Management > Demographics Page

Demographics Page- Branching Questions

Branching questions let you choose which topic questions will be asked later in a survey, according to the answer given in a question.

For example, upon indicating a specialization in Science Education on the survey, the following questions will all relate to that rather than General Education. Once respondents complete a topic section relevant only to them, they can either be directed to another specific topic in your survey, flow to the next topic or terminate the survey.

Branching questions give you one comprehensive survey for your institution that covers many programs and groups, whereas the respondents see a much shorter survey consisting only of common questions to the whole institution, and any other questions specific to them. The example on the right shows this graphically.

If you're thinking about creating a branching question, remember that departments may have their own demographics. You can specify this when you edit a topic, and can allow you to assign a demographic 'topic' to a department without having to specify any branching. If this is done, only the students submitting assessment in that department will see those questions.

It is important to note that when several questions with multiple answers are asked in the same topic, you can only branch from the first question. You should organize the survey so that a branching question is asked before the second multiple-answer question. For example, consider a survey where the first question asks what your teaching specialties are (to which you may choose two or three areas), and the second asks which programs you are a member of (to which, again, you may belong to several). You would only be able to successfully branch from the teaching specialties question unless you specifically re-ordered the survey so that the other question was asked first.

You can initiate a branch from one answer in a question to many questions associated with a topic by editing a topic and either adding a new question, or editing an existing one.

1.Add a new branching question

• Edit a topic you have previously created and ensure the On Completion drop down list is set to Continue to next topic. Click the Add Question link at the bottom of the page. See below:
  
  
  
• You will be presented with a form that permits you to set up a new question that is automatically linked to the topic.
  

2. Make an existing question branch

• Edit a question in an existing topic and ensure the On Completion drop down list is set to Continue to next topic. You will then be able to link each possible answer in the question to a topic for the first time, change the topic with which it is associated, or choose not to link it to a branching topic. This is explained below.

Use the drop menus next to the If chosen, branch to: title to decide which topic will be displayed if a respondent makes this particular choice. If an answer has been chosen that has been set to branch to a topic, they will be switched to that topic and all its associated questions. Where possible, when setting up answer choices, every choice should have a destination specified in the If chosen, branch to: drop down list. If it is not currently possible for you to identify where it choice should branch to, you can edit the question later and update the branch destination.

When you return to the main demographics page you will see the results of your branching designated by a "-->" and the associated topic name.

Management > Demographics Page