Introduction to LimeSurvey
Online surveys can be used for any type of data collection, not just for marketing purposes. Possible uses of surveys are sign-up forms for conferences, questionnaires for research projects, order forms, etc. For students and employees of the beta-faculty, C&CZ offers a survey service based on LimeSurvey.
LimeSurvey is an open source web application. It currently offers:
- Sending of invitations, reminders and tokens by email
- Multilingual surveys
- Conditions for questions depending on earlier answers (Skip Logic / Branching)
- Integration of pictures and movies into a survey
Logging in
The admin login page is located at:
https://u1.survey.science.ru.nl/admin/
It is not necessary to request access: any Science login can login.
Use policy
Take care of the following items before activating a survey:
- Specify a survey email address (General settings > Admin email). You might want to ask us for a dedicated mail alias.
- Set an expiry date (General settings > Publication & access control > Expiry date/time). This allows us to see if there are active surveys.
Preparing a survey
After logging in to the admin interface of LimeSurvey, you can create new surveys, edit existing surveys and view / download responses. The following hints will help you to get familiar with LimeSurveys user interface:
Nested interface
The structure of a survey in LimeSurvey is nested: survey > question groups > questions. At the top right of the admin interface, you’ll find a selection list to choose a survey, question group or question.
Question groups
Generally, you’ll start creating a survey, add one or more question groups, followed by adding questions. For your first basic survey, you’ll probably be looking for a way to add questions to a survey. You can’t find that option on the survey level. Question groups are mandatory! So. first add a single question group, then start adding the questions to it.
Online documentation
There’s excellent online documentation. You’ll probably want to start reading here at docs.limesurvey.org. This particular link points to the section explaining how to get your questions into a survey.
Youtube crash course in ten minutes
This is a quite clear video that shows how to get started creating a first survey.