OnQ, a Survey Authoring Tool

1. OnQ,a Survey Authoring Tool

2. Survey 2000 • Developed at Northwestern University • Hosted on National Geographic • Funded by National Science Foundation (NSF) • Goal: How is a person shaped by his/her environment?

3. Survey 2001 • Developed at Clemson University • Hosted on National Geographic http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/survey2001/servlet/Page1 • Funded by National Science Foundation (NSF) • Goal: How does the Internet impact our society? • 3 initial groups of questions: • Demography • Internet • Environment

4. Survey 2001: Problems • 2196 questions / around 1500 answers • Manual data entry • Error-prone • Difficult to proofread and edit

5. OnQ: An Authoring Tool • GUI based • Use of database • Easy creation of skip patterns • Multimedia components

6. Surveys on the Web • Widespread use of the Internet • Number of Internet users: • May 2002: 580,780,000 (NUA.com) • May 2002: 389,570,230 (Nielson/Net Ratings) • June 2002: 391,042,644 (Nielson/Net Ratings) • September 2002: 605,600,000 (NUA.com)

7. Other Survey Authoring Tools • Web Surveyor • WWW Survey Assistant • Hosted Survey • Survey Said for the Web • Sawtooth’s Sensus Web

9. OnQ: Architecture • Java programming language, version 1.4.0 • MySQL database, version 3.23.40 • MySQL Connector J, (formerly MM.Mysql) • Apache web server, version 1.3.40 • Tomcat servlet engine, version 3.2.3

10. OnQ: An Authoring Tool • Question Editor (Cathy Hochrine) • Sequence Developer (Laura Brand) • Formatting (Meg Staton) • Presentation (other) • 4 modules:

11. Design of OnQ:

12. Database Tables for OnQ

13. Database Tables For the Question Editor Module of OnQ

14. OnQ: Question Editor Module • Question Composition • Questions - with a prefix, root, suffix • Languages • Categories • Keyword association

18. OnQ: Question Editor Module • Answer Composition • Types of answer options: radio buttons, check boxes, drop-down lists, text area, text field • Choice for the number of answers, or the dimensions

21. OnQ: Sequence Developer Module • Question Blocks and Transitions • Create, edit, and view question blocks and transitions • Boolean evaluator for skip patterns • Randomization of questions within a question block

22. OnQ: Formatting Module • Format Individual Questions • Survey author can design way in which questions will be presented • Can add images, sound, video • Can choose placement of images

23. OnQ: Formatting Module • Format Question Blocks • Each question block is presented on a page • Author can define “page ends” within a question block

24. OnQ: Presentation Module • Uses Tomcat servlet engine to display (serve) pages to the clients • Also, serves pages to the survey author during development • These pages look exactly as they will look when the survey is deployed • Author can modify the formatting during development

26. Results • GUI • Arbitrarily complex boolean expressions • Multimedia components • Multi-language; Categories; keyword association • Presentation • Multiple-platform implementation

27. Improvements to OnQ • Fine-tune OnQ • Accessing other databases • Make it Web-based • Other checks • Pop-up search box

28. Current Use of OnQ • Diversity 2002 • United Way of Greenvillehttp://johnryan.clemson.edu/UnitedWay/servlet/Page1 • Marketing Department at Clemson University • Engineering Department at Clemson

29. Future Use of OnQ • Survey 2003 • Goal: How do encounters with information on the Internet change peoples’ perceptions of environmental hazards? • OnX – Online eXercises/eXamination • A learning and assessment authoring tool

30. Acknowledgements • Dr. Roy Pargas • Dr. James Witte • Dr. Art Pellerin • Dr. Sandra Hedetniemi • OnQ development team: • Kowshik Jaganathan • Laura Brand • Meg Staton

31. Thank You