REDCap Survey Tips and Tricks University of Iowa Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS) /display/ICTSit/REDCap#REDCap- REDCapAdvancedTopicsTraining 1

Survey Tips and Tricks Fred McClurg, Heath Davis, wnload/attachments/ /REDC ap_Survey_Tricks.pdf 2

Survey Form Design There are two survey types: 1.Public 2.Private Some effort should be spent deciding which survey type to use. 3

Public of Survey Type The public survey type uses the same URL for all participants. For example: u/redcap/surveys/?s=3MEqbk 4

Pre-Populated Survey Form  It is possible to pre-populate any number of the fields in a public survey form in order to define default values.  This is done by appending key/value pairs to the query string of the survey URL. 5

Pre-Populated Survey Fields A researcher, for example, could pre- populate several form variables, so the participant has a defaulted value. Consider the following variables:  pid_survey Participant ID  first_name First Name  last_name Last Name  survey_date Today’s Date  study_week Week Name 6

Creating Key/Value Pairs Values can be pre-populated by adding key/value pairs to the query string.  The “key” is the variable name  The “value” is the form value The key/value pairs should be specified with the variable name first, followed by an equals sign, and end with the field value in following format: pid_survey=123 first_name=Fred last_name=McClurg survey_date= study_week=1 7

URL Encoding Values Any special characters found in the value must be encoded. A special character is any character that is not a-z, A-Z, 0-9, “_” or “.” These characters are encoded by converting them to their hexadecimal equivalent. 8 CharacterURL Encoded Value Space “ ” %20 Comma “,” %2C Newline %0A There are a number of online URL encoders on the internet to assist in the process of converting a character string to an encoded string. Example:

Defining the Query String The key/value pairs are delimited with an “&” between each pair. The query string is built by placing the key/value pairs after the “?” on the public survey URL. The variables mentioned previously could be pre-populated in a survey by using the following URL: p/surveys/?s=3MEqbk&pid_survey=123& first_name=Fred&last_name=McClurg&s urvey_date= &study_week=1 9

Pre-populated Survey Results The resulting survey would look similar to the following: 10

Public Survey Disadvantages The public survey has the disadvantage in that you lose the capability to monitor which participants have not responded to the survey. As a result, it is not possible to send a follow-up reminder to those that have not completed the survey. 11

Handling Multiple Surveys The survey capability in REDCap was not designed to handle multiple surveys. However, there are some things you can do that will facilitate this functionality. 12

Specifying Participant Identifier Additional information can be appended to a participant’s address inside of REDCap. This will serve several purposes: 1.Provides a string that can be sorted. 2.Aids in grouping the . 3.Identifies date was sent. 4.Acts as a unique identifier. 5.Serves as a mechanism to identify the participant’s survey response. 13

Appending an Identifier When building a participant list, any information following a comma after the address is interpreted as a comment. However, this comment can be utilized as a way to identify which invitation has been sent. This becomes especially important when sending the same survey to the same address over multiple dates. The syntax is: identifier 14

Adding information to list A time stamp in the format of YYYYMMDD would provide an appropriate unique identifier and would indicate when the was sent. In addition, it is easy to sort. For example: (Week 1), (Week 1), (Week 2), (Week 2), (Week 3), (Week 3),

Specifying Participant Identifier An optional time stamp and participant identifier can be appended after the address. 16

Survey Invitation Submission The timestamp and participant identifier provide some organization to the survey invitation. 17

New Invitation List A new list with each address also possessing an associated timestamp and the participant identifier, should be added to the participant list within REDCap before the survey invitations are sent. 18

New Invitation List The list with unique identifiers will enable you to use the link “Check All Unsent”. 19

Response Monitoring When the participant identifier begins with a time stamp, this column can be sorted by day the was sent. 20

Survey Responses The participant identifier information is appended to each survey response. This makes locating a specific record easier. 21

Additional Identifying Fields Additional fields could be added to a survey in order to assist in administration, post-processing and reporting. For example:  Participant ID  Today’s Date  Week (Event) of the Study 22

Additional Identifying Fields In addition to the comment in the field, the Participant ID can be also be specified as a question in the survey. 23

Additional Identifying Fields The timestamp of the form submission is available upon export of the data, however, it is not available to be displayed in a report within REDCap unless the information exists as a field within the survey. 24

Additional Identifying Fields A survey question prompting the user for the current week (or event) in which they are responding would also assist in grouping the data. 25

Survey Response Report An example report of the survey responses. 26

Survey Obstacles There may be occasions when your participants: 1.Don’t have an address 2.Don’t have a computer 3.Don’t have internet access 27

Non- Survey Alternatives There are several ways you could accommodate those that either don’t have an address or have no internet access: 1.Print out a paper version of the survey (see Data Export Tool -> Other export options -> PDF) 2.Publish the URL so they can fill out the survey at the library or at a later date. 28

URL Shortening Service A long URL is difficult to type and impossible to remember. It is possible to generate a shorter URL that functions as an alias to the real location. For example, the location Kinnick Stadium, Iowa City is: owa+city,+ia&hl=en&ll= , &spn= , &sll= , &sspn= , &t=h&hq=Kinni ck+Stadium,+iowa+city,+ia&z=19 Or via URL shortener the URL is: 29

Making the URL shorter There are several ways to make the URL of a REDCap survey shorter: 1.Within REDCap: a.Invite Participants -> Get shorter survey link 2.External programs: a. b. (bitly.com) c. (Google’s Url Shortener) 30

Google URL Shortener Analytics Some URL shorteners also provide click analytics that monitor usage information regarding the following: 31 Note: These analytics are public and can be accessed by anyone. 1.Total clicks 2.Browser type 3.OS Platform 4.Country location

Mobile Survey Access A QR Code (Quick Response Code) is a two- dimensional barcode that can be read easily by many mobile devices (iPhone, iPod, Android, etc.) and tablet computers (iPad, Android, etc.). QR Codes can be used to store a large amount of information and are often used as a rapid way for a mobile browser to access a URL without the need to type the address. The URL to Kinnick Stadium (listed previously) can be represented and accessed with the following QR Code: 32

Mobile Survey Access There are several QR code generators available, some are online and are offered as a free service. The following pages lists about a dozen web sites that allow you to specify a URL and get the resulting QR code as an image: code-generators My personal favorite is the following because it is easy to use and has no advertisements: 33

Monthly REDCap Newsletter  Upcoming Training  Walk-in Hours Schedule  Helpful Tips  New REDCap Functionality  Frequently Asked Questions (and answers)  REDCap Best Practices REDCap LISTSERV Subscription:  /wa.exe?SUBED1=REDCAP&A=1 /wa.exe?SUBED1=REDCAP&A=1 REDCap Newsletter 34

REDCap Documentation Training within REDCap:  FAQs (Help & FAQ Tab): index.php?action=help  Video (Training Resources Tab): index.php?action=training Local REDCap documentation: y/ICTSit/REDCap 35