What can I learn from this page?	The different survey question types, including rating scale, free text, single select, multiple select & their impact on reporting.
Who is this guide for?	Account Admins, Survey Admins, Survey Creators

When designing your survey, there are different formats that can be used for the survey questions. Choose the question type that makes the survey experience easy for people, and also gives you the data in the format you need for analysis purposes.

Question type	Answer details	Impact on participants	Impact on reports
Rating – a scale of answers is required – is quantitative	Agreement is our default type of rating scale but there are others to choose from	Is colorful and fun! People get to leave an optional comment per question	Favorable responses are expressed as a percentage agreement score. Results are viewed in all reports. All Rating questions assigned to a Factor will contribute to the overall percentage agreement score for the factor. Responses can be used in impact analysis.
Free Text – a qualitative written answer is required	There is an option to have the respondent classify their comment into a single ‘bucket’ called a comment tag. There is an option to enable an ‘Other’ tag allowing respondents a general bucket for their comments if no other tags are relevant.	Freedom to write what you like	Results viewed only in Comments Report – can filter results by comment tag. A minimum of 5 responses is usually required before comments can be displayed in the report. If you have defined ‘tags’ for the comment question you can filter the comment report by these tags. Harder to analyze large volumes of comments. Responses are not used to calculate impact.
Single Select – one choice is to be made by the respondent from a list of available choices	The select options need to be defined as well as the ranking of each option in the list. There is an option to enable an ‘Other’ answer. If there are twelve or more select options listed and you haven’t specified an Other option – they will automatically be displayed in a searchable drop-down list in the survey. Single select options can also be used to ask true/false questions. Select options can be defined as true/false, yes/no or correct/incorrect.	Fast to complete the survey but can’t add optional comments unless another free-text question has been set up underneath	All responses are listed as a percentage but do not contribute to the factor scores. Good for making people select their ‘top’ or best’ choice. Do not appear as scores in the reports – so harder to compare to overall scores or between demographics. Responses are not used to calculate impact.
Multiple Select – several choices can be made by the respondent from a list of available choices	The select options need to be defined as well as the ranking of each option in the list. There is an option to enable an ‘Other’ answer. There is a ‘Selection Limit’ which defaults to 3 – allowing participants to select up to the defined limit of options. When the ‘unlimited’ option is chosen participants see a ‘Please select all that are relevant’ message for the question.	Fast to complete the survey but can’t add optional comments unless another free-text question has been set up underneath	All responses are listed as a percentage but do not contribute to the factor scores. Good for making people select their ‘top’ or best’ choices – can approximate a ranking. Do not appear as scores in the reports – so harder to compare to overall scores or between demographics. Responses are not used to calculate impact.