Module 2 – Developing digital content – practice 2

Explorer level

Сreate your survey using a survey form.

Depending on the questions you made you need a normal survey tool or a geolocation data tool. The last one is also taking your position into the form, so that the data can be visualised on an exact location (see 1.3.1).

A survey always consists of different parts

The general part includes

date and time of the survey – sometimes this is done automatically
information on the respondent (like name, age, email address) – but in this case take care of the GDPR: The General Data Protection Regulation. This is an EU regulation on data protection and privacy Therefore indicate at the start of the survey the purpose for data processing, and state how long data is being retained and if it is being shared with any third parties. More information on GDPR can be found at https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/data-protection-eu

The core of the survey itself with different types of questions: Closed questions and open questions.

Closed questions consist a.o. of:

multiple choice questions when a limited number of answers. These are easier to analyse afterwards as these standardize the answer format, i.e. no room for interpretation or misspelling.
checkboxes are similar to multiple choice but here more than one option can be selected
linear scale or Likert scale is when you want to collect someone’s opinion numerically on a scale. Also here analysis becomes very easy in e.g. a graph (column bars, pie chart …)

Open questions consist of text boxes (sometimes allowing only short answers opposed to so-called paragraph answers where a longer text answer is possible). These questions offer more opportunities to respondents to express in-depth their opinion/answer but analysis is more complex and more difficult to present graphically (although e.g. word clouds are possible).

Finally don’t forget at the end to thank the respondent for answering the survey. Also offer the opportunity to keep them informed of the results if they want.

For a survey without geolocation these are some popular tools:

Google Forms (https://docs.google.com/forms/u/0/) is very commonly used and easy
Microsoft Forms (https://forms.office.com/) is similar to Google forms, same easy use, a free Office 365 account is available for schools, teachers and pupils
Survey Monkey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/) but the free account only limits the number of questions
TypeForm (https://www.typeform.com/surveys/)

Activity:

Create the survey using the information/questions you made in the first part
When finished share the link of the survey with your public so that data collection can begin. Don’t forget to give precise instructions on the final collection date.

TOOLS DATA & RESOURCES NEEDED

Google Forms (https://docs.google.com/forms/u/0/) – Google account needed
A good manual can be found on https://support.google.com/docs/answer/6281888
Microsoft Forms (https://forms.office.com/) – Office365 account needed
A good manual can be found on https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/forms
Survey Monkey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/) – basic (free) account
Support is available via the online help center: https://help.surveymonkey.com/
TypeForm (https://www.typeform.com/surveys/) – just an email address is needed
Simple surveys and questionnaires with Typeform are for free: https://help.typeform.com/hc/en-us

TIME REQUIRED

30 minutes: create the survey on paper
30 minutes: create the survey in the too

___________________________________________

Processing & visualizing the data

After collecting the data it is time to visualize and analyse the results. Depending on the type of questions the data can be visualized in graphs (e.g. numerical data) or just table view (e.g. text).

But before analysing the results make sure you close the survey, e.g. no longer accepting responses. Google Forms & Microsoft forms show the results of the data capture in the same window (in an extra tab called ‘Answers’ next to the survey questions)

By clicking on that tab you can see or a summary of the collected data or go through each form separately. The summary offers already some graphic representations. Both allow to export the results as a data table : Google puts the results in a separate Google spreadsheet when clicking on the icon , and that table stays connected with the Form so if new data is collected it automatically is added to the spreadsheet. You can also download the Google spreadsheet as an xls-file.

The spreadsheet in Google sheets allows analysis possibilities similar to working in Excel, including graphic representations of the results of the closed questions. Microsoft forms offers the opportunity to download the data as an Excel file, if you want the file to stay up-to-date with new entries in the Form you need to start from your Onedrive, and click on New >Forms for Excel.

Survey Monkey collects all results in the Analyze Results section of a survey. Here you can see a summary view of your data; browse individual responses; create custom charts; use filters to focus on specific data views and segments; and easily download your results in multiple formats. But also here you can export the data – once the collecting is finished – as an xls-file.

The downloaded xls-file can be opened inside Excel, offering even more and better options to make graphs and tables with a nice layout so that you can create a nice illustrated document of the survey.

