Excel Survey App

At Georgia College, all faculty, staff, and students have a OneDrive (used to be called SkyDrive) account with 25GB of storage.  It is similar to the free OneDrive account, except the business account has additional security features agreed upon with a University of Georgia System contract.

When reviewing the OneDrive for Business features this past weekend, I discovered the ability to create a survey using Excel Survey - from the listing of new file types.  Initially, I was really excited about the alternative for Google Forms, which does not provide a secure environment.  However, once I explored Excel Survey, I was immediately disappointed!  I cannot believe that Microsoft engineers released the app!!!  I know that they have the ability, because the forms feature was a part of Frontpage web design software many years ago.

• Unlike Google forms, the designed has only one opportunity to design, edit, and obtain a link to share the survey. 
• The designer can give the survey a title and subtitle, but the number of characters and lines is limited.

The survey does provide different answer types.  When data is entered, like Google Forms, it shows up in a spreadsheet.  The two bullet points above are the weaknesses of the survey tool.  SurveyMonkey and Google Forms are better free alternatives.

Security of Data When Using Online Surveys for Research

I was offering advise this morning to a colleague who is doing her research online.  When doing so, I questioned the validity of something I said regarding using Google Drive forms for research.  I investigated the topic and found a webpage, Keeping your account secure, by Google to be extremely useful.  The website is at http://support.google.com/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=46526

If you followed all of the advise on the website, research data should be secure if you use Google Drive forms. The two-factor authentication is very important.  The information regarding security is applicable to everyone, whether they are doing research or not.