SurveyMonkey is an online service that people or organizations can utilize to create surveys necessary to too collect data in a short period of time. Although this is not a free service, the type of data and amount of information you want to collect determines one’s price usually on the basis of an annual pricing structure. As mentioned by Clay Shirky, in the Disruptive Power of Collaboration interview, times have changed and more emphasis is on changing the way we collaborate, SurveyMonkey is an ideal example of this. SurveyMonkey is a perfect tool in education because it is relatively easy to use, data can be collected in a short period of time, by a large number of people, and responses can be automatically converted into either lists of qualitative responses or into numbers if they are quantitative responses. Then a substantial amount of data can be assessed based on the number of responses, again, in a short period of time. This is an ideal mode of communication and data collection tool to assess a program, for example, the use of a program we are piloting at our school called iLit, for our Intensive Literature class for those students that are reading at least 2 grade levels below standard. Therefore, by distributing a survey we can gain perspectives on the advantages and challenges of the program and the technologies provided, both by Pearson and the school district distribution of technology, meaning ipads that they did not anticipate for this at the inception of the program. In addition then, the downside of using SurveyMonkey, is first creating a survey that uses the exact vernacular and/or questions, open ended, close ended, or both, that are directed towards the goal originally sought. In other words, if the wording is not correct, the original goal of the survey and responses may be skewed. In addition, one can create a survey that is too lengthy, according to Suresh (2012) participants attention begins to sway at about the 8 minute mark (http://www.surveymonkey.com/blog/en/blog/2012/06/29/the-online-research-data-quality-problem-is-respondent-survey/). So brevity is crucial and attention spans can be lost after a short period of time. Other downfalls according to Wise (2012) include; if anonymity is not guaranteed, respondents may feel pressure to respond in a certain way, therefore respondents may not respond in a way that they will be perceived negatively (http://www.snapsurveys.com/blog/advantages-disadvantages-surveys/).
Some of the other tools that I was first interested in that may be
useful in education was the Adobe Connect and Udemy First, adobe connect I did use years ago as
an online virtual classroom that was extremely easy to use as compared to
Elluminate Class Connect. What I liked
about adobe, as compared to elluminate, was the feature of screening students
before they entered your classroom.
Students can type inappropriate names and the instructor can deny them
admittance into to the course. In
addition, it was easy to share your desktop and surf the internet to show your
students useful resources online.
Elluminate, became too cumbersome and too many details were added that
created further confusion, when the company thought they were really
simplifying things. The other tool that
I listed was Udemy for the simple reason that it is a good tool for people to
instruct courses, primarily showing others how to use technologies, for a small
fee. For example, using excel
spreadsheets more efficiently, or prezi.
In our district, as well as many
other google docs is becoming more prevalent and last night I just went through
some technology training and learned more about Canvas. Canvas, I have used before as a Learning
Management System (LMS) with curricula, readings, assignments, quizzes/tests,
videos and so on. Furthermore the
gradebook, as an instructor, was simple to use and had many different
user-friendly features that made it one of the more popular LMS systems out
there. In our district it is widely used
to share lessons, common core standards, teaching strategies, and grade level
expectations.
As far as making connections to the text, I admit when I was first going
to take this class last summer the required texts were, The World is Flat, and Here
Comes Everybody, by Clay Shirky (I will search for Weinberger’s book
tomorrow). So I thought the videos
provided an opportunity to understand the importance of collaboration and how
they serve our communities especially in the acquisition of information in a
short period of time. Shirky (2008) emphasizes that forming groups into today’s
social media has become a great deal easier and the future that has presented
itself through the internet is mass amateurization of publishing and a switch
from “Why publish this?” to “Why not?”
Hence, even in education we are easily brought together through
technological tools, such as SurveyMonkey, and are able to gather a large
amount of information quickly. For
example, I was able to send the survey links to 710 secondary educators and
received 282 responses, directed at the advantages and challenges of online
learning and the strategies and tools necessary for successful online
programs. According to SurveyMonkey a
response rate of 20-30% is highly successful, I was able to get almost a 40%
response rate (https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/sample-size/). The tools then have brought our learning
communities closer together and as Shirky mentioned earlier, the ways we
collaborate have become different and more convenient in many apsects.
