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This article was downloaded by: ["Queen's University Libraries, Kingston"]On: 01 October 2013, At: 11:54Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Journal of Electronic Resources inMedical LibrariesPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/werm20
One of Many Free Survey Tools: GoogleDocsLisa Travis aa Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, Tennessee, USAPublished online: 28 May 2010.
To cite this article: Lisa Travis (2010) One of Many Free Survey Tools: Google Docs, Journal ofElectronic Resources in Medical Libraries, 7:2, 105-114, DOI: 10.1080/15424065.2010.482902
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15424065.2010.482902
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One of Many Free Survey Tools: Google Docs
LISA TRAVISLincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, Tennessee, USA
Google Docs is a feature from Google that allows users tocollaborate on documents, forms, presentations, and spreadsheets.Google Docs is an easy-to-use, freely-available survey-creation toolwith a variety of question types that should meet the needs of mostsurvey creators. It automatically generates pictorial representationsof survey responses. This article provides a summary of featuresavailable in free survey tools and includes instructions on howto use Google Docs’ form function to create a survey.
KEYWORDS document collaboration, file sharing, Google Docs,questionnaire creation, questionnaire software comparison,shareware, survey creation, survey software comparison
INTRODUCTION
Google Docs is a feature from Google that allows users to collaborate ondocuments, forms, presentations, and spreadsheets. In July 2009, a surveyof 262 corporate executives by market research firm IDC found that nearly20% of surveyed companies reported that Google Docs was widely used.1
This article provides a summary of features available in free survey toolsand includes instructions on using the form function in Google Docs tocreate a survey.
FREE SURVEY TOOLS
Several survey tools are available for use by librarians and may prove usefulin medical library settings. Marie and Weston evaluated survey tools by Kwik
Received February 10, 2010; revised February 26, 2010; accepted March 1, 2010.Address correspondence to Lisa Travis, Lon and Elizabeth Parr Reed Medical and Allied
Health Library, Lincoln Memorial University, 6965 Cumberland Gap Parkway, Harrogate, TN37752. E-mail: [email protected]
Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries, 7:105–114, 2010Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 1542-4065 print=1542-4073 onlineDOI: 10.1080/15424065.2010.482902
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Surveys, Survey Methods, SurveyGizmo, SurveyMonkey, and Zoomerang.2
Additional survey tools such as eSurveysPro, FreeOnlineSurveys.com, Ques-tionPro, and SurveyPirate were located. All of these tools have a free version.Their Web sites provide detailed information on specific features that areavailable in the free and subscription versions of these survey tools.3–11
Table 1 summarizes the basic features of the free versions of each tool andGoogle Docs. Qualifying educational institutions and nonprofit organizationscan receive a free professional account from Survey Methods that includesunlimited questions, 20 question types, 5,000 responses per month, unlimi-ted surveys, custom themes, skip logic for basing subsequent questions onresponses to previous questions, and the ability to add images and to exportresults to a spreadsheet.
CHOOSING GOOGLE DOCS
The author participated in a free online course titled ‘‘Dig Deeper with SocialMedia: Web Collaboration Tools,’’ which was provided by the MedicalLibrary Association Social Networking Software Task Force.12 During thecourse, the participants created a survey using Google Docs. Within a monthof course completion, the author served on a consortial purchase renewalcommittee to recommend additions and deletions as well as to decide onthe equation for splitting costs. As part of this process, the author decidedto use Google Docs for creating a survey to solicit input from students andfaculty on this renewal decision.
The author found Google Docs to be easy to use. Advantages of GoogleDocs include the ability to collaborate on creation, use a variety of questiontypes, utilize skip logic (for basing subsequent questions on specificresponses), and automatically create results charts. A disadvantage of GoogleDocs is the inability to add images, logos, or custom themes. Another draw-back is that response lengths and labels must be brief to prevent appearanceglitches in the automatically generated charts of results. Since these automati-cally generated charts were not needed in any official documents, appear-ance was not an issue.
