Question Type

The available question types are displayed in the table below.

Type of question	Icon	Data captured
Text		Alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9), basic punctuation symbols and space.
Numeric		Numeric characters (0-9). Integer or Real numbers.
Date		A date in the Gregorian calendar. The format of the date corresponds with the tablet’s date settings.
Categorical: Single-select		One option from a list of answer options which are mutually exclusive.
Categorical: Multi-select		One or more options from a list of answer options.
List		An open list composed of alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9), basic punctuation symbols and space.
GPS		Set of geographic coordinates (latitude, longitude, accuracy, altitude), which identify the location of the tablet.
Barcode		Optical machine-readable representation of data relating to an object.
Picture		Image as a binary file.
Audio		Audio recording as a binary file.
Geography		Sequence of coordinates as a string.

Questionnaire Elements

Any questionnaire created with the Survey Solutions Designer tool consists of two types of elements: sequenced and not-sequenced.

• Sequenced elements are specified in sequence, and their precedence ultimately determines the order of the questions asked in the survey. They are: Sections, Sub-sections,  Roster, Question, Static Text, and Calculated Variables.

• Not-sequenced elements are questionnaire elements that are included in the questionnaire, but their placement doesn’t affect the flow of the questions. They are included as attachments, and referred by name, such as, for example, lookup tables. They are discussed separately, see Panel of Advanced Instruments.

  September 25, 2024

Question Properties

Question’s properties define the question, how it is presented to the interviewer or respondent, what values it may accept, etc. There properties that are common for all question types and some properties only exist for specific question types.

Common question properties

• Type - determines how the response is collected by the application (default is a text type). See question type.

• Text - question text that the interviewer will read to the respondent. It may include text substitution.

  September 25, 2024

Variable names

A variable name (an identifier) must be assigned to every question, calculated variable, and roster in Survey Solutions. Additionally it must also be assigned to the whole questionnaire, and may be assigned to sections and subsections.

Variable names are used for:

• referring to questions in the C# syntax expressions;
• naming the data columns in the export data files;
• referring to the origin of event in paradata events, errors and comments files.

A variable name is a word that consists only of the following:

Special Section: Cover Page

Every questionnaire in Survey Solutions shall have a special section called ‘Cover’ or it’s equivalent in the translation. The cover page may contain some of the information that is present on an actual cover page of a paper prototype (if it exists) and may also contain other information.

The objective of the cover page is to include identifying information that helps distinguish one interview from another; helps the field staff reach the respondent.

Tabular presentation of rosters

Questionnaires of surveys administered in CAWI mode (web interviews) may include rosters that will be presented in table mode for compact overview of the information being collected, so that the questions become columns in the table and persons (or other roster items) form the rows of the table.

Here is an example:

Rosters can be presented in tabular view only in CAWI mode and not on the tablet, must satisfy some design requirements and will have some functionality limitations. If the design requirements are not satisfied, a compilation error is issued by the Survey Solutions Designer.

Question bank

Description

The question bank allows users to search for questions in the question bank and, with a click, add them to their questionnaire.

To do this,

• Click on SEARCH FOR QUESTION to open the question bank window
• Search the question bank via filters and/or full-text search
• Click on ADD to copy the selected question–as well as any associated enablement, validation, or filter conditions–from the question bank

The question bank consists of all questions found in any public questionnaire.

Classifications library

Description

The classification library allows users to draw from a library of public and/or private classifications (answer options). More than a convenience feature, the classification library aids with standardization of classifications–that is, alignment with intenational best practices and/or consistency with internal practices.

How to search classifications

From within the question design pane

• Click on SEARCH FOR CLASSIFICATIONS to open the classification library window
• Search classifications using the group filter, search field, and/or classification preview

The group filter restricts search to the thematic group of interest.

Questionnaire hyperlinks

Survey Solutions questionnaires may include hyperlinks to permit the interviewer to jump to a particular question or section in the questionnaire.

A typical use of the hyperlinks is in the error messages to allow the interviewer to jump to an earlier question in the questionnaire, the answer to which may conflict with the current question being validated.

For example, when we validate the age versus the date of birth. Hence the error message may be something like “Error! The entered age does not agree with the date of birth specified earlier for this person. Please check both answers!”. In this case we would want to let the interviewer jump to this date of birth question. We do it by marking the hyperlink in the error message using the markdown style:

Plain mode roster

A plain mode roster is a presentation of the roster without buttons leading to a deeper level, but rather showing all the roster questions repeated in the same scrollable area. This is especially convenient when there are only a handful of questions in the roster, such as price-quantity-unit for many items, and going behind the button and back is very time consuming for the interviewers.

In the example below a roster of expenditures on utilities containing questions on the amount and frequency for each utility consumed is presented in plain mode.