Creating Custom Survey Content

  • Updated
 
 

Why Custom Content Matters

We encourage our school and district partners to use our survey instruments to collect valid and reliable data from their students, teachers and staff, and families. Learn more about Panorama’s principles of survey design here

However, we recognize the value in utilizing previously developed instruments or incorporating custom questions that align with your school or district's specific context and priorities. Continue reading below to learn more about  adding custom questions to your Panorama survey and/or creating an entirely custom survey using Panorama Admin Tools. 

NOTE: This article is only relevant if you have access to Panorama's survey creation tools. If you see an 'Admin' / ‘Platform Admin’ button within your ‘Applications’ icon in the top right-hand corner of your screen, then this article is for you. If you don't have access to the survey creation tools, please reach out to your Panorama project team for support.

Notice regarding parental consent

Panorama Survey content is in compliance with the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment and protected information survey requirements.

There are laws that protect students from being asked about certain topics without parental consent. These topics include, but are not limited to, political affiliations, sexual behaviors, religious practices, and any illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating, or demeaning behavior.

Please familiarize yourself with these laws before adding custom content about sensitive topics.

How to Add Custom Questions to your Panorama Survey

Within the Content Tool in your Panorama platform, you can add custom questions to your Panorama survey. To create a survey with custom questions, follow these steps: 

1. Click on “Create new content” (Figure 1.).

(Figure 1.)

2. Choose from the Panorama survey instruments available to you (Figure 2.).

 

(Figure 2.)

3. Once you select your preferred survey instrument, a pop-up will appear with relevant information about the survey (Figure 3.). From here, you can explore the survey's user guide (A)  to understand the topics and questions available in each survey instrument. You can also rename the survey to align to your school or district’s context (B). 

(Figure 3.)

4. Click the checkbox to add the topics from the left sidebar that you want to measure (Figure 4.)

(Figure 4.)

5. Use the green “pencil icon” (Figure 5.) to edit the name of your survey to best align to your school and/or district’s priorities. 

(Figure 5.)

6. Once you have selected your Panorama content, scroll to the bottom of your survey template to add your custom header and question (Figure 6.).  

(Figure 6.)

a. Click on “Add a header” to create a section within your survey for your custom questions (Figure 6a.).

(Figure 6a.)

b. Click on “Add a question” to draft the text of your question, select the topic you would like that question to fall under, choose the question type, and include the answer choices (Figure 6b.).

(Figure 6b.)

NOTE: We do not automatically provide translations for custom content. Please see this resource for instructions on how to add translations to your custom questions.

How to Draft Custom Questions in your Panorama Survey

After you click on “Add a question” at the bottom of your survey template, you will follow a series of steps to draft your custom question.

1. Type in your question in the question box (Figure 7.).

(Figure 7.)

2. Select the topic you want the question to fall under. We encourage you to type in a topic that is related to the custom questions you are asking. For example, if you are adding custom questions about your extracurricular programming and after school learning opportunities, your topic could be ‘Extracurricular activities’ (Figure 8.).

(Figure 8.)

3. The next step is to select your question type. You can select from four options, which will impact your answer choices (Figure 9.):

(Figure 9.)

Click a tab below to see additional information for each question type: 

  • Multiple Choice Questions

    If you select “Multiple Choice”, you will see three options: “Score this question”, “Do not score” and “Use as a background question” (Figure 11.).

     

    (Figure 11.)

  • Score this question
  • Scoring a question allows you to view the percentage of respondents who responded favorably to the question (Figure 12.). 

     

    (Figure 12.)

  • By opting to score a question, you will select one of three options for each answer choice (Figure 13.): 

    •  
      • Not Favorable answers typically represent the remaining answer choices that were not designated as Favorable and represent negative answer choices.
      • Unscored answers, like "I don't know" or "N/A", are not included when calculating the percent favorable.
      • Favorable answers are most often, the top two positive answer choices for a question with five answer choices, and the top three for a question with seven answer choices.

    (Figure 13.)

     

  • Do not score
  • When you select “Do not score”, you can proceed with typing out the multiple choice answers. Respondents will be able to select one answer and this question will not be scored (Figure 14.)

    (Figure 14.)

     

  • Use as a background question
  • Selecting "Use as a background question" allows you to disaggregate survey data by responses to the questions. This helps illuminate how different groups within your community responded to your survey. Most often, background questions gather more information related to the demographics of the survey respondent.

    We strongly recommend adding background questions for anonymous surveys. 

    Below is an example of how your survey results will be disaggregated (Figure 15.) based on the demographic information you include in your roster and/or collect via background questions:

    (Figure 15.)

     

  • Free Response & Short Answer

    Selecting “Free Response” or “Short Answer” allows respondents to type in their answer to the question without selecting from multiple choice options (Figure 16.). Here are some differences between Free Response and Short Answer question types:
    Feature Free Response Short Answer
    Survey Reports Responses will appear in survey reports and can be aggregated into a free response word cloud. Responses do not appear in survey reports. You can request an export of these responses from your Panorama team or submit a support request.
    Text Box Size Provides a large text box for detailed answers. Offers a smaller text box for concise answers.
    Best Use Case Use for open-ended questions that require detailed insights. Use for collecting brief, quick responses.
  • (Figure 16.)

     

4. The final step is to save your custom question by clicking on the “Save” button (Figure 17.). You will have to repeat all of these steps for each custom question you add to your survey. 

(Figure 17.)

After selecting your Panorama content and adding your custom questions, you can preview your survey at any time by clicking on “View Sample Survey” or “Save as PDF” at the top of your survey template (Figure 18.). 

(Figure 18.)

NOTE: Whenever you add any custom questions, you will have to replicate the process for every survey template. For example, student surveys have a grades 3-5 template and a grades 6-12 template. If you add a custom question in the grades 3-5 template you will have to manually add that question to the grades 6-12 template. 

How to Create an Entirely Custom Survey Using Panorama Admin Tools

You are able to create surveys with all custom questions instead of using one of Panorama's survey instruments. Follow these steps to create an entirely custom survey:

1. Click on “Create new content” (Figure 19.).

(Figure 19.)

2. Scroll to the bottom of your Survey Content page and select the option to “Create Custom Instrument” (Figure 20.).

(Figure 20.)

3. Fill out the required information (indicated with an asterisk) in the “Create Custom Survey” pop-up and then click on “Create Instrument” (Figure 21.).

  •  
    • Name: Type in your survey’s name 
    • What type of survey instrument is this?: Select whether the survey is a Feedback Survey, a Social Emotional Learning Survey, or a Community Survey 
    • Who will be answering these questions?: Select your survey respondents (students, teachers and staff, family members, or  community members)
    • What are these questions about?: Select whether the survey is about the district, the school, classroom and teaching, the employee, or the student

(Figure 21.)

4. Add your custom header and questions (Figure 22.).

(Figure 22.)

5. Follow the steps to draft custom questions in your Panorama survey.

Note: As you continue measuring the same topics across your survey administrations, you are able to track change over time. To ensure you have change over time data once your survey reports become available, there must be more than a 50% overlap between the questions on a particular topic in the current survey and those from previous surveys. For example, if your fall survey included 6 questions under a customized topic like "Student Mindset," the spring survey should include 4 or more of the same questions in order to measure change over time data.

If you would like to learn how to customize one of the existing Panorama survey questions, you can explore this page.

Still have questions about creating custom survey content? Email us at support@panoramaed.com

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