CREATING AND EDITING A SURVEY
To create a survey in Google Docs, a user logs in to Google, clicks on‘‘More,’’ clicks on ‘‘Documents,’’ clicks ‘‘Create New,’’ and chooses ‘‘Form.’’Figure 1 provides a screenshot of the Google Docs’ form feature.
A variety of Survey themes (designs) can be selected by clicking on‘‘Themes (Plain)’’ to change the theme. Section headers or page breaks canbe added by clicking on ‘‘Add item’’ and then choosing the respective item.A question can be added to the survey by clicking on ‘‘Add item.’’ Within the
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TABLE1
FeaturesofFreeVersionsofSelectedSu
rveyTools
Numberof
questiontypes
Numberofquestions
persurvey
Numberof
responses
Numberof
surveys
Custom
theme
Include
images
Skip
logic
Resultsto
spread
sheet
eSu
rveysPro
11
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
No
Yes
Yes
No
FreeOnlineSu
rveys.co
m8
20
50=10days
Unlimited
No
No
No
No
Docs
7Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
No
No
Yes
Yes
Kwik
Surveys
11
Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
QuestionPro
14
10
Unlimited
1No
No
No
Yes
SurveyMethods
20
20
500=month
Unlimited
No
No
No
No
SurveyGizmo
20
Unlimited
250=month
Unlimited
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
SurveyMonkey
15
10
100=survey
Unlimited
No
No
No
No
SurveyPirate
5Unlimited
Unlimited
Unlimited
No
Only
logo
No
Yes
Zoomerang
15
30
100=survey
Unlimited
No
No
No
No
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pull-down menu that appears is the option to choose the following questiontypes: text, paragraph text, multiple choice, checkboxes, scale, or grid. Thesurvey may be edited at any time. The question type, for example, can bechanged even after the survey is live and receiving responses. Figures 2and 3 show the question creation forms for multiple choice and grid ques-tions. Each question creation form offers users the option of providing ‘‘helptext’’ to further explain the question or to provide instructions. There is alsothe option to make the question one that respondents will be required toanswer. To change the order of questions, the survey creator clicks on aquestion, holds down the mouse button, and then drags the question tothe new location.
In results, Google Docs provides a separate bar chart for each response(row). Each chart may have one to five columns; column labels may be one
FIGURE 1 Opening screen of Google Docs’ form feature.
FIGURE 2 Google Docs’ form for adding a multiple choice question.
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to three characters each. The upper-right corner of each question includes apencil icon that allows editing of the question, an icon with two boxes thatallows duplication of the question, and a trash can icon that allows deletionof the question. Clicking ‘‘Done’’ saves edits that have been made to aquestion. A question can be edited by rolling the mouse over the question,an action that reveals the icons for editing, copying, and deleting thequestion.
Respondents may only choose one response for the multiple choice and‘‘choose from a list’’ question types (see Figure 2). To enable respondents tochoose more than one response, the survey creator should choose the check-boxes question type. For the grid question type, respondents may onlychoose one column for every row. For the grid question type, one to fivecolumns and an unlimited number of rows may be included (see Figure 3).Survey creators may allow respondents to add their own responses tomultiple choice and checkboxes questions by clicking ‘‘add ‘Other’ ’’ whenediting the question responses (see Figure 2).
With multiple choice questions, respondents can be redirected to aparticular page based on the response. When choosing this option, a pop-upnote appears that states ‘‘Note: ‘go to page’ questions on the final page ofa form will be ignored and the form submitted upon completion.’’ Foreach response, the survey creator may opt for the respondent to continueto the next page or go to a particular page. See Figure 2 for the form used
FIGURE 3 Google Docs’ form for adding a grid question.
Google Docs 109
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to create this modification to the multiple choice question. Note that wordsmay be truncated in the bar chart legend due to the length of the sampleresponses (see Figure 5).
With multiple choice questions, responses need to be limited to 12 char-acters or fewer to be displayed properly in a summary pie chart. For check-boxes questions, responses need to be limited to 15 characters or fewer forthe same reason. See Figures 4 and 5 for the results of not limitingthe number of characters in responses for multiple choice and checkboxesquestions. When using the grid question type, column labels should be lim-ited to three characters or fewer (see Figure 6) as labels with four or more
FIGURE 5 Google Docs’ sample responses to sample survey questions.