With TypeForm you can explore and download all the answers you collect in the Responses section of the Results panel. The Responses section allows you to view individual responses to your typeform, rather than just seeing overall trends, like the Summary and Insights sections do. This makes it great for diving deeper into qualitative data, to really get to know about each respondent.

Go to the Responses section by clicking on the Results panel and then on the Responses tab. The number of responses that your typeform has received will be shown in brackets in this tab. You can also download all your data to a spreadsheet in Excel (XLS) or CSV file formats. This is useful for doing further analysis, or for merging data from multiple typeforms.

Activity:

Visualize the results of your survey:
-by first going through the results inside the forms platform itself
– by exporting or downloading the results as a data-file (Google sheets or xls-file) and thereby visualising the answers of the closed questions in different graphs.

TOOLS DATA & RESOURCES NEEDED

– Google Forms (https://docs.google.com/forms/u/0/)
– Microsoft Forms (https://forms.office.com/)
– Survey Monkey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/)
– Google Sheets (https://www.google.com/sheets/about/)
– Microsoft Excel
– TypeForm (https://www.typeform.com/surveys/)

TIME REQUIRED

60 min.

Expert level

Processing the data

After collecting the data it is time to visualize and analyse the results. But before analysing the results make sure you close the survey, e.g. no longer accepting responses.

Survey123 lets you analyse the results in two different ways inside the platform:

you can analyze the results in tables & graphs, with the possibility to filter the results

you can also choose to see the geolocation of all recorded forms, here you can also choose to ‘Open in Map Viewer’ so that the data are visualised inside ArcGIS Online

this video provides a helpful guide to analysing Survey123 results: https://youtu.be/MvjlS-0p2K4

When using QField the data should be imported and opened inside QGIS using a plug-in. More info on this can be found on https://qfield.org/docs/

Activity

Try the tools and use them for creating visualized and geolocated surveys.

TOOLS DATA & RESOURCES NEEDED

– Survey123 from ESRI (https://survey123.arcgis.com/)
– QField of QGIS (https://qfield.org/)

TIME REQUIRED

with Survey123 inside the browser: 60 min
when also using ArcGIS Online: 90 min

with QField: 90 min as you will also need to work with QGIS.

Visualizing the data

After downloading the data you might want to visualize it for publishing. Data visualization process is called infographics. While using different types of charts it is possible to convey an idea in a straightforward way. Instead of writing one or two paragraphs, you can show the changing trend and share the idea.

As you have your analysis ready, think of how to deliver the story that data tells you. Do you see a variable that has the highest volume? Have you explored the category with the biggest share? Make it visual! In order to create a graph, you should understand what you want to say. How would you like to highlight the fact that you discovered?

One can use different colors to make it visible. Don’t overload the graph with extra information – keep it simple for everyone to understand the meaning of the graph.

You can visualize data in the tool that you used to process it. Graphs can be created directly in Google Sheets where you processed the data. To do that, go to ‘Insert’ -> ‘Chart’ and select the chart type that is more suitable for your story. To select the right chart you may want to have a look at the references and successful examples. The most frequent types of graphs are bar charts or pie charts. They are the most visible to deliver information. Microsoft Excel does the same with even more options for graphs: Select the different cells in the xls-file and then choose ‘Insert’, next you can choose a wide variety graphs.

Infographics is an art in some sense and you can explore beautiful examples of data presentation. If you want to master this skill, it might be worth having a look at specialised services such as Infogram that is a free tool to create data charts.

One of the services that let you create charts and have a pleasant design is Datawrapper (a Germany-based tool). Datawrapper is easy and is free to use. The data should be cleaned and uploaded in the excel file to the server. You may choose the chart type depending on your needs. Once you uploaded the data, you can check how your chart will look like and what comments do you need to better explain the meaning behind.

Another service that is handy and gives different options to visualise the data is Piktochart. This service provides users with extra tools such as designing layout for a poster and arranging text in a format that is easy to read and to understand. Templates that are available from the constructor let you arrange the information.

While exploring data visualisation you may find such types as bubble chart, radar chart, waterfall chart and many others. These types of charts should be used with a detailed understanding of not only the message behind but also of the design concepts not to mislead your reader.