Transcript Onq, a Survey Authoring Tool

OnQ,
a Survey Authoring Tool
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?
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:
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Demography
Internet
Environment
Survey 2001: Problems
2196 questions / around 1500 answers
Manual data entry
Error-prone
Difficult to proofread and edit
OnQ: An Authoring Tool
GUI based
Use of database
Easy creation of skip patterns
Multimedia components
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)
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June 2002: 391,042,644 (Nielson/Net Ratings)
 September 2002: 605,600,000 (NUA.com)
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Other Survey Authoring Tools
Web Surveyor
WWW Survey Assistant
Hosted Survey
Survey Said for the Web
Sawtooth’s Sensus Web
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
OnQ: An Authoring Tool
4 modules:
Question Editor (Cathy Hochrine)
 Sequence Developer (Laura Brand)
 Formatting (Meg Staton)
 Presentation (other)
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Design of OnQ:
Database Tables for OnQ
Database Tables For the Question
Editor Module of OnQ
OnQ: Question Editor Module
Question Composition
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Questions with a prefix,
root, suffix
Languages
Categories
Keyword
association
OnQ: Question Editor Module
Answer Composition
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Types of answer
options:
radio buttons,
check boxes,
drop-down lists,
text area,
text field
Choice for the
number of
answers, or the
dimensions
OnQ: Sequence Developer
Module
Question Blocks and
Transitions
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Create, edit, and view
question blocks and
transitions
Boolean evaluator for
skip patterns
Randomization of
questions within a
question block
OnQ: Formatting Module
Format Individual
Questions
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Survey author can
design way in which
questions will be
presented
Can add images,
sound, video
Can choose
placement of images
OnQ: Formatting Module
Format Question
Blocks
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Each question block
is presented on a
page
Author can define
“page ends” within
a question block
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
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Results
GUI
Arbitrarily complex boolean expressions
Multimedia components
Multi-language; Categories; keyword
association
Presentation
Multiple-platform implementation
Improvements to OnQ
Fine-tune OnQ
Accessing other databases
Make it Web-based
Other checks
Pop-up search box
Current Use of OnQ
Diversity 2002
United Way of Greenville
http://johnryan.clemson.edu/UnitedWay/servlet/Page1
Marketing Department at Clemson
University
Engineering Department at Clemson
Future Use of OnQ
Survey 2003
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Goal: How do encounters with information on
the Internet change peoples’ perceptions of
environmental hazards?
OnX – Online eXercises/eXamination
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A learning and assessment authoring tool
Acknowledgements
Dr. Roy Pargas
Dr. James Witte
Dr. Art Pellerin
Dr. Sandra Hedetniemi
OnQ development team:
Kowshik Jaganathan
 Laura Brand
 Meg Staton
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Thank You