Web Survey Resources
I don’t know about you, but I’m getting lots of requests to host web surveys. We’re making do with a modified formmail.pl script (see http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/newformmail.htm) that can save a comma-delimited datafile for the advanced ones, and a simple survey tool in Classweb, and phpESP but here are my notes about some more sophisticated alternatives. – Mike Franks
- Flashlight http://ctlsilhouette.ctlt.wsu.edu/CTLSilhouette2_5/HelpTest/wwwHelpSilFol/index.htm
- Google Spreadsheet Forms as surveys, and the data automatically goes into your spreadsheet.
- Perseus SurveySolutions":http://www.perseus.com
- phpESP http://phpESP.sourceforge.net/ Joseph Vaughan recommends it
- phpSurvey http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpsurvey/
- needs postgresql database
- written using PEAR::DB. I actually changed the database type to MySQL and converted the database schema to something more general and was able to run the program for the most part, but failed on SQL functionality that is missing in MySQL (such as inner selects and sequences… should work fine in MySQL 4.1 with minor changes, Rex Lorenzo)
- RiddleMeThis http://loewald.com/RiddleMeThis/
- Survey Suite http://intercom.virginia.edu/SurveySuite/ commercial, hosted there
- Virginia Tech open source project – “Rode, Jochen” <jrode@vt.edu>
- publicly accessible demo http://jin.dis.vt.edu:9080/surveydemo/
- The java-based web-application can be downloaded from http://opensource.isc.vt.edu. It runs on Windows, Linux, Solaris etc.
- Wufoo http://wufoo.com/ – Wufoo is an Internet application that helps anybody build amazing online forms. When you design a form with Wufoo, it automatically builds the database, backend and scripts needed to make collecting and understanding your data easy, fast and fun. Because we host everything, all you need is a browser, an Internet connection and a few minutes to build a form and start using it right away. Free and Paid versions.
- LimeSurvey http://www.limesurvey.org/ (previously PHP Surveyor)
- Runs on PHP/MySQL
- Branching and conditional responses
- Numerous types of questions / menus available
- Multi-lingual capable
- Templates using CSS. Also includes several ones in the default installation
- LDAP authentication optional
- Can use keys to restrict access
- Users can save and continue surveys later (cookie and session based)
- Export to CSV or SQL directly from interface
- http://kb.ucla.edu/articles/using-limesurvey-as-a-survey-tool
COMMERCIAL OPTIONS
- Survey Monkey http://www.surveymonkey.com/
Cost: $200/year @ 1,000 responses/mo. + $0.05/over
Free: demo 10 questions, 100 responses- Unlimited surveys
- Any length, plus conditional skips
- Required fields
- Random order to eliminate bias
- Redirect back to site
- Shared results, separate than account login
- Export, ie. Excel for charts
- Filtered results, ie. choice x in question y
- Unbranded by company, branded by you
- Poll-like results
- http://kb.ucla.edu/articles/has-anyone-used-surveymonkey
- QuestionPro http://www.questionpro.com/
Cost: $29/mo. without analytics, comparison, trends; $99/mo. with
Free: demo 1 month, 100 responses- Unlimited surveys
- Any length, plus conditional skips
- Required fields
- Random order to eliminate bias
- Redirect back to site
- Shared results, separate than account login
- Export, ie. Excel for charts
- Filtered results, ie. choice x in question y
- Unbranded by company, branded by you
- Auto-charts results
- Comparison reports
- Time-based groups
- Zoomerang zEducation http://info.zoomerang.com/
Cost: $350/year (40% off)
Free: 2 surveys, 100 responses- Unlimited surveys
- Any length, plus conditional skips
- Required fields
- Random order to eliminate bias
- Redirect back to site
- Export, ie. Excel for charts
- Create e-mail lists
- Perseus SurveySolutions Express http://express.purseus.com/
Cost: Free- Unlimited surveys
- Unlimited response
- Any length, plus conditional skips
- Required fields
- Random order to eliminate bias
- Redirect back to site
- Export, ie. Excel for charts
- Create e-mail lists
- Con: No required fields
- Con: Branded by Perseus
— Aaron Proctor
ADDITIONAL LISTS
- First Monday Journal paper on web surveys
- Mike Franks’ old list http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/ssc/survey_comparison.htm
- UwebD Useful Links http://www.usask.ca/web_project/uwebd/links/web_applications/surveys/
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March 19, 2005 at 11:44: I found this tool, Survey Builder, hosted at the Center for History and New Media. I made a very simple sample survey (intended to get feedback from those who attended the web-publishers meeting on Friday) in five minutes.
http://chnm.gmu.edu/tools/surveys/602/
I’ll build it out a little so you can see all the features. There are other tools as well, but i have not tried them out.—zoe
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March 23, 2005 at 15:01: As I mentioned at the recent Web Content Management user group meeting, we in External Affairs have a general method, which we call DataCapture, of saving (to a database) and displaying information entered on a web page. The key point is that, if the creator of the page follows our naming convention (see Data Capture Instructions), and posts to the appropriate URL, the capture of the data and the display in a report is automatic, requiring no coding. (This leaves developers with more time to perfect their HTML and hone their graphics abilities…). A very simple configuration process, which enables the page for DataCapture processing, is also required, but this only takes a few seconds. Note that admin and/or user confirmation emails may also be sent using this method. If you would like to try it out on one of your pages, please email me with the URL and I’ll enter it into our table, which will allow our website to accept your post. I’ve disabled report security for a range of page id numbers in our test database, so you’ll have access to the report without having to log in (which means that you shouldn’t enter any credit card numbers as part of your test…). If you find that it works for you, I can give you the code – it consists of C#.Net websites for the capture and display of the data, and a SQLServer database consisting of a few tables and some stored procedures. — Nick Todd
This article was originally posted on the UCLA Programmers Wiki.