Online Evaluation Surveys

There is a "green" trend in the survey business. People are slowly moving away from printed survey documents and towards online evaluation surveys. There are many advantages to this move. With the proliferation of WiFi in most locations where people congregate, wireless cards in laptops and WiFi enabled smartphones, more folks are opting for the convenience of technology in data collection. If you google 'online surveys' and you will find a plethera of online survey software and businesses to suit your every possible situation. It can be overwhelming to say the least.

I dare say that most data-centric researchers don't really want to have to learn the ins and outs of setting up and maintaining an online evaluation project. Considering all the details of buying and learning specialized survey software, designing survey forms in a browser environment, webhosting issues and costs, database construction, etc., can leave one's head spinning.

There are a few online survey specialists midst all the "do-it-yourself" packages that can take care of all the details for you. You simply supply the questions and they will do the rest. Don't get me wrong, the challenge of creating an online survey can be a rewarding learning experience and provide you with many new tools to achieve your data collection goals for future projects. I know, that's what I do. There are plenty of tools out there for you to choose from and free instructional information on the web. Most people, however, like to leave these things to the specialists. Trust me. You will definitely sleep better. We have a motto where I work where we view ourselves as your survey mechanics. "You drive!...We'll take care of the rest!"

Survey Systems launches OMR blog

September 12, 2008, Survey Systems, Inc. launched a new blog called SURVEY SYSTEMATICS.
This first blog entry comes more in the way of a press release to announce it's creation, drawing some attention from those in the OMR crowd. "What is OMR?" you ask.

OMR stands for Optical Mark Recognition. It's not like you have to know what it is to have ever used it. You probably have filled in those funny looking survey forms with the rectangular marks down one side of the sheet and the little bubbles that you color in to indicate your answers to given questions. I remember randomly filling in those bubbles on something called the Iowa Basic Skills Tests when I was young. ;-)

OMR is a technology used for data collection from paper based surveys and evaluations. It requires very precise designing and printing procedures and specialized scanning equipment for accurate data collection. This is not an inexpensive or simple process. You will need the knowledge, experience and equipment for the detailed tasks in preparing a course, instructor or satisfaction evaluation form or survey. Hopefully many will come to this site to learn about all the unique processes and issues related to OMR form design, printing, scanning and reporting. We will also review the various kinds of OMR software, scanners and services.

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