Investigating Free On-line
Survey Tools for Use in a
Business Statistics Class
Joan Donohue
University of South Carolina
1
Comparison of features in
free on-line survey tools
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
FreeOnLineSurveys.com (UK) (same KwikSurveys.com)
QuestionPro.com (Seattle, WA)
SurveyMonkey.com (Palo Alto, CA) (same as Zoomerang, FluidSurveys)
SurveyGizmo.com (Boulder, CO) (only free for a 7-day trial)
SurveyNuts.com (France)
SoGoSurvey.com (Herdnon, VA)
ZohoSurvey.com (Pleasanton, CA)
Survio.com (Czech Republic)
SurveyPlanet.com (Santa Monica, CA)
SurveyFace.com (Australia)
Typeform.com (Spain)
Google Forms (Mountain View, CA)
• SurveyFace (somewhat crude), TypeForms (somewhat slow) and
Google Forms are the only FREE products that allow exporting results
directly into Excel.
2
Feature Comparison Chart
1.
FreeOnLine
Surveys
2.
Question
Pro
3.
Survey
Monkey
4.
Survey
Gizmo
2001
2002
1999
2006
10/day
No limit
No limit
No limit
# Questions
20
12
10
No limit
# Responses
Per Survey
50
100
100
No limit
Question Types
9
7
12
30
Download
Results
no
no
no
Yes for
7 days
$26
Free for
7 days
then $25
Year Started
# Surveys
Monthly
Upgrade Cost
(for exporting
results, etc.)
$10
$15
3
Feature Comparison Chart
5.
Survey
Nuts
6.
So Go
Survey
7.
Zoho
Survey
8.
Survio
2014
2008
2013
2012
No limit
No limit
No limit
5
# Questions
10
30
15
No limit
# Responses
Per Survey
100
125
150
100
Question Types
5
5
12
15
Download
Results
no
no
no
no
Monthly
Upgrade Cost
(for exporting
results, etc.)
$9
$12
$24
$14
Year Started
# Surveys
4
Feature Comparison Chart
9.
Survey
Planet
10.
Survey
Face
11.
Type
Form
12.
Google
Forms
2011
2012
2012
2008
# Surveys
No limit
No limit
No limit
No limit
# Questions
No limit
No limit
No limit
No limit
# Responses
Per Survey
No limit
No limit
No limit
200,000
Question Types
10
9
12
9
Download
Results
no
Yes
Yes
Yes
Monthly
Upgrade Cost
(for exporting
results, etc.)
$15
$0
$20
$0
Year Started
5
Example Project From an
Undergraduate Statistics Class
Example Hypothesis:
USC students who have a job and work at least 20 hours per
week are more responsible than other students.
This student would then develop 4 survey items to address
whether someone is “responsible.”
The items are answered using a 7-point Likert scale from
Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree.
After collecting data, the student performs a 2-sample t-test to
determine if the working students give higher mean responses.
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Example Survey From an
Undergraduate Statistics Class
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1. FreeOnLineSurveys.com
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1. FreeOnLineSurveys.com
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1. FreeOnLineSurveys.com
http://freeonlinesurveys.com/s/drgq2t5fucefvhc621583
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1. FreeOnLineSurveys.com
Results are tabulated and displayed but cannot be exported to Excel.
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2. QuestionPro.com
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2. QuestionPro.com
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2. QuestionPro.com
http://www.questionpro.co/t/ALUnhZSMON
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3. SurveyMonkey.com
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3. SurveyMonkey.com
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3. SurveyMonkey.com
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FY7DBVY
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4. SurveyGizmo.com
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4. SurveyGizmo.com
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4. SurveyGizmo.com
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5. SurveyNuts
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5. SurveyNuts
http://surveynuts.com/surveys/take?id=19641&c=105275777RHJR
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6. SoGoSurvey
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6. SoGoSurvey
http://www.sogosurvey.com/survey.aspx?k=SsUTVTTsQsPsPsP&lang=0&data=
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7. Zoho Survey
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7. Zoho Survey
https://survey.zohopublic.com/zs/hpyTm2
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8. Survio
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8. Survio
http://www.survio.com/survey/d/Q3N5D6U8R8I4E2L4X
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9. Survey Planet
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9. Survey Planet
https://surveyplanet.com/5648d9ac55d062b35010ed41
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10. Survey Face
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10. Survey Face
https://www.surveyface.com/app/collector/webembed-js.php?sfu=
ro980AnnStC0-WMKsbg5zoZUwKQFBqnR5i8N3xRAMc0
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10. Survey Face
While this is a somewhat crude software tool, it does allow
downloading data collected to an Excel file.
Scale questions are not downloaded as numeric responses.
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11. TypeForm
Lots of features BUT very slow to use!!!
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11. TypeForm
https://donohuemoorescedu.typeform.com/to/dR7ZXr
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11. TypeForm
Allows downloading data collected to an Excel file.
Scale questions are downloaded as numeric values
and the scale can be started at 0 or 1.
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12. Google Forms
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12. Google Forms
The default is to show
link for submitting
another response after
completing survey.
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12. Google Forms
Questions are not automatically numbered. Order can be randomized.
Questions are
not automatically
numbered.
Numbering scale can start at
0 or 1 (no negative numbers)
and the maximum is 10.
Check “Required question”
to avoid missing data.
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12. Google Forms
Choose Short URL
then Ctrl-C to copy
link to survey.
It is better not to
send the form via
email since the
survey will not be
interactive.
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12. Google Forms
• I emailed the
form to myself in
both Outlook and
Gmail – neither
surveys were
interactive.
• It’s probably
better to send
the link within an
invitation email.
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12. Google Forms
http://goo.gl/forms/uFCjq5bIJR
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12. Google Forms
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12. Google Forms
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12. Google Forms
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12. Google Forms
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12. Google Forms
Excel File with Downloaded Responses.
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On-line Surveys
Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages
• Environmentally friendly
• Filling out a survey using a mobile device seems preferable to
college students
• Video and audio can be included
• Order of questions can be randomized
• Use email lists and easily send completion reminders
• Eliminates manual data entry
• Provide respondents with a link to the results
Disadvantages
• Sampling issues – posting on social media will lead to self-selection
bias, email lists could have selection bias
• Respondents can complete a survey more than once
• Generally need an internet connection to fill out survey and always
need one for results to be collected
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Sampling Issues
• When students print a paper copy of their surveys, they
collect data across campus – hoping to obtain a simple
random sample of USC students.
• With an on-line survey, I suggest that students use the on-line
campus directory.
• They search the directory using randomly selected sequences
of letters and obtain about 200 student email addresses.
• Then they email the survey link to them using BCC recipents.
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Sampling Issues
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Sampling Issues
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Sampling Issues
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Closing Comments
• I required students to use the on-line survey tool
for their Final Project for the first time last Spring.
• None of the students had used Google Forms
before and most told me they thought it was a
very useful tool to know about.
• None of the students had used the on-line campus
directory to obtain a random sample of student
email addresses and found my suggested approach
to random sampling very easy to implement.
• Lastly, I think the students are getting more
representative samples than when they used
paper surveys (and were tempted just to ask
friends to fill them out) and therefore, more
meaningful results.
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