Last Update: R. Hill, 20 October 2008
Instructors often want to, or want their classes to, conduct original research through an online survey, with responses gathered from the public or a selected group.
This is your best bet. The software is licensed, offered, and maintained by Information Technology T at: https://survey.uwyo.edu. For an account that will allow you to set up and administer surveys, e-mail "webmaster@uwyo.edu." With the credentials you get in response, you will be able to login on the entry page.
Here are the pertinent notes from UW Infomation Technology:
http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/ctl/.The UW Survey tool is a great resource. Here are a number of resources to get you started with your survey development:
ECTL occasionally has workshops to explain the survey tool; you can get a listing of courses at this URL:
Survey documentation can be found here:
https://survey.uwyo.edu/Help/Help.htm
We also have video tutorials found at
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=12B0FF92724B7A1B
If these resources do not help you, then send an email to uwyoweb@uwyo.edu; they can help with most problems. Please do not go to the vender directly with requests. You may have common requests that are already being addressed.
Occasionally, we upgrade the survey tool from one version to a more recent version. At these times, we will notify you of an upgrade. We conduct our upgrades on the weekend, and do a complete back-up prior to conducting the upgrade. We will advise you to print out a copy of your survey and export your data just in case a problem develops. We work hard to minimize problems, but they do at times occur.
In the event that you leave the University of Wyoming and your username has been removed, we will also remove your account from the survey tool. If you have created surveys, your ownership will be removed and surveys where you are the sole owner will be deleted. If you wish to see that these surveys continue to operate, it is important to turn them over to a new owner.
For "how-to" help, go to the survey documentation mentioned above. The product vendor is ClassApps. You will find a list of the software's features on their sales pages at http://www.classapps.com/SelectSurveyFeatures.asp.
The UW Survey Tool resembles Survey Monkey (see below): An online survey is set up with forms for the questions and the settings, and then distributed through a URL, which can be added to a website or sent via e-mail to participants. Results are maintained on the survey website and can be examined there or downloaded as data files.
WySAC, the Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center, at http://www.uwyo.edu/wysac, conducts professional quantitative research for agencies and institutions on a fee-for-service basis. These customized and specialized web surveys (questionnaire design, website creation, hosting, email invitation to participate, data harvesting, analysis, report writing) are not cheap.
Burke Grandjean, WySAC Director, offers this advice:
"Most people who want a web survey just want something quick, cheap, and simple. In that case, it is not cost-effective to gear up our full services... Surveymonkey.com is pretty good; there are others. Typically, you pay a small monthly subscription fee, write your own questionnaire, and use their intuitive online tools and help system to figure out how to put it into a web page and send out an invitation to participate; they host it, harvest the data, and send you an Excel or SPSS file, which you then analyze as you see fit."
SurveyMonkey charges about $20 per month for full services, but a limited site (10 questions and 100 responses per survey) is free. From "Pricing," at www.surveymonkey.com:
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