Investigating Free On-line Survey Tools for Use in a Business Statistics Class Joan Donohue University of South Carolina 1

Comparison of features in free on-line survey tools 1.FreeOnLineSurveys.com (UK) (same KwikSurveys.com) 2.QuestionPro.com (Seattle, WA) 3.SurveyMonkey.com (Palo Alto, CA) (same as Zoomerang, FluidSurveys) 4.SurveyGizmo.com (Boulder, CO) (only free for a 7-day trial) 5.SurveyNuts.com (France) 6.SoGoSurvey.com (Herdnon, VA) 7.ZohoSurvey.com (Pleasanton, CA) 8.Survio.com (Czech Republic) 9.SurveyPlanet.com (Santa Monica, CA) 10.SurveyFace.com (Australia) 11.Typeform.com (Spain) 12.Google Forms (Mountain View, CA) SurveyFace (somewhat crude), TypeForms (somewhat slow) and Google Forms are the only FREE products that allow exporting results directly into Excel. 2

Feature Comparison Chart 1. FreeOnLine Surveys 2. Question Pro 3. Survey Monkey 4. Survey Gizmo Year Started # Surveys10/dayNo limit # Questions201210No limit # Responses Per Survey No limit Question Types Download Results no Yes for 7 days Monthly Upgrade Cost (for exporting results, etc.) $10$15$26 Free for 7 days then $25 3

Feature Comparison Chart 5. Survey Nuts 6. So Go Survey 7. Zoho Survey 8. Survio Year Started # SurveysNo limit 5 # Questions103015No limit # Responses Per Survey Question Types Download Results no Monthly Upgrade Cost (for exporting results, etc.) $9$12$24$14 4

Feature Comparison Chart 9. Survey Planet 10. Survey Face 11. Type Form 12. Google Forms Year Started # SurveysNo limit # QuestionsNo limit # Responses Per Survey No limit 200,000 Question Types Download Results noYes Monthly Upgrade Cost (for exporting results, etc.) $15$0$20$0 5

Example Project From an Undergraduate Statistics Class Example Hypothesis: USC students who have a job and work at least 20 hours per week are more responsible than other students. This student would then develop 4 survey items to address whether someone is “responsible.” The items are answered using a 7-point Likert scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. After collecting data, the student performs a 2-sample t-test to determine if the working students give higher mean responses. 6

Example Survey From an Undergraduate Statistics Class 7

1. FreeOnLineSurveys.com 8

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1. FreeOnLineSurveys.com Results are tabulated and displayed but cannot be exported to Excel. 11

2. QuestionPro.com 12

2. QuestionPro.com 13

2. QuestionPro.com 14

3. SurveyMonkey.com 15

3. SurveyMonkey.com 16

3. SurveyMonkey.com 17

4. SurveyGizmo.com 18

4. SurveyGizmo.com 19

4. SurveyGizmo.com 20

5. SurveyNuts 21

5. SurveyNuts 22

6. SoGoSurvey 23

6. SoGoSurvey 24

7. Zoho Survey 25

7. Zoho Survey 26

8. Survio 27

8. Survio 28

9. Survey Planet 29

Survey Planet

10. Survey Face 31

32 ro980AnnStC0-WMKsbg5zoZUwKQFBqnR5i8N3xRAMc0 10. Survey Face

Survey Face While this is a somewhat crude software tool, it does allow downloading data collected to an Excel file. Scale questions are not downloaded as numeric responses.

11. TypeForm 34 Lots of features BUT very slow to use!!!

11. TypeForm 35

11. TypeForm 36 Allows downloading data collected to an Excel file. Scale questions are downloaded as numeric values and the scale can be started at 0 or 1.

12. Google Forms 37

12. Google Forms The default is to show link for submitting another response after completing survey. 38

12. Google Forms Questions are not automatically numbered. Order can be randomized. Check “Required question” to avoid missing data. Numbering scale can start at 0 or 1 (no negative numbers) and the maximum is 10. Questions are not automatically numbered. 39

12. Google Forms Choose Short URL then Ctrl-C to copy link to survey. It is better not to send the form via since the survey will not be interactive. 40

12. Google Forms I ed the form to myself in both Outlook and Gmail – neither surveys were interactive. It’s probably better to send the link within an invitation . 41

12. Google Forms 42

12. Google Forms 43

12. Google Forms 44

12. Google Forms 45

12. Google Forms 46

12. Google Forms Excel File with Downloaded Responses. 47

On-line Surveys Advantages and Disadvantages Advantages Environmentally friendly Filling out a survey using a mobile device seems preferable to college students Video and audio can be included Order of questions can be randomized Use lists and easily send completion reminders Eliminates manual data entry Provide respondents with a link to the results Disadvantages Sampling issues – posting on social media will lead to self-selection bias, lists could have selection bias Respondents can complete a survey more than once Generally need an internet connection to fill out survey and always need one for results to be collected 48

Sampling Issues When students print a paper copy of their surveys, they collect data across campus – hoping to obtain a simple random sample of USC students. With an on-line survey, I suggest that students use the on-line campus directory. They search the directory using randomly selected sequences of letters and obtain about 200 student addresses. Then they the survey link to them using BCC recipents. 49

Sampling Issues 50

Sampling Issues 51

Sampling Issues 52

Closing Comments 53 I required students to use the on-line survey tool for their Final Project for the first time last Spring. None of the students had used Google Forms before and most told me they thought it was a very useful tool to know about. None of the students had used the on-line campus directory to obtain a random sample of student addresses and found my suggested approach to random sampling very easy to implement. Lastly, I think the students are getting more representative samples than when they used paper surveys (and were tempted just to ask friends to fill them out) and therefore, more meaningful results.