How to conduct an online survey
From Regional Knowledge Resource Kit
Return to Stage 2 - conduct surveys
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Contents |
Background
The use of surveys constitutes one of the three lines of enquiry used for the development of an NRM knowledge strategy and the NRM Knowledge Resource Kit (NRM KRK) involve surveying the information and knowledge needs of the NRM body staff (an internal survey) and their external stakeholders (external survey).
External stakeholders are defined as those organisations or groups with which the NRM body engages and may include:
- federal government agencies
- local government authorities
- state government departments and/or agencies
- other NRM bodies
- research institutes (universities, CSIRO etc)
- indigenous and local community groups
- consultants
- landholders
- local business community
- landcare groups, schools, educational institutions
- other organisations?
Two template surveys have been created to minimise workload in this stage. The surveys are created and administered using an online tool provided by SurveyMonkey at www.surveymonkey.com. These two surveys (an internal survey and an external survey) are recommended as the basis for your Stage 2 activites
Access to these surveys is available through the following people:
- Pam Cunningham (pam.cunningham@lwa.gov.au
- Alison.carter@lwa.gov.au
Once the survey questions have been copied for your use you are welcome to re-word the questions, create or add additional questions for these surveys.
Facilitation level
Familiarity with the Internet and ability to set-up and configure online software.
Objectives
Two surveys are used to contribute to this line of enquiry:
- The internal survey is designed to identify and prioritise the information and knowledge needs of staff within the regional body.
- The external survey is designed to identify and prioritise the information needs and knowledge flows between the regional body and the external stakeholders it serves.
Sample survey templates developed in collaboration with pilot regions can be viewed under the heading 'Tools' below. Both surveys can be hosted on the internet website www.surveymonkey.com.
A link to your survey (using a URL address) can be embedded in the text of an email to be sent either to all regional body staff, or to your selected external stakeholders. Sample emails that could be used to distribute your survey are shown below.
Materials
Tools
The following tools may be of some help when conducting the survey.
If you'd like to distribute your survey via a URL link in an email to your NRM body staff and external stakeholders the following sample emails might help. You are welcome to copy and paste text from these emails and use them to link to your own survey:
The following surveys have been developed in consultation with NRM bodies that participated in pilot activities for the NRM Knowledge Resource Kit.
Background reading on making sense of survey data is available from the following Guide 
Collating, Summarising and Interpreting Survey Data: a Step-By-Step Guide 
Part One of this Guide, headed 'Making Sense of Survey Data' provides some introductory information on sampling, particularly representative sampling.
SurveyMonkey software and website
SurveyMonkey software was selected for its ease of use by people who have no previous knowledge of survey design and for its cost effectiveness. You can use all the functionality of the SurveyMonkey website to view tutorials, create a survey, collect responses and compile a summary of responses or a detailed list of responses to your survey questions.
The SurveyMonkey website maintains an extensive Help menu for assistance and an email contact for their Help Centre located in the USA. An email reply to your request for help usually arrives within 24 hours.
SurveyMonkey offers you the ability to:
- Copy an existing survey
- Use a survey template from a selection of existing examples or
- Create a new survey from scratch ( you can select from over a dozen types of questions (multiple choice, rating scales, drop-down menus, and more..)
- Collect responses
- Provide a report and analyses of your responses
Cost
If you wish to run a short one off survey of up to 10 questions and have no more than 100 responses there is no charge to use SurveyMonkey. Just register a login (your email address) and a password (of your choosing) and click on Create Survey.
As at July 2007 a recurring online subscription of $19.95 (US) per month will allow you use of the SurveyMonkey software to collect up to 1000 responses per month. This subscription constitutes a Professional account and can be paid for by charging the cost to a credit card.
Once you subscribe you will be asked to supply a login (your selected email address) and a password (of your choosing). You may agree to share a login email address and password to several NRM body staff.
Reusing surveys already developed by the Knowledge for Regional NRM Programme
If you would like to reuse one or both of the surveys designed by the Knowledge for Regional NRM Programme Team you would need to take out a Professional account subscription at $19.95 (US) per month. A copy of the survey(s) design can then be transferred from the Knowledge for Regional NRM Programme account to your own SurveyMonkeyaccount.
You may wish to use the free SurveyMonkey option to create your own survey at surveymonkey If you take this option, remember there is a limit of 10 questions for your survey and you can only accept up to 100 responses. If you would like to view a copy of the surveys designed by the Knowledge for Regional NRM team please email regionalknowledge@lwa.gov.au
Time
It will take between 4-6 weeks to develop, collect and analyze survey results.
Directions
Design your own survey
See www.surveymonkey.com to select from over a dozen types of questions (multiple choice, rating scales, drop-down menus, and more..) and to view example surveys. Powerful options allow you to require answers to any question, control the flow of questions with custom skip logic, and even randomize answer choices to eliminate bias.
Then click on Create Survey button. At any time you can review the design of your survey by logging into the SurveyMonkey website, clicking on My Surveys tab and then the Design icon next to the survey you have created. You can Edit you survey at any time the survey is open.
Sending out your survey
Once you are happy with the design of your survey you can email a link to the survey to your respondents. Sending your survey via email? Putting a link on your blog? Collecting responses is as simple as copying and pasting a link to your survey. You can even stop collection automatically when you reach a date or response count that you specify.
Just go to My Surveys and click on Collect icon. Click on Add new collector button. You will be presented with a page of options asking you to choose:
How Would You Like to Collect Responses?
Create a link to send in your own email message or to place on a webpage? (SurveyMonkey will generate a link for your survey that you can just copy and paste into an email. )
- Upload your own emails and have SurveyMonkey send a survey invitation
- You can upload your emails, and SurveyMonkey will send a survey invitation on your behalf. You can customize the message that is sent, and track who responds in your list. Note: Check with your IT facility as to whether your firewall may bounce some of these messages.
- Create a popup invitation for your webpage. SurveyMonkey provides you with the code to generate a popup invitation on your own webpage.
Then click on Next Step button to receive further advice.
Collecting responses
All responses from your participants are collected at www.surveymonkey.com. Just go to www.surveymonkey.com . Sign in with your login and password, and click on My Surveys . Look in the column next to the Analyse column and you will see the total number of responses you have received to date.
To view responses to your survey click on the Analyse icon to view the Response Summary. Click on View all pages link on right hand side of page when your survey opens to view responses to all questions.
Generating a report of survey responses
How can I share a survey I have developed?
At www.surveymonkey.com you can transfer a survey you have developed to another paying subscriber account. Just click on the Transfer Survey button located on the left side of the My Accounts page:
To transfer or copy your survey into another account, please follow these steps:
Step 1: Click on the My Account tab in the navigation header bar.
Step 2: Select the Transfer Survey button on the left hand side of the page.
You will need to know the username of the account into which you are transferring the survey.
Next, you will select the survey title from the dropdown menu and choose either the Copy Survey or Move Survey button. This will then place the survey into the chosen account.
If you copy the survey into another account, this will not copy the data or responses. It only copies the survey design (no collectors are copied either). You will need to move the survey if you need the responses attached.
If you have developed a survey as a free service through www.surveymonkey.com you will need to contact the author and arrange to obtain a copy of the survey. Copies can be downloaded as .PDF files.
Debriefing
If required, a desription of how you might debrief the exercise.
Variations
It is possible to use a more traditional hard-copy survey. This will take longer to administer and compiling results will have to done manually. Online surveys reduce the amount of time required to collate and enter results.
Tips
A list of tips and tricks.
Applications
Could be used in any instance where broad opinion is sought by survey.
Stories (case studies)
Looking for some examples here!
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