Creating a Survey Monkey Account

Building a Ballot/Voting Survey

Ballot/Voting through Survey Monkeya step-by-step guide

This step-by-step guide will take you through using Survey Monkey for students to vote on who they want their student representative to be. The guide will cover how to create, distribute and analyse the responses to your Ballot/Vote survey.If you have any questions about using Survey Monkey for your Student Representative Election or elections in general, please contact studentreps@guild.bham.ac.uk.

Creating your Survey Monkey account is quick and simple all you need to do is;a) Visit the Survey Monkey

website (click here)b) Click on ‘Sign up FREE’ or ‘Pro Sign Up’ depending on what type of account you

want.c) Enter the required details for the

type of account you are creating and click ‘Sign Up’.

For the purpose of this walk through we will be using a FREE account. Please Note: that a FREE Survey Monkey account has limits. The free account will only allow you to receive up to 100 responses per survey and does not allow you to download your responses, but you can still view them online. If you believe that you may receive more than 100 responses or want to download the responses you will either need to upgrade to a Pro account or use a different method of running a ballot.

Once you have signed up for a Survey Monkey account, and logged into the Survey Monkey website, you will need to create your ballot/vote survey. To create you ballot/vote survey you will need to;a) Click on ‘+Create Survey’, this can be found in the top right corner under your

username or under the ‘Create Your Own Survey in 3 Easy Steps’ part of your dashboard

b) Now you need to give your survey a Title. This title will be visible to anyone completing the survey. This could simply be ‘Student Rep Election’ (see Figure 2)

c) Leave the Category box as ‘Select a Category’ (see Figure 2)d) Click on the green ‘Let’s Go!’ icon (see Figure 2)e) You should not see figure 3 and can start building your survey.

Figure 1: Survey Monkey Homepage

Figure 2: Survey Title

f) Click on ‘+Add Page Title, to change the title of the page to ‘Introduction’ (see Figure 3)

g) Under the building options on the left click and drag the ‘Text’ icon into the ‘To add a question, simply click or drag it from the builder’ part in the centre of the screen. (see Figure 3)

h) The text builder will then appear. Under ‘text’ write an introduction which should include where they can get information and who they can contact about the ballot/vote. You can write your own or use the content we have provided under ‘Suggested Content’ at the end of this document. Once you have written your introduction click the green ‘Save’ icon (see Figure 4)

Hint: if you click on the ‘…’ (Advanced editor) icon on the far right about the text box. This will provide you with more options to edit your text such as bullet point.i) Now you need to add a new page to your survey. Scroll to the bottom and click

‘Add New Page’j) Change the page title to ‘The Candidates’ (see stage f)k) Add another ‘Text’ from the builder onto this page (see stage h). This should

explain that all the candidates running are listed below with their 200 statement; suggested content has been provided at the end of this document. Once you have written the content click the green ‘Save’ icon.

l) Now for each candidate that you have you will need to add another ‘Text’ from the builder option on the left (see stage h). For each candidate you should write their name in bold and directly underneath that should be their 200 word statement (if provided). If they have not provided a 200 word statement just put ‘no statement provided’. When you have completed each candidate’s text information click the green ‘Save’ icon.

Figure 4

Figure 3

Distributing the Ballot/Vote Survey

m) Now you need to add a new page to your survey. Scroll to the bottom and click ‘Add New Page’

n) Change the page title to ‘Your Vote’ (see stage f)

o) Click and Drag the ‘Ranking’ icon from the builder list on the left onto your survey and write the following content;

i. Question Text: ‘Please rank each of the candidates below into your order of preference with your first preference being the candidate you would like to be your student rep the most. You can rank the candidates by either, clicking and dragging their name or clicking the drop down to the left of each candidate’s name.’

ii. Write each candidate in their own row, if you need to add a more rows click the green ‘+’ icon.

p) Now go to the ‘Options’ tab and tick the ‘Randomise’ box (see Figure 5)q) When you are happy the you have put all candidates names on the question click

the green ‘save’ iconr) Now add your next and final

survey page (see stage i)s) Change the page title to ‘Before

you submit’ (see stage f)t) Add another ‘Text’ from the

builder list and in the text content explain that they are about to submit their vote. You can write your own content or used the suggested content at the end of this document.

u) Now if you hover over the blue ‘Done’ button you will see a green ‘edit’ icon appear to the right. Click on the ‘edit’ icon (see Figure 6)

v) Change the Done button text to ‘Submit’ and click the green ‘save’ icon (see Figure 6)

You have now built your Ballot/Vote Survey and can move on to distributing the survey to the student body.

