Qualtrics Surveys

Members of the Wharton community can use Qualtrics to create web-based surveys for their data-gathering needs.

Where can I access Qualtrics?

Right here – https://wharton.qualtrics.com/

 

What is Qualtrics?

Qualtrics is web-based survey software available for use by Wharton users to support teaching and research at Wharton. It allows users to easily create surveys, collect and store data, and produce reports. Some of its capabilities include the following:

  • a wizard to help build surveys, requiring no prior training
  • dozens of sample surveys on various topics to customize for your own use
  • integrated graphics and statistical tools
  • ability to download data into Excel or SPSS with the full syntax retained

How can I use Qualtrics?

Use of Qualtrics software requires a Wharton account. You must use the URL below to create an account. If you go to the public Qualtrics website and create a trial account, any surveys you create or data you collect will not be accessible from the Wharton Qualtrics site.

How do I get a Qualtrics account?

To begin using Qualtrics to create surveys, you must register for a Qualtrics account (separate from your Wharton account).

How much does it cost to use Qualtrics?

It is free to use for Wharton account holders.

What if I have questions about Qualtrics?

  1. If you are experiencing access problems (not able to create an account or not able to login to Qualtrics), please contact your Academic Distributed Representative for assistance.
  2. Most questions can be answered by going to Qualtrics Survey University. The Qualtrics website offers an extensive set of online resources.
  3. Contact Qualtrics using e-mail.
  4. Contact Qualtrics by phone at 1-800-340-9194. Qualtrics will respond to support telephone calls or e-mail contacts based on the order they are received and relative importance as reasonably determined by Qualtrics. Phone or e-mail assistance from Qualtrics is available during their normal business hours, 8:00am – 7:00pm on weekdays (Monday – Friday), except holidays. Limited e-mail support is available after hours and weekends.

Creating a survey

Qualtrics is a robust survey creation tool that will let you create a host of 9 different types of surveys and polls. Survey types range from Multiple Choice to Text Entry, Ranking, and Scales.

To create a survey:

  1. In Qualtrics, click the Create Survey tab. You can create a survey using one of three ways:
    1. Quick Survey Builder: building a new survey from scratch. You can create new questions, or copy questions from an existing survey.
    2. Create from Copy: basing a new survey off of an existing survey
    3. Survey Library: picking an existing template from the Survey Library
  2. Click Continue and enter your Survey Name, Folder (optional), and Survey Location (The default is your account, i.e., My Account: User Name).
  3. Click Create Survey. You can use questions from an existing survey (Copy Questions From); or create new questions (Create a New Question). In this article, we’ll Create a New Question.
  4. Under Change Question Type, choose what type of questions you want to ask, such as multiple choice, matrix, text entry, and many more.
  5. Qualtrics auto-saves any changes a user makes when selecting a new question, clicking a tab, or choosing other functions on a page. You can also save surveys be pressing CTRL+S on their keyboard. A “Question Saved” notification appears in the upper left of the window.

Activating your survey

You need to activate your survey before you can build a list of participants to receive your survey/poll. To activate your survey:

  1. Click the Distribute Survey tab.
  2. From the Current Survey drop-down menu, choose the survey you want to activate.
  3. To activate your survey, click Activate your survey to collect responses. Qualtrics automatically generates a link you can copy to an email or Web site.

Building a list of participants

To build your participant list, you need to first create a recipient panel in Qualtrics, and then enter the recipients’ email addresses. You can do this by importing a panel.

Importing a recipient panel

To import contacts for a recipient panel:

  1. In Qualtrics, click the Panels tab.
  2. Click Create New Panel, enter Destination Category and Panel Name, and click Create.
  3. Click Import/Update Panel Members, and follow the instructions below.

Creating a small email list

Importing a panel is a two-step process: Exporting contacts from Microsoft Outlook, and importing these contacts in Qualtrics.

Exporting contacts from Microsoft Outlook

  1. Launch Microsoft Outlook and open the Contacts folder.
  2. Click the File menu, select Import and Export and select Export to a file.
  3. Select Comma Separated Values (Windows) and download it to your desktop.

Importing your CSV file to Qualtrics

  1. In Qualtrics, click the Panels tab.
  2. Click Create New Panel, assign a Destination Category to your survey (optional), and give your panel a name. Click Create.
  3. Click Import/Update Panel Members, and then click Import from File. Choose the CSV file you downloaded to your computer. If your CVS file has column headers, check The first row contains column names checkbox.
  4. Click Upload, and select the fields (First Name, Last Name, Email, etc.) for each contact you want to import.
  5. Click Add Remaining Columns to pull in any remaining columns from your spreadsheet. This is considered embedded data (extra information like demographic information, or anything else you might need for analysis or as an identifier, etc.). You can use the red X button to the side of each embedded data field to remove any you might not want to use, as well as adjust any field names using the text boxes.
  6. Click Import. The system is now processing your list. This may take a while with large lists.If your list is large, try breaking it up into smaller lists and uploading them separately. Multiple lists can be uploaded into the same Qualtrics panel. For example: a 100,000 person list will more easily upload if broken into five 20,000 person lists due to the smaller file size and less information to process. If you have a lot of embedded data in your list (an extra 100 columns for example), then you might need to break a large list into chunks smaller than 20,000. Consider trying 15,000 or 10,000, or smaller if necessary.

