• asking how many hours a week respondents spend doing different things
• asking how much money respondents spent on different activities during a visit
• asking respondents to share a fixed amount or percentage between a set of options

The amount allocated to each option gives the relative importance of each. This gives good numeric data for analysis, but is quite difficult for respondents.

This worksheet shows you how to calculate a running total as the respondent completes the answers. It explains how to create a set of Open Series First and Open Series Next questions for quantity responses and put a running total into the final response. It also shows you how to set a valid range on the total, so that respondents cannot move to the next page if the total has overrun.

Please note: The Open Series First and Open Series Next question styles are new in Snap XMP Desktop. If you are using a survey that has been upgraded from Snap 11 Professional then the equivalent question style is Open Grid First and Open Grid Next.

Step 1: Create your set of questions

The first step is to create the group of questions that need to be totalled. These must be quantity questions.

1. In Snap XMP Desktop, open the survey in the Questionnaire window.
2. Click New Question to create a new question.
3. Select Open Series First as the question style
4. Select Response in the next dropdown then select Quantity as the response type.

5. Enter the question text, for example “How did you spend your day at the activity centre? Please allocate hours to the activities up to a maximum of 8 hours.”
6. Enter the first activity in the grid label.
7. Press Tab to create the next question in the list. By default, the next question added is an Open Series Next question with a Quantity response. Enter another activity in the grid label. Repeat until you have entered all the activities.
8. Add an extra grid question to display the running total.

9. Click Save to save the questionnaire.

Step 2: Display the total in the calculated field and set the valid range

1. Select the open series question that will display the total.
2. Click Variable Properties to open the Variable Properties dialog.
3. In this example, the total hours have a valid range of 0 to 8. Scroll to the Valid property and enter 0 to 8.

4. Scroll to the Initial Value property and enter the total: Q1a+Q1b+Q1c+Q1d+Q1e. When the open series entries change the value of the total field is updated when the respondent moves to the next entry. The questions used in the total calculation must always be asked earlier in the questionnaire.

5. By default, the Read Only property is set to No. This allows the respondent to edit the total field. In this example, the total should not be edited so set the Read Only property to Yes. This renames the Initial Value property to the Calculation property.

6. Click OK.
7. Click Save to save the questionnaire.
8. When the questionnaire is complete. Publish the survey in Snap XMP Desktop or Snap XMP Online.

If there is a topic you would like a worksheet on, email to snapideas@snapsurveys.com

The post Creating running totals appeared first on SnapSurveys.

In this example, four multiple choice questions are used, each with four possible answers. Using weighted variables we identify the response for a correct answer as those weighted as one and for an incorrect answer as those weighted as zero. Using these numbers the total number of correct responses can be calculated.

Insert the questions

1. Create a multiple choice question with a single response.

2. Select Q1 and click Clone to set up three more multiple choice questions called Q2, Q3 and Q4, each with four possible answers (codes) and with a single response.

Create the weights

1. Click on the weights  button to open the Weights window.
2. Select New Weight to create a new weight. In Name enter ScoreA. This will be used for each question where A is the correct answer.
   In Code List, enter a Value of 1 for Code 1 and 0 for Code 2, 3 and 4.

3. Click Save  to save the new weight and close the Weight Details window.
4. Repeat steps 2 to 3 to create three more similar weights for ScoreB, ScoreC and ScoreD where the value of 1 is in codes 2, 3 and 4 respectively.

Create the derived variable

1. Open the Variables window  and click   to add a new variable which will be used to total the number of correct responses.
2. In Name enter Total.
3. Set the Type to Derived and the Response to Quantity.
4. In the Code list set the value for OK as ScoreA(Q1)+ScoreB(Q2)+ScoreC(Q3)+ScoreD(Q4)

The OK value is used as the total score. This depends on the correct answers for each question. In the example, Q1 has the answer A (the first answer), Q2 has the answer B (the second answer), Q3 has the answer C (the third answer) and Q4 has the answer D (the fourth answer).

Display the result

You can display the total score to the participant.

1. Place the cursor in the text area of a question, title or instruction where you want the total to appear.
2. Right click on the cursor and click Insert and then click Variable Field.
3. In the New variable field window select Total in the Variable list and click OK.

The variable field appears like this in your questionnaire.

When your survey is completed it will appear like this in the browser.

If there is a topic you would like a worksheet on, email to snapideas@snapsurveys.com

The post Calculating marks in a quiz, test or assessment appeared first on SnapSurveys.

The initial value is set in the Variable Details window or Variable Properties window.

In the Variable Details window, the Initial Value field is shown when you click Toggle Definitions .

The Initial Value property is also available in the Variable Properties dialog opened from the Questionnaire window.

Note that the Initial Value is not available for Paradata variables or Note variables.

Using the Initial Value property

In this example, the questionnaire is set up to ask about the number of people in the participant’s party. The values that the participant enters can be used to set the initial value for a question about the number of people in the party who ordered food.

In this questionnaire, Q2 is an Open Series question asking for the number of adults and children in a group of people at a restaurant and Q3 is an Open Ended question asking how many people in the party ordered food. Usually everyone orders food so the default for Q3 is the total number of people in Q2.

The questions are created using the following step by step instructions:

1. Open the survey in the Questionnaire window with Design mode set.
2. Click New Question   on the Questionnaire toolbar to insert a question.
3. Select the Open Series style from the Style Selection Box on the toolbar.
4. In the area marked “Click here for text”, enter “How many people were in your party today?”
5. Click Variable Properties on the Questionnaire toolbar. This opens the Variable Properties dialog.
6. In the Variable Properties change the
   • Response: Quantity
   • Label: Adults
7. Insert another entry with the properties
   • Response: Quantity
   • Label: Children.

8. Insert another Open Ended question to be used to show the number of people who ordered food. Again set the Response to Quantity.

9. Click Variable Properties on the Questionnaire toolbar. This opens the Variable Properties dialog.
10. Type Q2a+Q2b in the Initial Value to show the total number of people in the party. When an expression is used this automatically sets the Read Only property to Yes. Setting the Read Only property to Yes prevents a respondent overwriting or answering the question.

11. This question needs to be on the following page so insert a page break above this question.

12. When the questionnaire is running the participant enters the numbers in each question.

13. On the next page of the questionnaire the total number of people is used as the default.

The post Setting an initial value appeared first on SnapSurveys.