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Loop survey to allow go back

  • August 30, 2021
  • 4 replies
  • 1043 views
K

Hello. I need to create a survey where a respondent provides feedback on multiple people. I would like the first question to be a list where the respondent chooses who they want to provide feedback on. Once they answer a series of questions, I would like survey to loop back to the first question where they choose another person, provide answer the same feedback questions, loop back to the first question again, etc, etc.
I think Table of Contents would be a perfect option here - unfortunately my company doesn't have access to this option. Is there any way to "fake" this look with other options?
Thank you.

Best answer by MatthewM

OK, now I see why the TOC would be helpful. It would allow respondents to jump back directly to a section to change their answers before they submit. But it has compatibility problems with other features, like response summaries, so even if it was available to your account, I wouldn't recommend using it without really extensive testing.
Loop & Merge saves you the time from building repeating questions, and it is helpful when you don't know the upper limit of iterations, but there are some limitations to it, as you point out. What I have done in a similar scenario to yours with a fixed list or known upper limit (though it's not real-time feedback), is to list all individuals by name that you want respondents to be able to evaluate in a Matrix question, with Yes/No options for each. Then build a master block of the feedback questions, and make copies of it for each person; you'll end up with 36 blocks of the same question. Then work in the Survey Flow to set up Display logic between the Yes/No Matrix question and each of the 36 Survey Blocks. Respondents will only see the blocks for the people they selected Yes for, and you can use the Show Response Summary before completing survey option to let respondents view their answers before the submit. And when you report on each presenter, the data will already be aligned correctly.

    4 replies

    MatthewM
    Level 6 ●●●●●●
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    • MatthewM
    • Level 6 ●●●●●●
    • August 30, 2021

    Hi Kasia1502 ,
    The TOC feature might not really be a solution here. It's designed to allow respondents to navigate between different sections of the survey without going in page order and answering the questions in between. It won't automatically loop people back to the start of a question sequence or section. In addition, it's somewhat unreliable, at least in my experience with it.
    It may be possible to do what you want with the standard features, by asking a few questions. First, is your list of persons fixed, or does it change over time or from respondent to respondent?
    Second, how many people are in this list?
    Next, what is likely the greatest number of people a single respondent would evaluate?
    Finally, when you do your reporting, do you need to summarize the results by each person in the list? For instance, 99% of respondents said Kasia1502 was "Very competent", 78% of respondents said MatthewM was "Very competent", etc.

    T
    Level 2 ●●
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    • TSAcc
    • Level 2 ●●
    • August 30, 2021

    Kasia1502 You can use loop and merge to achieve this. If your design allows users to pick multiple options from your list, you can then set up your L&M with 'Loop based off of a question'. Users will first select all the options from your list that they wish to provide feedback on and the loop with the repetitive questions will run as many times as the number of options selected.
    If that does not fit your requirements, you can still use L&M. The first question in the loop is to select one person from the list. The feedback questions (common for all) will follow. End the block with a multiple-choice question with Yes/No as options; the question asks if the user wishes to select another person. If the user selects 'Yes' the loop continues. If the answer is 'No' set up skip logic on that question to skip to the 'End of Survey'. Skipping to end of block will put you back at the beginning of an infinite loop. This is not an ideal option, but it can do what you described.
    You can also use custom code to achieve these if you have access.

    K
    • Kasia1502
    • Author
    • August 30, 2021

    Hi MatthewM,
    First thank you for the quick turnaround!
    To answer your questions:
    1) The list of people is fixed
    2) There are 36 people on the list
    3) We would like the respondent to be able to evaluate every person
    4) It would be great to be able to have summarized results but if it is not possible, we can do it manually.
    TSAcc The first suggestion won't work unfortunately. I will try out the second suggestion - the only concern is that I think with Loop and Merge, respondents are not able to review their feedback before submitting.

    To give you both more context, respondents will give back on presentations they are watching live but we want them to be able to choose who they're giving feedback on next in case they miss one of the presentations or there are changes to the schedule/presentations order.
    We also would like them to be able to go back to review their responses but if it is not possible, we can skip this functionality.

    MatthewM
    Level 6 ●●●●●●
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    • MatthewM
    • Level 6 ●●●●●●
    • Answer
    • August 30, 2021

    OK, now I see why the TOC would be helpful. It would allow respondents to jump back directly to a section to change their answers before they submit. But it has compatibility problems with other features, like response summaries, so even if it was available to your account, I wouldn't recommend using it without really extensive testing.
    Loop & Merge saves you the time from building repeating questions, and it is helpful when you don't know the upper limit of iterations, but there are some limitations to it, as you point out. What I have done in a similar scenario to yours with a fixed list or known upper limit (though it's not real-time feedback), is to list all individuals by name that you want respondents to be able to evaluate in a Matrix question, with Yes/No options for each. Then build a master block of the feedback questions, and make copies of it for each person; you'll end up with 36 blocks of the same question. Then work in the Survey Flow to set up Display logic between the Yes/No Matrix question and each of the 36 Survey Blocks. Respondents will only see the blocks for the people they selected Yes for, and you can use the Show Response Summary before completing survey option to let respondents view their answers before the submit. And when you report on each presenter, the data will already be aligned correctly.

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