I used Go2Web2.0 to find a new Web 2.0 tool that I will be using as part of my Action Research project. I eventually chose Survs, a survey creation program. My Action Research project problem statement has changed over the last month, which was mostly due to compromises with my employer. I’m going to be re-training production assistants (which I do look forward to) and one the first steps they want me to take is creating a survey to see what problems exist that I should address.
And that’s where Survs comes in. I was not a big fan of Survey Monkey (a site my previous professor suggested) and typing up a survey in Microsoft Word was clumsy at best. Survs has a very simple user interface (UI), and some bells and whistles that seem very useful.
The first one that stuck out to me was how it aggregates information very easily. If a question is “on a scale of 1-10, how well do you know the Quantel editing software”, Survs allows you to quickly scan data for all the 10s, or 1s, or break down all answers into percentages. Reading the data is simple, whereas I would have to create a separate Excel spreadsheet if I created my own survey from scratch, or worse yet, I would have to coordinate with Human Resources, which is a lengthy process.
The second thing that stood out to me about Survs was the ability to allow multiple trainers to have access to and change the core survey. I might be the administrator of the survey, but there will be other trainers working along side me that can have access to the site. They can change, update, and add questions, as well as access data results. While I am spearheading this initiative, I am not the only person involved. Survs allows for easy collaboration, which is why I chose it.
What a great find, Bryan! I am not the biggest fan of SurveyMonkey either and Survs seems like a great Web 2.0 tool to use when composing a survey for many purposes. I am currently trying to use surveys for my Action Research Project (ARP) as well, which has to do with using Web 2.0 tools to engage the student in and out of school, along with connecting and communicating with parents more effectively. I can see two potential purposes that Survs can serve (no pun intended) for my Action Research Project as well. One, I can make a survey for parents to use when wanting to get feedback on the best use of contact and how to improve communication for their student. Two, I can use Survs with students when requiring them to collaborate together in generating questions to where they have to survey the class or others around campus.
ReplyDeleteNot only can I use Survs with my ARP, but I can also use it to retrieve information from students and staff to help me get to know my environment better. I am moving to a new school this year, and I want to get to know the demographics, student needs, wants, interests, etc. I can't think of a better tool than Survs to use to help acclimate me into my new school setting. I noticed on their web site that Survs offers a 30% discount to academic institutions, and whenever I can get a discount on anything related to teaching, I am all over it.
I used to have to do a lot of surveys when I was a communication studies grad student and it was a fairly cumbersome exercise to set a survey up and then look through and collate the data--Surv looks like a nice and simple approach to doing basic surveys, something that would have been quite useful for me back in the day.
ReplyDelete