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Web Survey Tool

Design | Send | Answer | Check | Results | Thank | Instructions

The Web Survey Tool is a series of ColdFusion scripts, which will allow you to:
•  Design a web questionnaire over the web.
•  Specify e-mail messages and reminder messages to invite respondents to answer the questionnaire.
•  Enter respondent e-mail addresses and optionally a group identification and up to 5 database fields, which can be inserted in the e-mail or questionnaire to personalize them.
•  Send e-mail invitations to respondents and reminders to nonrespondents.
•  Respondents answer the questionnaire over the web. See http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/brd/Survey.cfm?survey=35&id=0.
•  Each respondent is identified individually, so you will know who has responded and others cannot enter responses.
•  Alternately, you can post a link on a web site and allow anonymous responses.
•  A report of the results to date with graphs is generated on-line. A link to the results to date can be entered on a web page. See http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/brd/SurveyResults.cfm?survey=35.
•  Download results in table format, which can be copied and pasted into an Excel spreadsheet.
•  Send thank you notes to respondents.

The tool has been used primarily for customer surveys (see http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/brd/SurveyResults.cfm?survey=4), where a list of e-mail addresses is available and as a group collaboration tool to obtain feedback from members (see http://biology.usgs.gov/status_trends/nrmp/MonitoringPartnership.htm).

1. Design survey in using SurveyDesign.cfm
     a. Design the questionnare using pull-down menus
     b. Enter or edit respondent's e-mail addresses individually or by copying and pasting an Excel spreadsheet
     c. Enter e-mail invatation and reminder messages.
2. Send e-mail messages inviting respondents to participate and reminding those who have not responded using SurveySend.cfm
    Run this program each time you want to send e-mail survey requests or reminders.
3. Respondents answer questions using Survey.cfm?Survey=s&ID=icc
    where s is the survey number, i is the respondent ID number assigned by MS Access and cc are two check digits,.
    Setting ID=0 will show the questionnaire for the specified survey but not allow responses.
    Setting ID=-1 will insert a new record not on your mailing list. Use when responses are solicited from a web site (e.g., meeting registration).
4. Check the status of the respondents at SurveyID.cfm.
5. Survey results are available at.SurveyResults.cfm?Survey=s . You can enter a link to the results from a web page. You can copy (ctrl-a, ctrl-c) and paste (ctrl-v) the HTML table into an Excel spreadsheet.  
6. Send thank you notes to respondents using SurveyThank.cfm. The message will include a link allowing them to see the survey results.

For more information, please contact Stephen Gillspie, sgillesp@usgs.gov, 703-648-50