Help me refine a Google Form summer camp survey for parents/caregivers

August 24, 2022 8:26 AM

We sent a Google Forms feedback survey to our parents last year and really appreciated getting details on what was working and what we could improve on in the future. I'm refining the survey for this summer and am struggling to figure how to build it to do what I need - basically, moving to a subset of questions when a checkbox (on a long list of checkboxes) is clicked and then going back to the original list of checkboxes so you can repeat the process until done.

Question 1 - What program(s) did your child attend. Please check all that apply.
18 checkboxes (1 for each summer program)

I'd like each checkbox they choose to open up a sub set of 3 questions about the specifics of the program (instruction, communication etc.) After they finish the first program responses then they would go back to the original list to click the next program and get the sub menu again. So, if their child attended 4 different programs at our facility this summer, they would do this routine 4 times.

What is the best way to do this? I feel like you need the checkboxes because there are 18 options and some people might have only attended 1 program. Any suggestions are appreciated.

posted by victoriab to Technology (4 answers total)

Your key words are something like "skip logic", "branching", or "conditional logic". See here, here, and here.

I would have someone do all the checkboxes, and each checkbox opens a subset of questions for that program specifically. So they won't go back to the checkboxes, but they'll see something - you'll choose maybe a heading? or something in the question text? - that will cue them that they're entering information about Program A, then Program B, etc. GoogleForms will do this with sections as well.

Which programs did your child attend?
Program A
Program B
Program C

(If program A checked:
Program A: Did your child like the instructor?
Program A: Did your child bring lunch?)

(If program B checked:
Program B: Did your child like the instructor?
Program B: Did your child bring lunch?) etc.
posted by quadrilaterals at 8:44 AM on August 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

Are you required to use Google Forms? If not, Jotform might be an easier and more powerful tool to use. My team uses it for a similar scenario (a form that uses logic to decide what fields to display). You can browse their survey templates here.
posted by neushoorn at 10:11 AM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

I’m not sure if you’re looking for just technical help or if you’re interested in other feedback. If the latter, I’d say that it might be helpful to have a way for parents to fill out the subset of questions just once if their child attended multiple session (and especially if it was a similar or the same type of camp). My kid attended the same summer camp for eight weeks, and if I was sent a survey where I had to evaluate each week separately, I’d probably get annoyed around the second or third subset of questions, close the survey, and never submit it.
posted by maleficent at 12:01 PM on August 24, 2022

Response by poster: Thanks so much for the feedback so far.

Quadrilaterals - Thanks for the links...having the videos really helps me!

Neushoorn - I don't absolutely have to use Google Forms but we used it for our previous surveys so we'll probably stick with it. I have used Jotform in the past and will take another look at it for the future.

Maleficent...excellent point. I'm only having them do it once for the entire summer, no matter how many weeks they went. What makes it a little more complicated is that we offer a wide variety of camps throughout the summer (LEGO, Sports, Cooking, Sewing, General Rec, Art, Science etc.) so we'll have kids that could potentially do 10 different programs over the summer. I don't want to make the process too challenging for parents but I also want to get a good sense for what they like and don't like about the specific programs.
posted by victoriab at 12:31 PM on August 24, 2022