Once you have created your Ballot/Vote Survey, you will need to distribute the survey amongst the student body. Survey Monkey provides you with a couple of options to distribute your survey, but we will run through how to distribute using email and the web link.

Figure 6

Figure 5

Figure 7

a) Click on the ‘Collect Responses’ tab at the top of the page to assess Survey Monkeys distribution options for your survey.

b) Click on ‘Send it Fast and Easy’ icon (see figure 7)c) Click on the green ‘Next’ icon (see Figure 7)For the Vote survey you can use either the email option or the web link option. It is recommended however that you use the email option or your vote survey.Distributing using the Web Link OptionThe Web Link option provide you with a URL that you could copy and send out in social media, post of canvas or in an email from your outlook. When students click on this it will link them to the survey anonymously. To distribute your Ballot/Vote Survey, using the Web Link option, you will need to;a) Click on the ‘Responses Per Computer’

drop down, under the web link (see Figure 8)

b) Click on the icon next to ‘Allow multiple responses per computer’, this will ensure that multiple students would be able to complete the survey even if they used the same computer. (see Figure 8)

c) Copy the Web Link (see Figure 8)d) Use the Web link in any message you are using to promote the vote for example

Canvas, Emails or Social Media. This link will direct them straight to your ballot/vote survey.

Advice: It is strongly recommended that you use the email distribution option for your Ballot/vote survey. This will make it easier to track voters to ensure that they are eligible to vote and that they have only voted once. If you do decide to use the Web Link you will need to add a question into your survey that asks for their Name, Student Number and University Email Address.If you have a Pro Account: you are able to customise the web link by clicking the ‘Customise’ icon to the right of the web link. This will allow you to change the link after .com/ to whatever you like as long as it is not already being used.Distributing using the Email OptionThe Email option allows you to send an email straight from Survey Monkey to everyone that you would like to complete the survey. This email provides them with a unique web link meaning that you will know exactly who has completed or started the survey.

Figure 8

This option is useful if you have a position that represents a specific group of students, e.g. International Students Rep, so that you can email those specific students with a different message or survey.

To

distribute your ballot/vote Survey, using the email option, you will need to;a) Click on the ‘Email’ icon at the bottom of the ‘Collect Responses’ Tabb) You will need to create a list of contacts that you would like to send the survey to. It

is suggested that you do this in an excel file. I. In excel in column A type ‘Email’, in column B type ‘FirstName’ and in column C

type ‘Last Name (see figure 9)II. Under each column write your students

email first name and last name. This will give you a contact list.

Advise: if you download your students information from BIRMS you could copy and paste the relevant information into this excel file.III. Then save your file as a CSV (Comma

Delimited), this can be found under Save as type (see Figure 9)

c) Now you need to add who you want to send the survey to, in Survey Monkey, by clicking the ‘+Add Recipients’ icon to the right of the Sent to box (see Figure 10)

d) This will give you a list of ways you can upload your recipients contacts, click on the ‘CSV’ icon.

e) Then find your contact list you name in excel and upload. Your file name should then appear in the Sent to box ready for the email to be sent to your contacts.

f) Now change the Subject Title, this could be ‘Vote for your Student Rep’ (see Figure 10)

g) Change the content of the email by clicking the ‘edit’ icon to the right of message. (see Figure 10)

h) Now write the content of your email, this should include a description of the role and who they can contact or more information. Suggested content has been provided at the end of this guide.

Figure 9

Figure 10

Figure 11

Reviewing and Analysing your responses.

i) Change the Button text to ‘Vote for your Student Rep’j) Click the green ‘Save’ icon to save your email content.k) When you are happy with your email click the green ‘Next’ icon at the bottom of

the page (see Figure 10)l) The next page may ask you to validate the email address you signed up to Survey

Monkey under Senders Email Address. You can change this and it will be the email address that appears in the recipient’s inbox (see Figure 11)

m) Once you have validated the sender email address click the green ‘Next’ icon at the bottom of the page (see Figure 11)

n) The next page will ask you whether you want to send the email now or schedule for a later date.

