Survey Composing is the process in which District Coordinators pick the questions and content that will appear on the survey for all schools in their district. Districts need to compose a survey before it is available for schools to set up and administer to their students.
You can compose a survey in five steps. To start, click on the Survey Composing link located under the yellow My Surveys menu.
This guide covers the following steps:
1. Composing Summary
2. Add/Drop Measures
3. District Questions
4. School Options
5. Request Publishing
1. Composing Summary
You will be presented with a list of the various surveys available to compose. Click on Compose New Survey to begin.
Below the list of surveys available to compose are three additional sections:
Your Current Survey(s): Lists the surveys that have been published, and are available to schools.
Survey(s) Being Composed / Re-published: Lists surveys being composed or not yet published. Click Edit to re-open the composing process and pick up where you left off.
Your Previous Survey(s): Lists surveys from previous cycles. You can view their measures and questions for reference.
The following tab consists of four sections designed to help you select survey measures:
1. Select a Focus Area: Click on a focus view a pre-configured survey or scroll to the bottom of the screen to select measures manually.
2. Thematic Reports: If the appropriate measures are selected, a colored band will appear indicating which thematic report(s) will be generated after surveying is complete.
3. Want to know what measures have been surveyed before? Select a previous survey from the drop-down menu, and red arrows will appear next to its measures. Use this function to ensure you include measures for which you want to be able to make year-over-year comparisons.
4. Refine Your Measure Selection: Manually select from a full list of over 50 measures. Hover over a measure to view a description.
Did you know?
We strongly recommend that surveys be short enough to be completed in a single class period. While selecting measures, keep an eye on the time clock to the right; a survey that is 40 minutes or less is ideal. View our Knowledge Base Recommendations for Survey Length for more details.
Important Note
Before moving on to the following step, which involves adding your own questions, take a moment to view our Guide to Creating Custom Questions and sample questions.
If adding MCQs, complete each of the following sections:
- Question title for reports: This title will appear at the top of the chart when results are reported
- Multiple-Choice vs Multiple-Answers: Select whether the question will be multiple-choice or multiple-answer. Refer to the Creating Custom Questions: Strategies for Success for more information.
- Use this question as a drilldown variable: Select whether or not the question can be used to drill down in the Roll-Up Interactive Charts.
- Question the survey taker sees: Enter the question here, exactly as you want the survey-taker to see it.
- Response Options: Enter the options the survey-taker will pick from on their survey.
- Label for Reports: When the results are reported, these labels will appear on the chart’s x-axis.
NEW
Adding reused custom questions to the survey is now easier!
You can now easily copy over your Multiple Choice/Answer Questions We have added a button within the Composing walk through.
Simply click Copy questions from previous year button to select which question you would like to have automatically added to your survey.
Important Note
Custom MCQs have a dual function. Not only do they give you the option to address local needs, they also act as powerful drill-downs in the Roll-Up Interactive Charts. For more information on drill-downs, click here.
This step involves defining the parameters of the survey for your schools.
- Survey Description: Schools will see this message when selecting a survey to set up. You can modify the default text to add specific details to help schools pick the correct survey.
- Available Grades: Select which grades will be available for each school to include during survey set up.
- Available Languages: Select the language(s) for the survey. Note that a school can only select one language in which to administer the survey.
- School Custom Question Options: By default, all custom question options are enabled, including the OurSCHOOL set question. Deselect any of the questions to disable them for schools.
- Evaluation Option: Select the option all schools will follow.
This final page presents a summary of everything you’ve entered. You can opt to save your work and come back to it later, request publication of the survey, or delete it and start over.
Did you know?
Your Account Success Manager will review your survey prior to its publication and contact you if there are any issues. You will receive an email notification when the survey is published.