References
Shirky, C. 2008. Here comes everybody. New York, NY:
Penguin Books.
Shirky, C. 2014. The disruptive power of collaboration: an interview with clay shirky.
Shirky, C. 2014. The disruptive power of collaboration: an interview with clay shirky.
Suresh, N. 2012, June 29. The Online Research Data Quality
Problem: Is it the Respondent or the Survey? Retrieved from http://www.surveymonkey.com/blog/en/blog/2012/06/29/the-online-research-data-quality-problem-is-respondent-survey/
Wise, S. E. 2012, November 12. Advantages and
disadvantages of surveys.
In the four years I have taught this course, I have moved through 3 textbooks...because the world has continued to evolve. Friedman and Shirky are still good references, but they wrote about a world that existed in a previous generation (or two) ... so I think Weinberger moves our thinking in new directions.
ReplyDeleteDr. Watwood,
ReplyDeleteI was able to go over to Powell's book this morning with my 8 year old, he wanted to get some Star Wars books and I was lucky enough to find both Too Big to Know and Leading Digital.
In education we have increasingly been driven by data and this year alone we have too many programs, or acronyms present in our school, definitely too many to keep track of. So, we send out surveys to get the input from those that are piloting or using the programs in our building, for example the iLit program, or SIOP, or AVID, again too many acronyms. Weinberger (2011) explains that data was more widely used in corporations to begin with, however, "by itself data has not value. But process the data and you get information. Information is to data what wine is to a vineyard" (p. 2). So through these surveys we get the data that serves as the wine, that we sit and enjoys while making inferences or suggestions to improve the program based on the data. This phenomena began in the early 2000's when I was doing my administrative internship and the Principal I was working with told me every program we use or start, we have to collect data to assess it, at that time it was our school-wide advisory program and student led conferences (SLC).
In conclusion, Weinberger does emphasize the fact we are facing a world that is too big to know (p. 13), however, our social networks are our new filters. So, our authority is shifting from experts in faraway offices to the network of people we know, like, and respect (10). In this case in education we become consumed with our programs, formulate baselines, reassess programs, use data, brainstorm solutions, and then at the end of the year make a final assessment if we want to proceed with the program or not. With respects to using the survey though, honestly I think at our school we have over done the use of programs and when one survey after another is sent out, and staff members face an overload of information/programs, the surveys then become irrelevant. In my opinion, we should concentrate on just a few programs and do them really well versus an overload of programs that are difficult to track their purpose and why we are using them. Yes, I think you can have "program overload" as well as information overload.
References
Weinberger, D. 2011. Too big to know. New York, NY. Basic Books
Among the technological tools I have employed in my work, SurveyMonkey stands out as a huge time-saver. In fact, if SurveyMonkey (or similar online survey tools) did not exist, I likely would not even conduct most of the surveys I use at my university. I find SurveyMonkey to be very easy to use. Ten years ago I used paper surveys and then had to ask someone to tabulate the results and create charts. Fast forward ten years later: Last summer I created a new survey for students who attended a new student orientation in a matter of a half hour, sent the link out by email, and then pulled up the results on graphs a week later. It was a snap, and no humans had to be involved in collecting and tabulating. Another example of how I use SurveyMonkey is in assessing for new students why they applied to our program (e.g., top reasons for choosing us, number of schools applied to, whether we were the top choice) and their admissions experience (e.g., application process, interview, communication with admissions and other staff). This type of data is crucial to understanding our consumer and what we can do to improve.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that Creighton uses Qualtrics (http://www.qualtrics.com), which describes itself as “the world’s leading enterprise survey platform” and is commonly used in academic research. Your post inspired me to learn more about Qualtrics and what differentiates it from SurveyMonkey. Information Week (http://www.informationweek.com/qualtrics-dominates-academic-survey-research/d/d-id/1110904) explains that Qualtrics has more configuration options in designing a survey and better data analysis, which are too features that can particularly important for academic studies. While I find SurveyMonkey to suit my needs quite well, if I reach the limits of its application I may give Qualtrics a try.