Creating a recipient panel manually

  1. In Qualtrics, click the Panels tab.
  2. Click Create New Panel, enter Destination Category and Panel Name, and click Create.
  3. Click Add New Panel Members, and enter the Panel, Email Address, First Name, and Last Name. Note: if you copy and paste the data from an existing spreadsheet with the three columns Email Address, First Name, and Last Name in the correct order, it will populate the table automatically.
  4. Click Save. The email address is listed.

Distributing your survey/poll

Survey Mailer is the most common method of distribution—and the only method that automatically generates unique, individualized link to a survey. Each participant receives an individualized link and a response ID, which allows you to track the responses. By default these individualized links can only be used once.

In addition to Survey Mailer, there are five other methods to distribute a survey:

  • Survey Link: Survey links are easy to set up. And since it can be used as a link in an email or on a Web page, it can be accessed by anyone visiting your Web site resulting in a large sample. However, Qualtrics only tracks the IP address so responses are anonymous, and the potential for ballot-box stuffing is greater than Survey Mailer.
  • Send Survey: Send Survey is useful for small panel surveys. Each participant receives a unique link to the survey and can only be used once, making the survey very secure.9
  • Popup Survey: In a Popup Survey, the link to the survey appears in a popup window. The link format is identical to Survey Link (above), so the same advantages and disadvantages apply.
  • Embedded Survey: You can run a survey on a Web site. The link format is identical to Survey Link (above), so the same advantages and disadvantages apply.
  • Printing Surveys: You can also print surveys for paper and pencil survey taking. Collecting data will be a more manual process than doing it by email or on the Web.

To begin the process of distributing your activated survey:

  1. In an active survey, click Launch Survey. Choose how you want to distribute your survey. In this article, we’ll use Survey Mailer.
  2. Qualtrics automatically generates a link, i.e., http://wharton.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV[surveyID]&SVID=Prod
  3. To prevent ballot box stuffing, click the Edit Survey tab and then click Survey Options. The “Survey Options” box appears.
  4. Under Survey Protection, choose Prevent Ballot Box Stuffing (which installs a cookie on the machine that prevents that computer from accessing the survey a second time).
  5. Click Save Changes, and go to the Panels tab.
  6. Click the Current Panel Library drop-down menu, and select your account, My Panels: USER NAME.
  7. Click Send Survey, and in the Survey Mailer tab, choose when you want to send your email and your recipient panel.
  8. Enter a Subject and click Create a Message. Qualtrics creates a standard message for you with all the required fields. You can change the normal text (Follow this link…), but DO NOT CHANGE THE VALUES (${l://SurveyLink?d=Take the Survey})
  9. Click Schedule Mailing. The “Distribute Survey: Mail History” page appears

Securing surveys

Any method of distribution comes with advantages and disadvantages. When designing a survey and planning its distribution you should think about your desired results and the distribution method by which to best achieve them.

Any time that a generic survey link is used (this includes the pop-up and embedded surveys) you have more chances of people taking the survey, but you don’t have as much control over the responses. People can take the survey more than once which will sway the statistical significance of your results.

Survey Integrity

Qualtrics offers several options to help insure your responses are legitimate and pertinent. Survey integrity is always an issue when collecting data. These options can increase the relevancy of your responses. Prevention of “ballot stuffing” is an option which can be set on a per survey basis. To modify your security options:

  1. In a Qualtrics survey, click Edit Survey and then click Survey Options.
  2. Under Survey Protection, choose Prevent Ballot Box Stuffing (which installs a cookie on the machine that prevents that computer from accessing the survey a second time).10

Viewing reports from within Qualtrics

Qualtrics computes means, standard deviations, and other statistics depending on the question type.

Viewing your survey results is the most important part of Qualtrics. Qualtrics can measure both completed and uncompleted—surveys the respondent didn’t completely finish—surveys. Qualtrics can also filter data and generate reports based on question responses or embedded data.

Qualtrics communicates best with Microsoft Office 2007. You may export your reports to Word, PowerPoint, or Excel.

You can view and manipulate data using the following filters:

To view your reports:

  1. In Qualtrics, click the View Results tab. Reports that have been distributed are listed.
  2. Choose a report, and click Edit Results. You can manipulate and filter data as well as generate reports, such as:
  • Response Sets: Response sets are helpful if you are using the same survey but wish to track different results separately. For example, if you distribute your survey through a mailing and by posting a generic link on a Web site—but wish to track the different types of distribution independent of each other—response sets can accomplish this.
  • Result Import: Answers to a survey can be imported directly into Qualtrics by using the Qualtrics reporting suite. This is helpful if you are combining surveys from different languages, combining identical surveys, or when it is necessary to download data, manipulate it, and re-upload the clean data into the system.
  • Printing: Qualtrics generates a tabulation report which you can export as a PDF or Excel spreadsheet, and print from the PDF reader or Excel. To generate a cross tabulation report, in View Reports, click Cross Tabulation and then Create Cross Tabulation.

Exporting results for use in other programs

You can use Qualtrics’ Download Data function to download data into CVS file, SPSS, XML, or HTML formats.