The U of S Survey Tool service lets University of Saskatchewan instructors‚ researchers‚ employees‚ and students create and administer web-based surveys for research and administrative purposes. All current instructors‚ employees‚ and students of the University of Saskatchewan can use this survey tool free of charge.

Access to create and edit surveys is controlled by the U of S Network Services ID (NSID). Survey owners can opt to restrict participant access in a variety of ways or to leave the survey open to the public.

Access to survey results is controlled by the survey owner. Results can be made available to the public‚ or to just specific individuals. Designated individuals can log in to view the results using either their NSID‚ or with usernames and passwords assigned by the survey owner.

Survey owners are expected to create and operate their surveys. For a fee ITS can build surveys. Contact the administrators to request more information or for help with the survey tool.

In This Section

• Creating a Survey
• Limitations
• Terms of Use
• Respondent Disclaimer
• Survey Demonstration
• Quick Guide How To (PDF)
• Training
• Reference Manual
• Related Tools
• Contact Administrators

Features

Integration with PAWS

The survey tool is integrated with PAWS and can be used to conduct surveys from within the University web portal.

• PAWS Groups - Group Leaders can use the survey tool to poll group members.
• My Surveys channel - Individuals can create a new survey, access surveys that they can manage and view a list of surveys that are targeted to them for participation.

Multiple Question Types

The survey tool provides five main question types:

• text only (no question attached‚ useful for introduction statements)
• multiple choice‚ single answer (select one of the following)
• multiple choice‚ multiple answer (select all that apply)
• small text (one sentence‚ up to 255 characters)
• large text (up to 4‚000 characters)

Multiple Display Styles for Multiple Choice Answers

There are several ways to display answers for multiple choice questions including:

• horizontal layout of answers
• vertical layout of answers
• dropdown box of answers
• matrix view of answers

Limited Support for HTML Code

There is a limited ability to use HTML in questions to:

• change text appearance to allow bold or italic characters
• include links to other documents
• include pictures as part of the questions

Dependent Questions

There is support for "branching" questions where answers to one question control which subsequent questions appear in the survey. For example different questions can be asked if the person is a instructor, employee, or student.

Access Controls

There are several different ways to restrict access to surveys:

• Surveys can be public‚ open to anyone in the world.
• Participants can log in with their U of S Network Services ID (NSID).
• Survey owners can assign non-NSID usernames and passwords so that people from off campus can participate in the survey.
• Participants can be e-mailed a unique "Invitation Code" to access the survey which can be used by people without an NSID (such as people from off campus).
• Survey owners can control when the survey is available to participants.
• Survey owners can control how many times participants are allowed to answer the survey.
• Survey owners can restrict access to certain IP addresses only‚ or can control access by browser cookies.

Anonymous Results

Surveys are completely anonymous. Survey answers cannot be traced back to the individuals who answered the survey‚ even if the individual was required to login. Of course‚ survey owners can ask respondents to identify themselves in a question in the survey.

Flexible Results Format

Survey results can be public or restricted to authorized viewers only.

General reports on "frequencies" are generated automatically for surveys. Detailed results can be downloaded in a comma-separated-value file for further analysis.

Additional Features

There are many additional features like:

• Time limits can be set on surveys.
• Questions on surveys can be made mandatory. Participants will not be able to submit the survey results until they have answered the mandatory questions.
• After a survey is finished‚ you can show the survey results‚ or direct participants to an external website.
• Surveys can have multiple owners / editors.
• People can be granted the ability to view survey results separately from the ability to edit the survey.