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!"

OMR

OMR is an acronym for Optical Mark Recognition. You can read more about OMR here.
OMR forms are used for collecting data. Preparation of this type of form involves several critical steps.

Obviously, one needs to thoughtfully determine the kind of data that needs to be gathered and layout the questions in a clear, understandable format. These questions are then sent to the designer to figure out the best way to present these questions in an attractive layout. The designer needs to understand how the OMR scanner reads this information and position the questions and related response bubbles in just the right position on the form to assure that the scanner can accurately read the information. When the form design or layout is approved by the customer, the electronic form is moved to the printing phase. It is critical that the printer also understands the importance of consistent positioning of the printed sheet according to the layout. Below is a grid layout that represents the critical positioning of an OMR form.
As you can see, there are several grid density options to use based on the amount of data required for the form.

The two basic elements of this grid are the timing marks and the response bubbles. The timing marks appear in one column on one edge of the sheet. These rectangular marks are viewed by the scanner as the sheet travels through it. A timing mark determines when to begin and end the viewing of the corresponding row of bubbles and record the results. A typical form can have up to 48 bubbles across the sheet. In order for the scanner to know what bubbles to look at, a file called a scanning definition needs to be created with the scanning software prior to the actual scanning process. This scanning definition tells the scanner which bubble or bubbles in the grid to look at if filled in, record the assigned value. These values or results are then added to an Excel type data file as each form is scanned. When the scanning is finished the results are then tabulated with the use of special reporting software.

If the quality of the original scan form has been compromised by sloppy layout or printing processes, then the scanned data and the tabulated results potentially may not be reliable.

OMR is a great time-saving process in collecting data but can also create a huge headache if not done correctly.

Software: Slugger: Issues: Printing Problems

I just received a call from a customer in education who bought multiple copies of Slugger, a program that enables you to overprint personalized data on a preprinted OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) evaluation form. This customer has an evaluation form that is common to multiple campuses that needs personalization with data that is unique to each campus.

Slugger is an excellent program to accomplish this, but it does have a couple of bugs. The problem is that when an overprinting document is created (a .ofc file), it records the printer name and parameters in the first line of this file. If you open the .ofc file with another copy of Slugger on a different computer and try to print to a different printer, you won't be allowed to do so.

The workaround for this problem is as follows:

1. Create a new dummy .ofc file on the machine that you want to print from and add at least one grid.
2. Under the 'File>Print Setup' menu, choose your desired printer and set up the page size, orientation and tray settings and then save your document.
3. Open the original .ofc file created on the first machine in a text editor such as Wordpad.
4. Open up the the new file just created on the new machine in the same text editor.
5. Using copy and paste, replace the second line of the original file with the second line of the second containing the new printer definition information and save the document.

Now you will be able to print to the new printer and even change to other printers on that machine. Unfortunately, there will never be any more updates to this software to correct this glitch so this is the ONLY solution to this issue.

Even considering the weaknesses of this dated piece of software, we personally prefer to use, sell and recommend Slugger as our favorite software package to personalize OMR evaluation forms.

If you are interested in purchasing Slugger or if you have any other questions regarding it's use, please, give us a call at Survey Systems, Inc. 1-800-473-7188.

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.

Check back often or subscribe to our RSS feed for future postings.