IMPORTANT: The Surveys module has been moved to the Maintenance stage of the product lifecycle. As such, it is not available to new customers.
Current users can continue to use it, and Higher Logic commits to the conditions of the lifecycle stage as detailed in Higher Logic's Product Life Cycle and Support Assurance Plan.
Conditional Branching
Conditional Branching allows you to create separate paths for survey respondents based on their responses to certain questions. For example, an organization that is conducting an annual perception audit of its customers might have different questions for different customer segments.
To accommodate this, you can create a single survey to send to all customers (rather than creating multiple surveys for the various segments) and then use Conditional Branching to have the survey automatically adapt its course.
NOTE: Conditional Branching works with multiple choice, single-answer questions only, such as those in dropdown lists and radio buttons. Conditional Branching uses skip logic to determine which "branch" to follow based on a respondent's answer.
Skip Logic
Skip Logic is where a respondent's answers determine whether subsequent questions are presented or skipped. (This "present or skip" decision determines the next branch.) This is best explained by the following example of several questions with Yes/No answers.
| Question Number |
Question | Answer Option | Answer Option |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Are you planning a vacation in the next 6 months? | Yes | No |
| 2 | Is this a family vacation? | Yes | No |
| 3 | Will you bring any pets? | Yes | No |
| 4 | Do all those traveling have passports? | Yes | No |
| 5 | Are you planning on buying a new house in the next 6 months? | Yes | No |
- If a respondent answers "Yes" to question 1, then questions 2, 3, and 4 are presented because they are relevant.
- If a respondent answers "No" to question 1, then there is no reason to display questions 2 - 4, and the respondent can be routed directly to question 5.
Configure & manage Conditional Branching
When you create a question using either of the multiple choice, single-answer options (dropdown or radio buttons), a Branch button is displayed in the navigation beneath the question. Click it and a dialog with the conditional branching options is displayed.
For each answer to the question, you can select the type of branching you want. These are detailed in Conditional branching paths, below.
NOTE: You can have unlimited levels of conditional branching in a survey.
While creating or editing a survey that has conditional branching, select an answer from the dropdown adjacent to the branched question in order to see the different branches and sequence of questions (answer-based).
You can edit any question that has conditional branching.
- Click the View/edit branch green button to access the Edit Conditional Branching page, which displays all of the current conditional branchings.
- Make your changes and then click Edit.
Branch multiple answers to the same question
You can branch multiple answers to one question.
For example, assume you create a question Will it rain? with the following possible answers.
- YES
- NO
- MAYBE
- PROBABLY NOT
- DEFINITELY NOT
Now, you can branch the answers:
- YES and MAYBE to the follow-up question How much will it rain? and
- NO, PROBABLY NOT, and DEFINITELY NOT to a different follow-up question Why do you think it will not rain?
Conditional Branching paths
Let’s look at each of these in more detail using the example question: Will it rain? The potential responses and subsequent actions are:
- YES > Branch to a new question
- NO > Branch to an existing question
- Question was not answered > End survey
Branch to a new question
If the respondent answers YES, then we want to create a new question, How much will it rain?. Select the answer YES and the Branch to a new question option, and then click the Add Question button. The new question window will appear where you can create the question. Whenever a respondent answers YES, the question How much will it rain? will display.
Branch to an existing question
If the respondent answers NO, then we want to display a question that we have already created in our survey. Select the answer NO and then select Branch to an existing question. A dropdown of all questions will be displayed. (If you have created more than one page, then a dropdown with eligible questions will appear separately for each page). Select the question you wish to branch to and then click the Add question button.
End Survey
If the respondent does not answer the question, then we want to end the survey for that person. Select the answer and then select End Survey. Next click the Add Question button. When a respondent does not answer this question and submits the form, he/she will be taken directly to the confirmation page.