Online Coding Tool Overview

Note: Users must have special access permission to use the Online Coding functionality for a survey - click here for details. The survey administrator (owner) automatically has this permission, but for any users who do not, the Online Coding command will not be available in the menu.

Note: This functionality will be available for surveys using the Optimized or Legacy database format, with the following limitations.
1) Coding and coded questions belonging to different loop levels are not supported.
2) Only filters based on Interview Status and/or survey variables can be used.
3) Variables from loops are not shown in Expression Builder within the Add/Edit Filter dialog.
4) Questions of types Date and Ranking are not supported in Expression Builder.

The coding system is a tool for coding "open-text" questions such that the answers given by the respondents can be given codes and code frames.

This system has been designed to enable coders to classify ”open-text” (open or open-ended) questions into categories, thereby allowing reports to be constructed from these questions in the same way as for single and multi questions. Open-text questions (forms) are here defined as Open and Open Text List questions, and open-ended questions (any question where the “other” functionality is enabled in the answer list of the question). An example of how one can make use of online coding can be seen in the following report images. In this example, the respondents were asked in an open-text question to provide answers describing what criteria are most important when considering buying a new car. Through use of the online coding, coders are able to take the open-text answers and code them into specific categories thus making this information available for reporting purposes.

The report below shows the respondents’ answers from the open-text questions. The table here and chart here show how the answers can be used in reporting after having been re-coded.

Figure 1 - Example of respondent answers for the open-text question before coding

Figure 2 - A Sample example

The sample table was produced in reporting, using the re-coded open-text answers as displayed in the previous list. Note that any answers not belonging to a specific category were coded as "other", and the answers which fit into one of the available categories such as Safety, Comfort, Engine… were given codes accordingly.

Figure 3 - This Chart was produced using open-text answers after the online coding was complete

Main Features

The main features of the coding system are:

• For each open-text question (answer), a single or multi question is required in order to define the available codes for the question (answer). Specifying the corresponding open/open-ended question (answer) in the properties for the single/multi question links these two questions (go to Adding Single or Multi Questions for more information).
• A permission control panel is used to show the status of the questions, and to lock and unlock questions. The basic idea is to have multiple accesses to one survey and single access to one question within this survey (go to Locking Questions for Coding for more information).
• The main windows of the coding system are:
• The Administrate Online Coding Window is available to users with the Administrate Online Coding permission for the survey. From the Assign Coders tab, the coding administrator is able to allocate questions to coders, and export response data for open-text questions. From the Filters tab the coding administrator can create, modify, activate and delete filters.
• The Online Coding tab is available to users with the Code Opentext permission for the survey. The coder can chose an open-text question and code its answers (go to Coding Window for more information).

Coding Screen Size

The User Settings page (go to User Account Settings for more information) contains a setting that is of interest to the Coding Administrator. This is the Coding Screen Size setting, located towards the bottom of the page. To access this setting:

1. Go to the Home > User > Settings menu command or click on the User: link towards the upper-right corner of the window.

The User Settings window opens - .

Figure 4 - The User Settings window

• Coding screen size - This is the maximum number of answers that can be displayed on one screen while coding. The size will be set to 15 as default the first time the coding tool is used, but can be changed at any time. To do this, enter the desired number and click Save.

Applying Codes to a List

If you have created a filtered list, you can apply any code(s) entered to the entire selected list. To do this, click Apply to filtered list.

Note: For open-text questions coded by a Multi, you can specify one or several codes to apply to the list. Separate the codes using any of supported delimiters; dot, comma or space. The code(s) will be appended to the selected list, and the process will not remove any existing codes.
However, if the “open text” questions are coded by a Single, then only one code can be specified to be applied to the list. In this case, the entered code will replace all existing codes in the selected list.