Conduct Paper Survey

This section explains how easy it is to conduct a paper-based/in-person survey with SurveyGold. It explains how to enter responses and comments from a known respondent or from an anonymous respondent via a completed survey questionnaire.

• Conducting Your Paper Survey

  The Conduct Survey tab folder is the place to conduct paper-based surveys. Survey responses may be entered:

  • by a surveyor from a completed paper survey questionnaire
    

  Productivity Note: The Print Blank Survey Form button is located here as a convenient way to print a survey questionnaire. This can help you to familiarize yourself with the survey, particularly if you are conducting a survey that you did not write.

  The steps involved in conducting a questionnaire-based survey are as follows:

  1. Setup your survey
  2. Print your survey form (or optionally save your survey as a Word document or save your survey as a text document before printing)
  3. Distribute the survey form to a respondent
  4. Collect the completed survey form from the respondent
  5. Add a new respondent record
  6. Enter respondent information (if provided)
  7. Enter responses
  8. Conclude survey

• Adding a New Respondent

You can add a new respondent at the very time you are enter responses from their completed paper questionnaire.  

Step 1 - Click the Create New Respondent button. This creates a new respondent record in the SurveyGold database. It assigns the respondent's first name an arbitrary number and the respondent's last name is "Anonymous". The newly created respondent is associated with the currently selected survey. In the example on the left, an anonymous respondent with "first name" 509 has been created. The number 509 in the first name field is arbitrary and can be changed to a real first name if it is known. (See the next section, entitled Enter Respondent Information, for more information.)

Step 2 - Click the Start Survey button to begin entering respondent data and/or survey responses.

 

Note: This anonymous/number feature is designed to help you enter responses submitted on a printed questionnaire or when entering responses from a web survey received via email. If your questionnaire has a field for the respondent's name, you can change the newly created respondent name from "Anonymous" to the respondent's actual name as provided by the respondent.

 

• Entering Respondent Information

If you prompted the respondent for their name and contact information, you will want to replace the "Anonymous" name with their real name. You will also want to enter any other contact information they provided. This takes only a moment and is invaluable in terms of follow-up potential.

	Step 1 - Enter any respondent information in the appropriate section. In this example, we are conducting an interview with a respondent named Carolyn Callahan.
	Step 2 - Click the Ask Questions / Get Responses tab folder to begin asking survey questions to the respondent.

• Entering Responses

  This tab folder is divided into three distinct areas to facilitate viewing the question, getting responses and capturing any noteworthy comments.
  

  Note: The three areas can be resized by using the sliders between each area. This can help you to see an entire lengthy question or a large set of choices.

  
  

  • Selecting Responses
    

    	Step 1 - Select the question. Note: Question responses are optional. If a respondent chooses not to respond to a question, simply press Enter on your keyboard to advance to the next question.
    	Step 2 - If a response is given, enter it in the Record the Response prompt. Note: The format of the Record the Response prompt will vary depending upon two factors. The first factor is whether or not choices were defined when the survey was setup. The second factor is whether one response is allowed or more than one response is allowed as defined when the survey was setup.

     

    Productivity Note: Most questions can be answered by clicking the appropriate response. Some require you to type the response. When multiple responses are allowed and no choices exist, press TAB on your keyboard to insert a new response.

     

  • Capturing Comments
    

    Step 3 (Optional) - Enter any comments provided by the respondent. The surveyor may also choose to enter clarifying comments as deemed appropriate. Comments are valuable. They are visible when reviewing survey results. Productivity Note: When you specify a response in Step 2, the mouse pointer automatically moves to the Comments prompt.

    Step 4 - Press Enter on your keyboard to advance to the next question. Normally this is the next sequential question in survey. However, in some cases the next question may be further into the survey depending upon the response given. SurveyGold automatically determines which question to advance to based on how the survey was setup. Productivity Note: SurveyGold was designed to minimize the time needed to enter a response. If you are right-handed, it may prove helpful for you to place your right hand on the mouse and your left hand on the Enter key on your keyboard (and vice versa if you are left-handed.) With your hands in this configuration, you normally click a response and press Enter.

     

• Concluding the Survey

  The final step in conducting your survey is to conclude the survey. A respondent may choose to finish responding to questions at any point in the questionnaire. 

  	Step 1 - When the last question response is provided, click the Conclude Survey button just below the tab folders.
  	Step 2 - This returns you to the Conduct Survey tab folder where the respondent is marked as having completed the survey. Now you can select Create New Respondent to enter another respondent's responses if you desire.

   

  Productivity Note: The completed date and time is displayed in the Completed column next to the respondent.

Continue on to the next section: Conducting a Web Survey