Using Survey Monkey in the classroom Ellen Sholk

Using Survey Monkey in the classroom Ellen Sholk Montpelier High School Spanish teacher

Coffee Unit - 2009 Each year, I have my Spanish 4 students research the production of coffee in several Latin American countries. Students create blogs, teach classmates about their country’s coffee production, and make connections between local consumers and the global production of coffee.

Gathering Data on Coffee Consumption Students are divided into groups (we had 6 this year). Each group was responsible for surveying a different demographic: Male Faculty Female Faculty Freshmen Sophomores Juniors Seniors

Survey on Coffee Consumption Using Survey. Monkey, students were to create 10 questions that they would ask regarding the coffee-drinking preferences, and the knowledge of coffee production, of their demographic groups.

Using Survey Monkey Our school has a professional quarterly account that was for the use of students and faculty. Each group had access to the account. Students agreed as a class on 2 basic questions to be asked. Then, each group added its own 8 questions, for a total of 10.

Some examples …. “Guatemala” team survey on Survey. Monkey. com 1 st step: Design the survey Questions can be multiple choice, single or multiple answer, or fill-ins, plus other options. There is an option to allow comments You could ask for ID as one of the questions, although our students opted out of this.

Links to our student surveys: http: //mhsbusinessdept. blogspot. com/ http: //colombiacoffeeunit. blogspot. com/ http: //thisismexicancoffee. blogspot. com/ http: //guatemalacoffeeunit. blogspot. com/ http: //perucoffeeunit. blogspot. com http: //montpeliercostarica. blogspot. com/

Creating a Survey Themes are available as a selection. After creating the questions, you set the preferences for collecting responses: Link from webpage or e-mail; upload your own e-mails and have the responses tracked via Survey. Monkey; pop-up invitation from web page.

Distribution Pros and Cons Our students sent out links in e-mails. Problem: students (and a lot of staff), don’t regularly check school email…. that’s a whole other story, btw!! Survey might have to appear on school website in order to get a large sample? Or (student suggestion here) TEXT everybody the link…. .

Collection Preferences You can allow single or multiple responses. You can allow people to go back and change answers, or not. You can include a “thank you” page (this is only in the paid version, not the free one) You can have the window close after the survey is completed, or else redirect respondents to your website.

More options for collection of data Add a cutoff date and time. Enable password protection. Enable IP blocking. Set a maximum response count. Enter data collected manually (if a paper version were included, for instance). Stop collecting data by closing the collector.

Analyzing Results Survey. Monkey automatically presents bar charts showing your results. You can browse responses to see how any individual has replied to all the questions. You can cross-tab responses. For instance, of the people who drink coffee, what is the percentage who drink one cup a day?

The Upside to Survey Monkey There is a free version (10 question limit). It’s very user-friendly. You don’t need a Google account The data is uploaded and stored on the Web. Analysis of data easily done.

The Downside to Survey Monkey It’s not interactive with Google. For a school environment, you may have difficulty controlling who responds. Doesn’t make pie charts or other visuals.

School uses of Survey Monkey Teaches students to analyze data. In our class, students learned that the wording of their questions was extremely important. Students learn how to be critics of other surveys and their possible flaws. Teachers can use it for responses to a lesson, getting feedback from students quickly and fairly easily (if students check website or email!).