Inquiry Project: Collection Data
During our discussion today, we talked about how we would collect data for our ICT database. What we thought was the best method of for collection was some type of online survey. SurveyMonkey, a popular online survey development company, and Google Docs, a free online office suite software by Google, was brought up. I had previously used Google Docs’ form function to create an online survey, but had no experience using SurveyMonkey. Although I was biased towards Google Docs, I want to see which would best fit our needs.
Google Docs
Google Docs is provided by Google and is an included feature when you sign up for a gmail/Google account. They offer the basic office suite programs: word process, presentation, spreadsheets, forms and draw. The form program allows for the creation of online forms and surveys. The user is able to create the questions and specify a type of response (i.e. short answer, paragraph answer, multiple-choice, scale, checkboxes, choice from a list, etc.). Questions are added easily by clicking on the “add item” button. There is no limit on how many questions are in the survey or how many responses are submitted. The general look and layout of the ‘live’ (what the survey taker is seeing) survey is restricted to the templates offered. Unfortunately there is no way to customize it and there are only 19 templates available. The submitted responses are compiled and displayed in a spreadsheet format with individual time/date stamp.
Google Docs has is the ability to share, open and edit by multiple users simultaneously in real time, which allows for fluid collaboration. Once opened, each member present is denoted by a different colour and each member can see what everyone else is doing. For example, when both Terrence and I were on our group document, he could see words instantly appearing next to a pink cursor on the document. At the top of the page, it displayed my name in pink (hence the pink cursor). So, Terrence was able to ‘see’ me imputing the information just as I was typing it in. I have been told that Google Docs has a revision history feature that can display which member added what, at what time, but I haven’t use it myself so I don’t know how to do it. Also, there is a chat function embedded in each program letting members communicate with one another. Additionally, since Google Docs are online, there is no need to save, because it automatically saves the data onto their cloud.
SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey is in the business of surveys and it shows. It has everything a person or company would want to survey a particular demographic. It offers a paid service version and free version. The paid service version has extra features such as unlimited questions and responses (the free is limited to10 questions/survey and 100 response/survey), marketing features, custom links and sample pool to name a few. Survey Monkey has “expert survey templates” that are questions templates of most often asked questions on a specific topic. In the education category, I was able to find a pre-made bullying survey for students. They also have a question bank where users are able to choose questions that were created by “survey methodologists to minimize bias and give you the most accurate responses”. Like Google, the format of the responses can be adjusted. Every facet of the survey layout and theme can be customized. The extra function that SurveyMonkey has is the ability to analyze the results. The user can filter and compare each question’s response to see trends or patterns. This would be very useful when examining a large amount of data. There is no collaborative element in SurveyMonkey. The creation of the survey is limited to 1 user at 1 time.
Overall
I didn’t like the look and feel of SurveyMonkey. The survey came out looking like the surveys that large companies use for customer sanctification. Although I did like their question bank and question template feature, but more as a source of question ideas. It felt like they always were trying to sell how great their service was and pushing how their questions/surveys were created using the latest question methodology psychology. SurveyMonkey would be very beneficial for large corporations trying to understand their employees and clients, but maybe not for us. I liked the simple interface of Google and its collaborative elements. It’s great for doing simple surveys and forms. SurveyMonkey and Google both get the job done, but for the overall feel and the collaboration part, Google Docs wins out for me.