FIGURE 4 Google Docs’ sample responses to sample checkboxes question.
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characters allow no space between labels. Note that words are truncated inthe pie chart labels in Figure 5 due to the length of the sample responses.If planning to use Google Docs’ automatically generated charts, it wouldbe wise for the survey creator to enter and view sample results to determineif any survey responses or labels need to be shortened prior to opening thesurvey to responses.
The survey creator should regularly click ‘‘Save’’ to save the changes tothe survey. After the survey creation form has been closed, Google Docs’default setting is to open the survey as a spreadsheet. When in spreadsheetview, the edit survey form=survey creation mode can be viewed by clickingon ‘‘Form’’ in the pull-down menu and then choosing ‘‘Edit form.’’
FIGURE 6 Appearance of a sample survey.
Google Docs 111
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RECEIVING RESPONSES
Google Docs automatically creates a unique URL for each survey created.This URL is visible to anyone on the Internet until the survey is closed.The creator may repeatedly close and open the survey to responses. Toclose the survey and stop receiving responses, the survey creator must bein spreadsheet view. Within the spreadsheet view, clicking on ‘‘Form’’ andclicking on ‘‘Accepting responses’’ will close the survey.
Survey completion messages may be customized by clicking on ‘‘Moreactions’’ and choosing ‘‘Edit confirmation.’’ For example, a solicitation mess-age could be created that states, ‘‘Please complete an online survey on libraryservices by Monday, March 1. The survey is available online at http://www.survey.com/survey and will take approximately ten minutes to com-plete. Thank you in advance for your participation.’’ Pop-up windows mustbe enabled to view the form for editing the confirmation=appreciationmessage for respondents who have completed the survey.
There are three options for distributing the survey. It can be e-mailed tousers within Google Docs; the URL can be copied and pasted into an e-mailmessage not created in Google Docs; or the survey can be embedded into aWeb page or blog. The e-mail message that is sent to respondents is brief andgeneric; it simply provides an explanation for the survey followed by thestatement, ‘‘I’ve invited you to fill out the form [survey title]. To fill it out, visit[URL].’’ Because of this, copying and pasting the survey URL into an e-mailmessage or embedding the survey in a Web page or blog is recommendedrather than e-mailing the survey itself. To distribute the survey using GoogleDocs, pop-up windows should be enabled in order to view the form forentering respondents’ e-mail addresses. Within Google Docs, the surveycan be distributed from within the edit form view or spreadsheet view.The survey can be sent to potential respondents by clicking ‘‘E-mail thisform’’ from the edit form view. From the spreadsheet view, the survey canbe sent by choosing ‘‘Form’’ and then ‘‘Send form.’’ The survey creator canchoose whether to include the survey form in the e-mail message; thedescription of the form is always included in the message.
The survey can be embedded into a Web page or blog from within thespreadsheet view by clicking on ‘‘Form’’ and then choosing ‘‘embed form in awebpage.’’ The survey can be embedded from within the edit form view byclicking on ‘‘More actions’’ and then choosing ‘‘Embed.’’ As mentioned,pop-up windows must be enabled to view the HTML command that appears.Google Docs provides the HTML command to paste into the source code of aWeb page or blog.
Figure 6 depicts a sample survey. An asterisk appears beside requiredquestions. All unanswered, required questions are highlighted in orange. Ifa respondent does not answer a required question, a message in orange
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appears at the top of the survey stating, ‘‘Looks like you have a question ortwo that still needs to be filled out.’’
PICTORIAL DEPICTIONS OF RESPONSES
Google Docs can be used to summarize responses with color tables, piecharts, and bar graphs by clicking on ‘‘Form’’ when in spreadsheet viewand then choosing ‘‘Show summary of responses.’’ When in edit form view,clicking on ‘‘See responses’’ and then choosing ‘‘Summary’’ will give thesame result.
