchewan can use either survey tool free of charge.

Multiple Question Types:

• text
• multiple choice‚ single answer 
• multiple choice‚ multiple answer

Dependent Questions

• support for "branching" questions where answers to one question control which subsequent questions appear in the survey

Restricting access to surveys:

• surveys can be public‚ open to anyone in the world.
• participants can be e-mailed unique invitation codes to access the survey which must be used to access the survey
• survey can be limited by time, date, and many other options

Anonymous results and secure data:

• surveys can be completely anonymous
• survey data is only stored in Canada and NOT subject to the US Patriot Act.

Variety of reports:

• results to date can be viewed in reports
• results to date can be exported in a variety of formats (e.g. Excel)