Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Survey/Poll tools

I struggled a bit with this part of my inquiry.  I think part of my struggle stems from not really having a vision as to what I wanted to achieve by using a survey or poll.  I always think it's fun when there is a poll question on a web site, and I usually take the time to answer, but I was not clear as to how this might be helpful for me and my school/library.  Berger & Trexler (2010) point to polls and surveys as "powerful tools" that can be used to access opinions, determine the "attitudes of participants," and to "expose participants to the diversity of opinions." (Berger & Trexler, 2010, p. 110)  I think where I struggled is I don't really have participants yet.

One of my goals this year has been to get students using the library and the library web site.  I have had much success with getting the students into the physical library, but it has been more of a challenge to get them to use/visit the web site.  I know that one of the reasons for this has been my failure to offer an introduction to the site to all of the students - other than the grade 8's, the rest of the students probably don't know the library has a web site.  I am now using Facebook to promote the library and school web sites so I hope I will see some increased site traffic.

I tried three different survey/poll tools - SurveyMonkey, PollDaddy, and Easypolls. I began with SurveyMonkey as that was the tool I was most familiar with, in name only.  




One of the things that impressed me with all three sites was the great tutorials they offered for help.  The instructions were clear and the FAQ were helpful.


PollDaddy even sent the above email with links to help me learn how to make the products they offer.  One thing I did notice with all three poll options, is that the really desirable poll/survey options require the "pro" options, meaning I would need to pay for the service.  Because I was exploring I chose to maintain the free options for all three sites.

My first attempt at creating a survey with SurveyMonkey was not very successful.  I began by using one of their templates but then became frustrated because I couldn't change the questions even though their help information said I could.  When I created my second SurveyMonkey survey, I did not use a template and had more success.

As a side note - one of the things I am liking about many of the Web 2.0 tools I explored and am using, is that I can log in using my Google account.  This has made it much easier to log in without having to remember which password and user name I used to create my account.

I wanted to embed the survey on my library web site as a pop up but I could not seem to make it work.  I think it is because I am using Weebly and did not write the code for my site myself.  The SurveyMonkey instructions say...


The problem is that I cannot find the <body> tag in html to allow me to create the pop up survey.  Instead I added the survey to the top of the home page.



Looking at this I realize how dumb it is to ask "Have you visited the Hope Secondary Library web site?" when the survey is on the web site so the respondent would have to have visited the site.  Creating these surveys and polls has also made me realize that there is a real science to forming the questions - it is not as easy as I thought it was going to be.

For my PollDaddy poll I decided to create a poll for my class blog to find out what had brought people to the page.  My hope is that the poll will reveal that students are visiting the blog to get assignments, find out what they may have missed, or keep up to date with what is going on in class.  However, I won't be surprised if most of the visitors get to the site by accident because of a Google search on The Kite Runner or Macbeth.


I really liked the look of the PollDaddy poll and I had several options from which to choose.  I think this poll has the "cool factor" that many students will like.  Again, I tried to insert this poll in a widget in the side bar of my blog but I could only make it a link, it would not appear as it does above.


I was surprised that I had difficulty with PollDaddy on my class blog at WordPress because WordPress and PollDaddy claim to be "sister products."  Despite not being able to add the poll to my sidebar, I do like the look of the poll.  The problem is that as soon as I update the blog with my next class post, the poll will move down and out of sight.

On Easypoll I created a "fun" poll for this blog that I also included on my library web site.


Like the other survey/poll tools, Easypolls makes it very easy to create a poll and I could use my Google account to log in - another big plus for me.  I like that when you go to Easypolls.net you are taken dircectly to the create a poll page - there is no extra "clicking" to get to where you need to be.  Once you create your first poll you are asked to create an account (which was one click for me with my Google log in), and then it provides the information you need to post your poll on a blog or web site.  I did not have any trouble getting the html code for this pole to work on both my Blogger blog and my Weebly web site, although I did not like the appearance options for this poll as much as I liked the ones at PollDaddy.


I can definitely see including a weekly or bi-weekly poll on the library web site.  I think this will be more attractive to students than a survey, and may even provide some fun information to include in a display in the library.  This type of poll could also be fun for students to include on their Kidblogs when we do Lit circles in another month.  They could poll the other students reading their book, or even other classmates, to discuss themes or issues presented in their novels.

While I can still see the benefit of doing a survey, I think I need to wait until I am more established in the library and am really looking for some feedback to help me keep the library program moving forward.  For the time being, I think I will stick to the one question polls to add a fun and interesting element to the Library web site or my learning blogs.

References:

Berger, P. & Trexler, S. (2010). Choosing Web 2.0 tools for learning and teaching in a digital world.
     Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

1 comment:

  1. I really like your idea of including a weekly or Bi-weekly poll on the library website.

    ReplyDelete