I. If you are happy to send the email straight away click the green ‘Send Now’ icon (see Figure 12)

II. If you want to schedule for a later date click the box next to ‘Schedule a later date and time to send’ and complete the information of when you want to send the email. Then click the green ‘schedule’ icon at the bottom of the page.

You have now either sent your email invitation out for students to start completing the survey or have scheduled a date and time that Survey Monkey will send the survey out.

Once you have started to distribute your survey you should start to receive responses. When you log into your Survey Monkey account you can monitor the amount of responses you have received by looking under the ‘Responses’ column next to the survey you want to look at (see Figure 13).Before you start to review and analyse your responses you will need to close your survey. This is to ensure that you do not receive any additional responses after the deadline, or when you have started analysing responses.To do this you will need to:

Figure 12

Figure 13

Suggested Content

a) Click on the survey that you want to look at, by clicking on the survey title in green.b) Click on the ‘Collect Responses’ tab, if you are not already on itc) You will see a list of all the distribution options you are using with a green ‘OPEN’

next to them (see Figure 14)d) Click on the drop down to the

far right of each distribution option

e) Click on ‘Close Collector’ to close that distribution option (see Figure 15)f) Repeat this for all the other distribution options open until they are all closed.Now that you have closed your survey you can start to review the responses. Survey Monkey does some analysis online and allows you to view online each individual response. You can also download responses to excel, however you will need to have a Pro account to do this.To review and analyse your responses you will need to; a) Click on the ‘Analyse Results’ tab

at the top of the page.b) You will now see a summary of all

the responses for your survey.c) The Summary graph will show

you the score each Candidate received from students ranking them. You can also determine this by the score column in the table below the graph (see Figure 15)

d) If you are running the vote as a ‘first past the post’ election, the students with the highest scores will be elected into the available positions.

For more advice on how to run your vote if you are not using first past the post, please contact studentreps@guild.bham.ac.uk or see the ‘Student Representation System Election Guidance’ document on the Student Representation intranet page (click here). If you have a FREE account you will only be able to view responses online and cannot download responses. If you have a Pro account you can download all responses and then copy the information you need from excel.

Below we have provided some suggested content that you could include in your survey or email if you decide to use the email distribution option. The content in bold indicates information that will need to be inserted into the content.Survey ContentIntroduction Page;The Student Representation System allows you to be represented by a fellow student (student Rep) to the University and the Guild of Students.There has been more interest in the role of [Insert Student Representative role] then there are positions available and now you get to vote on who you would like to represent you.

Figure 14

Figure 15

The next page will introduce each candidate running to be your next student rep. You will also see under each candidate’s name a short statement that they have written explaining why they would like to be your student representative and how they would work to represent you.You will then be asked to cast your vote by ranking each candidate in preference order.If you have any questions about the voting process please contact;

[Insert University contacts information] Guild of Students by emailing studentreps@guild.bham.ac.uk

The Candidates Page;Each candidate that is running in this election to become one of your student reps is listed below. Under each of their names you will find a short statement on why they want to be your student representative and how they would work to represent you. This statement is there to help you decide on who you would like to represent you.When you have read through each candidate’s information, move onto the next page where you can cast your vote.Before you submit Page;Before you submit your vote please ensure that you are happy with the order you have ranked each candidate so that it reflects your preference. The vote will close on [Insert Date]. Once the vote closes each candidate will be contacted and told if they have been successfully election by you, the student cohort.You will then be informed of who your [Insert Student Representative Role] is and how you can contact them.Email Content;Dear [FirstName],The Student Representation System is an opportunity for you to represent to the University, and the Guild of Students, by a fellow student (student rep). Nominations to put yourself forward to be a student rep for your student cohort have now closed and there has been more interest in the role than the amount of positions available. When this happens an election takes place where the student cohort gets to vote for who they would like to represent them.This email is to tell you that this election is now open and you can vote for who you want to represent you. This vote closes on [insert close date], so you have until then to cast your vote.Kind regards[insert name]Distributing the s Survey