Google Docs employs horizontal bar charts and tables to summarize theresponses for checkboxes and grid questions. Pie charts and tables are usedto depict the responses for multiple choice and ‘‘choose from a list’’ ques-tions. Google Docs uses vertical bar charts and tables to show the resultsfor scale questions; users may not change these defaults.
The summary of responses for a sample text question can be found inFigure 5; summaries of paragraph text questions have a similar appearance.Figure 5 also includes a pie chart provided by Google Docs for a samplemultiple choice question. Figure 4 provides an example of a summary ofresponses bar chart provided by Google Docs for a sample checkboxesquestion. Figure 7 provides an example of a summary of responses bar chartprovided by Google Docs for a sample scale question.
Within the summary of responses, clicking on ‘‘See complete responses’’reveals the spreadsheet view of the survey. In spreadsheet view, custom-made pictorial representations of the survey results can be made by choosing‘‘Insert’’ and ‘‘Chart.’’ A variety of column, bar, pie, line, area, and scattercharts can be created. Like Microsoft Excel, Google Docs spreadsheets allowsorting and formatting of data. Also, the contents can be copied and pastedinto Microsoft Excel for the purpose of creating charts.
FIGURE 7 Google Docs’ sample responses to a sample scale question.
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CONCLUSION
Google Docs is an easy-to-use, freely available survey-creation tool with avariety of question types that should meet the needs of most survey creators.Google Docs automatically generates pictorial representations of surveyresponses. As mentioned, to ensure that the response summary does notinclude truncated words, question responses and column labels must havea limited number of characters. If a custom survey template with an insti-tutional logo is needed or if images need to be embeded in questions, KwikSurveys or SurveyGizmo should be considered instead.
REFERENCES
1. Thibodeau, P. ‘‘Google Docs ‘Widely Used’ at One in Five Workplaces.’’Macworld 27, no. 1 (January 2010): 62.
2. Marie, K.L., and Weston, J. ‘‘Survey Says: Online Survey Tools for Library Assess-ment.’’ Library Media Connection 28, no. 2 (October 2009): 50–3.
3. Outside Software Inc. ‘‘eSurveysPro.com Features List.’’ Available: <http://www.esurveyspro.com/Features.aspx>. Accessed: February 24, 2010.
4. FreeOnlineSurveys.com. ‘‘FAQ (Short Version – Please Login for More).’’Available: <http://www.freeonlinesurveys.com/faq.asp>. Accessed: February26, 2010.
5. Kwik Surveys. ‘‘FREE: Unlimited Online Survey Tool.’’ Available: <http://www.kwiksurveys.com/>. Accessed: February 26, 2010.
6. Survey Analytics LLC. ‘‘Detailed Feature Comparison.’’ Available: <http://www.questionpro.com/akira/showFeatures.do>. Accessed: February 24, 2010.
7. Survey Methods. ‘‘SurveyMethods.com Online Survey Software Pricing.’’Available: <http://www.surveymethods.com/registration.aspx>. Accessed:February 24, 2010.
8. SurveyGizmo. ‘‘Plans & Pricing: Web-Based Survey Software Tool.’’Available:<http://www.surveygizmo.com/survey-features/checklist/>. Accessed:February 24, 2010.
9. SurveyMonkey. ‘‘SurveyMonkey Cost & Pricing.’’ Available: <http://www.surveymonkey.com/Home_PricingDetail.aspx>. Accessed: February 24, 2010.
10. SurveyPirate. ‘‘SurveyPirate Home Page.’’ SurveyPirate. Available: <http://www.surveypirate.com/images/en_welcome_feature_1.jpg>. Accessed: February 24,2010.
11. Zoomerang, a MarketTools Company. ‘‘Product Feature Comparison.’’ Available:<http://www.zoomerang.com/pricing/>. Accessed: February 24, 2010.
12. Medical Library Association Social Networking Software Task Force. ‘‘DigDeeper with Social Media: Web Collaboration Tools: February 16–23, 2009.’’Available: <http://sns.mlanet.org/snsce_advanced/?p=45>. Accessed: February24, 2010.
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