Variable Rules CHANGED retroactively with no solution for fix

Kathryn_Ann · 2018-04-27T22:50:51+00:00

At some point in the past few months, Qualtrics engineering changed how variables worked. They didn't both to even tell those in their support department, let alone their customers. So, you all may be aware, here is the info. If a question used in a variable was skipped or opted out, the variable now adds in a 0. Prior to this change, a blank was left and no calculation would be made. For example, if you wanted to get a simple mean across 5 questions you would use a variable Mean=(a+b+c+d+e)/5, if a survey contained answers to all five questions the variable would be populated with the mean. If one or more of the questions was opted out or not answered the variable would be left blank. Thus, only true, valid means were calculated. NOW, in either case a 0 is added in, which completely distorts a rating to the negative. An opt out or no answer should not count as a 0, but it does! I have MANY such variables in MANY surveys, which are all now useless. The "solution" is to setup Scoring which gets piped into an embedded data field. However, it will calculate a weighted mean for ALL respondents, even if they opt out of 4 of the 5 questions. Thus, there is no way to make rating for only those who answered all questions in a set. In addition, it only works for future NEW survey data as the score data is not available in data and analysis nor in reporting. Therefore, this makes all historical data not useable, unless you export and calculate outside in excel. But, why setup scoring at all if you are going to export and calculate in excel??

Variable Rules CHANGED retroactively with no solution for fix | Experience Community

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