Build and manage a questionnaire 

At its core, Blue is a data collection and analysis tool. Data is collected first and foremost through questionnaires. This section explores all aspects of creating both online and paper questionnaires.

Navigating to the Projects - Questionnaire - Question List shows all questions in a project and the order in which they will appear in the questionnaire. From this page, it is also possible to:

1. Reorder the questionnaire by clicking and dragging the question, or use the Move to position feature
2. Add, delete, or copy questions
3. Export the list of questions with their identifiers
4. Preview the entire questionnaire

5. Edit or preview individual questions

Questionnaire Size

Determining the maximum number of questions in a questionnaire is not exactly the question that we should be asking, because, the limiting factor is the questionnaire list not the questionnaire. However, determining the maximum size for the questionnaire list takes a little basic math. The questionnaire list is measured in input spaces, an input space can be thought of as a reserved space for the rater to provide a response. Generally speaking, an input space is equivalent to one potential response, and the questionnaire list can have an approximate total of about 500 input spaces. Refer to the table below for a clearer idea of how many input spaces each question may use.

Multiple Selection Tables and Single Selection Tables take up the number of input spaces as an equivalent number of individual questions.

Exporting Identifiers

Select Export Identifiers to download a CSV file that contains a list of questions and their identifiers .

Populating the question list

To add a question to the questionnaire, select Add Question from the question list and select the type of question to create on the Question Creation window or simply right click with the mouse from the question list.

Common options for all question types

There are a variety of question types to choose from depending on the situation. Before exploring individual question types and what makes each of them special let's first explore the options that are available for every question regardless of type.

• Question - Enter the title for the item as it will appear on the questionnaire. This is a required field.
• Details - In this text box, enter information that may help clarify the item. This information will appear under the item title in a smaller font. This field is not required.

• Help - Include information that a rater may find helpful in responding to the question. If help is included for a question, it appears as a tooltip that displays when a rater hovers over the question mark icon beside the question number.
• Identifier - Entering an identifier (an alphanumeric code) for any question item will be required for the following cases:
  • The question needs to be mapped to another question in reporting – the questions can be mapped if they have the same identifier.
  • The question uses questionnaire piping - the carrying of the response from a previous question into the body of a subsequent question.
• Question about - (only displayed for projects built on a multiple secondary definition) Select whether the question is intended for the primary subject or secondary subject.
• Displayed On - (print forms only available with an OCR License) Choose how this questionnaire will be distributed.
  • Both Online and Paper Forms
  • Online Forms
  • Paper Forms
• On Paper Form As - (only available with an OCR License) Free-form comments on the paper form can be saved as text (to be scanned using OCR) or as an image.
• Selectable Question - (always enabled for personalized and question bank questions) By enabling this option, this question will appear in the Question personalization task, where Question personalization task owners can decide to include or not include this question on the questionnaire (available from the question list using the right click mouse menu).
• Mandatory Question - When this option is enabled the rater must include a response for this question before being able to submit their responses. However, triggers can override this option (available from the question list using the right click mouse menu).
• Hidden by Default - Select this option if the question is intended only to be displayed if certain trigger conditions are met. Otherwise, the question will appear on all questionnaires (available from the question list using the right click mouse menu).
• Keep Response If Hidden - Enable this option to keep all responses even if the question is hidden by triggers at a later time, otherwise those responses will be discarded (available from the question list using the right click mouse menu).
  

In addition to the options mentioned, there are commands to edit, provide fill out labels, preview, add to the questionnaire list, or cancel the current question.

Question tags

The number of questions within questionnaires can grow quickly to the point where it may become difficult to maintain them. A simple, intuitive way to organize questions efficiently is to use the tag feature available for question blocks. Tags may be applied during or after the question creation process. In addition, tags may be applied to a question in either a published or unpublished project.

Follow these steps to apply tags to a question.

1. Select the project.
2. Navigate to Questionnaire - Question List.
3. Select Edit for the question that requires tags.
4. Navigate to the Tags section.
5. Click on the Add field to see a drop-down list of tags that may be used.
6. Select all relevant tags to the question.
7. Click Apply Changes to apply the tags in the question.
8. Click Save to finalize all changes.