InfoGuides: Software for Digital Scholarship: Qualtrics

Qualtrics is an online survey tool that is very popular with researchers because of the combination of power and ease of use. It has many tools for branching and randomization and can output data as a fully-labeled SPSS file (in addition to standard Excel and csv). If you do not know what software to use, you can contact the Digital Scholarship Center (DiSC) at datahelp@gmu.edu to discuss the various options.

See this page in two guides:

Access to Qualtrics

George Mason University has a university-wide license for Qualtrics. All students, faculty, and staff are allowed an account, but access is managed locally (either school, department, center, or other unit). DiSC does not control or administer Qualtrics accounts or licenses.

To get an account, find the contact person for your unit at Qualtrics Administrators (ITS).

Why Choose Qualtrics?

Pros:

Very easy to get started and use
Surveys look nice, lots of customization (including CSS)
Can add special features with Javascript within questions
Follows best practices by default
Easy to implement advanced features including randomization, carry forward choices, and loop and merge

Cons:

Does not natively support data entry or longitudinal studies, though data can be entered
Not available to everybody, some features have an extra cost
Data is stored on Qualtrics' server,

Learn Qualtrics

Learn Qualtrics in 1 hour

Selected Videos from XM basecamp series Learn to Use Qualtrics for Research unless otherwise specified.
You will need to sign-in to your Qualtrics account in order to view the videos.

The Basics
Qualtrics Basics (DoIT @ Stony Brook U)	~5 min	Overview/Sections, Edit Multiple, Test Responses
Adding and Styling Questions	~5 min	Text and Matrix Questions. Embedding Videos
Using Anonymous Distributions	~3 min	Publish, Activate/Deactivate, get a Link, Options

Important Features
Displaying and Hiding Questions and Answers	~4 min	Blocks, Skip Logic, Display Logic, Preview
Controlling Questions and Answer Choices	~4 min	Force Response, Validation, Messages, Randomization
Locating and Editing Responses	~7 min	Responses in Progress, Retake surveys, and more
Qualtrics Reports (DoIT @ Stony Brook U)	~4 min	Reports, Breakout, Visualization Types

Useful to Know About
Handling Longer Surveys	~4 min	Carry Forward, Loop & Merge
Using the Survey Flow to Navigate Participants	~4 min	Blocks: Logic and Randomization
Adding Global Styles	~3 min	Themes, Progress bars, Fonts
Setting Text and Answer Chocies	~4 min	Piped Text, Page Break, Default Choices
Recoding Values	~4 min	("variable names" are actually value labels)
Sending Invites via Email	~4 min	see also Creating and Managing Contacts

Tips from DiSC

Using Qualtrics Effectively pdf (Mason's Digital Scholarship Center)

Get Help

Help from Qualtrics

Documentation (Search)
Textbook: Product Experience (PX) Research
Video: Experience Basecamp - Collections of short (<5min) videos on specific topics
- Implementing Research Methodology
- Learn to use the Qualtrics Research Core
Webinars:
- Old Interface: Quick Start (45 min), Advanced Survey Building (1 hr), and Reporting (1 hr)
- New Interface (all ~1hr): Designing a Survey, Launching, Analyzing Data, Reporting
See also: Community Message Boards, Events & Webinars, and the Vimeo Channel

Special Features

Learn to use CSS and Javascript to customize elements
Slideshow: Little Known Features of Qualtrics Research Suite That Will Make Your Life Easier

Software for Digital Scholarship