Creating online surveys
Conducting a survey online is now a very common requirement for staff throughout the university. Issuing a questionnaire, to be completed either within the university over the network or over the internet has a number of advantages over traditional paper-based methods:
- The proposed respondents can be reached immediately by email and invited to participate in the survey by clicking a link.
- There are thus no problems or costs associated with distribution and collection as with paper-based surveys.
- Responses are accepted directly into a database, thus avoiding the need for subsequent data-entry as with traditional methods.
- Ease of completion and return improves response rates.
- Invalid responses are minimised where possible by immediate data validation.
At LJMU we have two methods available to staff only for conducting online surveys:
Perception
Perception is a major application on the network for conducting surveys as well as for online assessment. It has great versatility in the types of questions which can be included and the structure of the questionnaires produced. It does, however, require commitment on the part of the author in designing and producing the survey.
Click here for further information, and to register as a Perception author
Bristol Online Surveys (BOS)
Again only available to LJMU staff, Bristol Online Surveys allows less complex surveys to be created on a simple, easy to use basis.
BOS is a "hosted service" i.e. it is run over the internet from the University of Bristol, to which LJMU has purchased access.
To assess whether BOS would be suitable for your needs in publishing and analysing an online survey, you should first look at the overview provided by the University of Bristol.
Registering as a BOS survey author.
If, after viewing the overview, you would like to actively try out BOS with a view to publishing a survey, you will need to register as a BOS survey author.
Click here to request a BOS username and password.
Please note: Both Perception and Bristol Online Surveys are for staff use only. You should not divulge usernames and passwords used to access these applications.