Will
Although I never have created a survey using SurveyMonkey, after reading your post I will definitely try it. I mainly will try it so I can get used to it because I know in the future I will be using it. I have been on the receiving end of many SurveyMonkey surveys, however. It seems to be a great tool that many people use. I've noticed some officers in the military going for their Master's degree through a certain school use SurveyMonkey while doing their thesis. But what I have also found are many surveys that are not created correctly. I have seen many surveys that don't have an option that applies to me, for example. So there is definitely an art and a science to creating a proper survey, no matter what tool a person uses.
ReplyDeleteHI Chris - I have always insisted my teams use SurveyMonkey to gather feedback as often as possible on initiatives they were running and any training sessions they had conducted. I am consistently driving my teams toward metrics so that we can understand how we are performing and establish future goals. I am always asking them how we can set targets and build a strategy if we do not know where we stand. SurveyMonkey is a great way to quickly prompt clients for their feedback and to analyze the results along with your teams. After each training session I ask the moderator to have the participants visit a survey and complete it while they are in the room. We ask a variety of questions about the course quality and the ability of the instructor to teach the content effectively and any recommendations for future sessions. We have incorporated so much feedback on some of our more standardized courses that they are virtually unrecognizable for the starting point. Participants provided so much feedback that we were able to completely redesign courses and now achieve improved results on each survey. Thanks for the post!
ReplyDeleteMatt Bonilla
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteI have used SurveyMonkey several times in the past and found it to be a very useful tool, especially with gaining immediate feedback on a presentation or event. Specifically, I have used SurveyMonkey in my work with philanthropy to ask alumni how they felt about a specific mailing or publication. Return on investment is very important in my business, and gaining honest feedback in both quantitative and qualitative manners allows me to collect valuable data that will drive future decisions with whether to continue the same path, alter the course, or scrap the initiative altogether and try something different. I have had paid subscriptions to SurveyMonkey for several years, but I seem to recall that they at one time offered a limited free version to try, but the features were very limited. In addition, it is important to have a strong IT person who can assist with a mass administration of the survey via email. Otherwise, it can be very difficult and cumbersome manually entering email address, or trying to navigate a mass email yourself. Finally, it is also important to recognize privacy issues with your constituents. Specifically, a good practice is to first ask your audience if they are willing to receive a survey via email. Otherwise, you risk the possibility of losing alumni, customers, etc. who are not interested in receiving a survey.
Brett Scott
Brett, some great points to consider with any surveying or polling software!
DeleteChris,
ReplyDeleteSurvey Monkey's evolution was something that I did not expect to see when researching the site. Throughout the course, I often wondered if this tool would be useful when gathering data during a qualitative study. Interviewing subjects has been a very strong component in my work, but survey's seem to enhance data with its added level of statistics. The survey aspect of studies can help prove the goal of a study and provide data that maybe be needed for future references. Looking at the "education" section of the survey selection, Survey Monkey offers many templates that are catered to the field. For example, higher education survey seekers have the ability to generate a survey for students who desire university satisfaction. Moving forward, a site that offers templates and guides to provide the best data possible can be utilized for the benefit of an organization.
Jimmy
We use SurveyMonkey to collect peer observation data once a month so that we can get a snapshot of how we are doing. It sometimes varies what we might be looking for but a commonly collected piece of data is our ratio of interactions. The observer keeps track for 5 to 10 minutes and track how many corrective interactions take place and how many non-contingent interactions take place. Research recommends that you should have at least a 3:1 ratio for non-contingent:corrective interactions. Collecting building wide data that teachers submit from their phones on survey monkey can give us a quick temperature of the building on a given day. The ability to have immediate feedback with a simple interface makes checking in on how we are doing simple and quick. I've never used it to collect complicated data that would later need deeper analysis, but I know if you want to be able to download the data to a spreadsheet, you have to sign up for at least the $26/month plan, which is limited to 1000 surveys or $300/year for unlimited surveys and the ability to download data.
ReplyDelete