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Nov
04
Posted by Alison Aldrich on November 4th, 2008
Posted in: Technology
While you wait for the election returns, read up on a few web tools designed to turn you into a regular pollster. Online surveys can help you get feedback from colleagues, evaluate a program or service, or conduct scholarly research.
Start by reading A Few Good Survey Tools for Your Nonprofit, a recent article from Idealware which was posted on the TechSoup blog (both Idealware and TechSoup are great resources about technology for nonprofits). The article gives a concise overview of basic and advanced, free and fee-based survey products, features to consider, and how to find the tool that best meets your needs.
SurveyMonkey is one of the tools featured in the article. With a free SurveyMonkey account, you can create a survey with up to ten questions and receive up to 100 responses. Paid “Pro” accounts allow for additional questions and responses, downloadable data, customized reports, and more.
If you are a member of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association, you have access to the Pro version of SurveyMonkey as a benefit of membership. The username and password are listed on the (members only) PNC blog.
Also worth a mention is some relatively new survey functionality from Google. With Google Documents, you can create a simple survey form and embed it in an e-mail message or blog post. Here is a sample survey you can take right now:
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As you complete this survey, your responses are automatically tallied on a Google Spreadsheet. Check back later this week to see the results.
UPDATE 11/7/08: Wow, I guess Dragonfly readers really know their surveys! Here are the results.
Online tools can save you a lot of time in the distribution and data collection phases of survey research. Why not reinvest that saved time into writing better, more valid, more reliable surveys? NN/LM’s Outreach Evaluation Research Center can help. The guidebook and supporting materials for Measuring the Difference: Guide to Planning and Evaluating Health Information Outreach are freely available as PDF files on our website. Printed copies are available upon request. In the Pacific Northwest Region, contact Maryanne Blake or Nikki Dettmar with questions about evaluation.
ABOUT Alison Aldrich