Running a survey is not as straighforward as you might think when you set out to create your first. Laguna Survey might make the creation easy, but there is so much more to it.
Overall, your main concern when running a survey should be to get as much quality data out on the other end as possible. Both quantity and quality is important: If the quality is not there, it means you cannot back up the validity of your results. You might have asked the wrong questions, the questions have not been formulated well, you have not explained the survey properly to the participants, etc. If the quality is there, you want to ask the right people, and you want as many as possible of those people to answer.
There is too much to go through in a blog entry. This is simply meant to point out a very specific mistake that we have seen many people do.
This is the list of element types that you can insert in Laguna Survey's questionnaire module, surveyCanvas™ (the entries marked with (E) is Enterprise version only):
What we often see is that users choose to use the "Multiple choice - multiple answers" question type when the question actually calls for a "Multiple choice - one answer" type. The first of these two produces a question with check boxes, boxes where it is possible to simultaneously check more than one box/answer alternative. The latter yields radio boxes, where it is only possible to select one such box.
The first is approperiate to use when each participant may be correct in ticking off several of the alternatives. For instance, the question:
"What pets do you own?
Parrot • Dog • Cat • Platypus • Turtle • Ferret • Pig • Other"
is one where the participant needs to be able to check more than one box in case he/she owns more than one pet.
The second, with radio boxes, is the correct choice when the answer alternatives are mutually exclusive. For instance with the question:
"How old are you?
10-19 • 20-29 • 30-39 • Older than 40"
the correct question type is "Multiple choice - one answer" because only one alternative can be correct for each participant.
It is an unfortunate mistake to mix the two, because it completely undermines the credibility of the results from such a question.
Why do people mix them up? I think it is mostly a simple case of not having really understood the difference. Also, it is a challenge to communicate the precise operation of a particular question type in a short line in a menu like the one above. Do some people misunderstand the text to mean that the question can only produce one result over the entire survey? It is possible, I guess, especially if you are new to surveys and Laguna Survey. We have always designed the interface with the intention that it should not be necessary to read any manual to start using the web app. No doubt this can be a challenge in some details, like this.
If you have a suggestion for the text entry for the question types in this menu, that you think is clearer in communicating how they work, sound off in the comments!