Reporting on the Questions data

Learn how to interpret the data collected using the Questions tool

Vishwas Prasad avatar
Written by Vishwas Prasad
Updated over a week ago

If you have used the Questions tool as part of a project, it's important to consider how you are going to interpret and present the data you have collected.

In this article, we understand how to use data collected via the Questions tool for reporting on your consultation. Detailed below are options to either view the tool report on screen or download the detailed report or use a comment analysis report.

Before you begin

Before you begin reporting, ensure that you've archived the tool, so you are certain that you are working with the final dataset. Of course, if you choose, you can begin working on your data before the end of the consultation period, you just need to be aware that you may not be working with the final data set. Looking at your data before the consultation ends can be a good thing to do if you would like to pull out some preliminary insights.

To report the final dataset, you first need to ensure that your project is archived, so there are no new contributions in your tool. Archiving a project will still display project information but will not accept new contributions. You can read the detailed article on Archiving your project to learn how to archive and understand the implications of archiving.

Using the Detailed Report

One of the best ways to explore and work with data collected from your Questions activity is to use the Detailed Excel Report download.

To generate this report, click on Reporting > Project Reports. The Summary page is displayed.

In the Summary page, select the project and time period to filter the data for your report in the dropdown list. If your consultation is archived, you can use the All Time option to select the whole period of your consultation. Click on Update.

Next, click on the Download Reports dropdown list and select the Excel option for the Detailed Report section. If the button is not clickable, ensure that you have not selected more than 5 projects for the report.

Open the downloaded folder and access the excel file of the project you wish to analyze. The detailed report downloaded, will have a separate file for each project selected. Open your project file.

Locate the tab at the bottom of the excel sheet which corresponds to the Questions activity you would like to analyze. You may have several tools activated on this project so each tab will represent a different tool instance on your project.

There are three main sections for exploring the excel data; 

Summary information about your activity. You can see this pane on the left-hand side in blue. This gives you an overview of participation and a breakdown of the user status of participants. E.g. Registered, Unverified, Anonymous.

Contribution information is displayed in the green section. This information includes the following; Contributors details (date and time, login and contributor summary), question posted by the participant, the response type (if answered publicly or privately) and the admin response to the query.

Sign-up form questions are shown in the blue section and allow you to filter your responses based on these questions. This information will be complete for only those participants who have signed-in to complete the activity. Sign-up form information won't be available in the excel sheet if you have selected unverified participation.

Using Detailed Report is the best way to look at your data as a whole and begin to explore it.

Using Tool Reports

Another way to explore the feedback collected is to use the Tool Reports section of Reporting. This will allow you to generate some useful graphs and further explore your Questions data.

To begin using Tool Reports go to the Reporting > Tool Reports section of your site and click on the Questions link in the left-hand menu.

Use filters to select the project you would like to look at and also select the data range. Click on Update to generate your report.

The page will be refreshed with the newly generated report for the projects and time period selected. Below is a description of data represented in each of the sections seen on the report.

Overview

Use the Overview section of the Tool Reports page to compare different Questions activities.

The Overview section presents your data as a scatter bubble, allowing you to easily compare the amount of engagement between each Questions tool used. 

To filter your data, use the dropdown Select a Qanda to view its details option to select the Questions tool you would like to look at, in detail. 

This section also displays the unique summary information about the activity in the call-out box on the right-hand side. Here, you can see the number of visitors, number of unique contributors, and contributions as well as information about whether the participants were registered. Read our article on How site visits and visitors are captured to understand this number further.

You can easily export this graph to include your report by clicking on the hamburger icon (highlighted below). Simply choose the format for your export and download your selected option.

Using the Overview section is a great way to quickly check on this activity, compare it to the others, and quickly download a chart.

Demographics

Using the Demographics section is an easy way to quickly report on who was involved in your Questions activity.

The demographics information presented is gathered from your site sign-up form, so it's important that this form reflects the demographic questions you require for reporting. For more information read our article on Developing a registration form to know how the sign-up form should be created, so that the required information is gathered for reporting.

Sign-up form questions are used to show demographic insights. Any of the sign-up form questions can be selected from the dropdown list.

The button on the left can be used to print or download the graph.

Demographics information is useful for reporting as it helps you better explain the profile of people who participated in your Q&A activity. 

Q&A’s Visitor Statistics

Using the Q&A’s Visitor Statistics panel allows you to easily compare your activities in a table. This information is particularly useful for comparing the number of contributors to an activity.

This section shows details of every Q&A tool from each project selected for reporting. It details the number of visitors, questions asked, questions answered publicly and questions answered privately.

Q&A Insights

Insights allow you to see all submissions on your Q&A activity. 

This section displays the Q&A submissions from the participant and if the question was answered. You can select the Q&A tools you would like to analyze by selecting them from the dropdown list.

You can also filter the submissions displayed based on the sign-up form questions, so for example, you can filter suburb, to only see the questions from a particular locality.

Using the Text Analysis report

Since Questions & Answers are free form text, it will be useful to analyse the topic discussion using the Text Analysis tool and then extracting a report. Read our article on Text Analysis to get detailed instructions.

What's Next?

Why not circle back and take another look at our article on Adding the Q&A Tool to review the information you are collecting in the tool to get the required insights.

Contact our support team if you need any further assistance via chat or email support@engagementhq.com

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