Creating a Vote & Rank Survey with Individual Links
This article covers how faculty, staff, and students can create a vote & rank survey in Qualtrics and distribute it with individual links for each voter, but with security settings that anonyimize the results so voters are not linked with their votes.
1. Log in to the campus portal and access Qualtrics.
2. Click Create a new project.
3. Scroll down on the right to the Project templates section and select Vote and Rank. Or enter vote and rank in the filter on the left and then select Vote and Rank.
- Scroll down on the right to the Project templates section and then select Vote and Rank.
- Or enter vote and rank in the filter search on the left.
- Then select Vote and Rank.
4. Click Get Started in the Vote and Rank pop-up window.
5. Enter a name for your project/survey. Select the folder you want to save the project in (if applicable). Then click Create Project.
- Enter a name for your survey/project.
- Select the folder you want to save the project in (if applicable).
- Then click Create project.
6. Review the instruction "question" and then delete it.
The instruction question contains helpful tips about how to use this pre-built survey, so feel free to keep it on the survey as long as you need. Just be sure to delete it before you send your survey!
- To delete the instruction question, click on the three dots on the right of the question.
- Then select Delete.
7. Click on a question to edit the question text.
8. Click on an answer to edit the answer text. Click on the carat button next to the answer for additional options, including removing the answer.
- Click on an answer to edit the answer text.
- Click on the carat button next to the answer for additional options for this answer.
- Click Remove Choice to remove the answer.
9. If you see the IQ icon next to a question, click on it. Then click See Details to find out more about why this question may not meet accessibility requirements and how to fix it.
- Click on the IQ icon.
- Then click See Details.
10. To add a new question, click on Add new question below the final question on the survey. Or click the plus sign icon above or below any question to quickly add a new question to that location.
- Click Add new question to select the type of question you want to add. The question will be created below the final question on the survey, but you can move it.
- Click the plus sign icon above or below a question to quickly add a new question. The question will usually be a multiple choice question by default, but you can use the panel on the left to change the question type.
10.1. If you chose to click Add new question, choose the type of question you want to add.
11. When you are done editing your survey, check that the ExpertReview score is Great, so everyone can participate in your survey.
12. Click Preview to double check what the survey looks like on desktop and mobile.
13. The survey preview opens in a new tab/window. Review your survey to make sure it appears as you would like. You can click on the survey options in both the desktop view on the left and the mobile view on the right. Click Restart Survey to go through the survey again. You can click Mobile View to turn that view on or off. Close the tab when you are done with your preview.
- The desktop view of the survey is on the left.
- The mobile view of the survey is on the right.
- Click Restart Survey to go through the survey again in preview mode.
- Click Mobile view to turn the mobile preview on or off.
14. To set up security and anonymity, click on the Survey Options icon.
14.1. Select Security and then select Invitation only under Survey access.
This option will ensure that only the users you invite will be allowed to take the survey.
- Select Security.
- Then select Invitation only under Survey access.
14.2. Scroll down and set Anonymize responses to On.
This will ensure that respondents' IP address, location data, and contact info are not stored.
15. Click Distributions when you are ready to distribute your survey.
15.1. Click Compose Email.
During the distribution process, your survey will be published and made active.
15.2. Enter the details of the survey email including who it is from, when to send it, the subject, and the message. Then click Show Advanced Options.
- Enter the From Address, From Name, and Reply-To Email for your survey email.
- Select when you want to send the survey email.
- Enter a Subject for the survey email.
- Adjust the Message text for the survey email as necessary.
- Note that an option to opt-out of future emails is automatically added and it MUST be included to send the survey. If a user chooses to opt out, you will see a notation next to their name in your contact list in the future, but it doesn't prevent you from continuing to email them.
- Click Show Advanced Options.
15.3. Select when the survey link will expire (i.e., when the survey ends).
15.4. Click on Select Contacts to choose who you will send the survey email to. To create a new list, click New Contact List. To use an existing list, click on My Library and select the list you want to use.
This guide will show you how to create a new contact list when sending an email, but for more options on creating contact lists, including importing contact lists, view Contacts Basic Overview.
- Click on the Select Contacts drop-down menu.
- Select New Contact List to create a new list of users to send this survey email to.
- Select My Library to select an existing contact list in your Qualtrics library.
15.5. Enter a name for your contact list. Then enter the email addresses and names of everyone that you want to send this survey email to. Then click Create.
You can re-use this contact list after you create it. If you wan to re-use it for future surveys, give your contact list a more generic name (e.g., All CS Faculty) to make it easier to find in My Library.
You can choose to enter only email addresses in the contact list, but this will make it difficult to sort or search the list if you are trying to check if a specific user is on the contact list or to add/remove a user from the list.
- Enter a name for your contact list.
- Enter the email addresses and names of the users that you want to send the survey email to.
- Note that if you want to add over 200 users, you will need to go to the Contacts section to create a contact list. View Contacts Basic Overview for more information.
- Then click Create.
15.6. Click Send Preview Email to send yourself a preview of this survey email. Or click Send to send it now or at the specified time.
In the example below, the email is scheduled to send now, so the button says Send Now. If you choose another option such as Send in 1 Hour, the button will read Send in 1 Hour.
- Click Send Preview Email to send yourself (or others) a preview of this survey email. Links in the preview email will not be active.
- Click Send to send the survey email now or at the specified time.
15.7. Once the survey emails are sent out, you can review the status of the emails and survey in the Distributions section under Emails.
Want to check who has voted? View Downloading the Distribution History for instructions.
16. Need to weight your responses? Select Data & Analysis and then select Weighting.
About Response Weighting
Imagine that you have a product used equally as often by men and women. But when your customer feedback on this product returns, 70% of your respondents were female, and 30% were male. If you were to present these results as collected, they would skew in favor of the women’s answers, even though they are only 50% of the target demographic.
Response weighting allows you to change the weights of variable fields so the data in your Reports tab will reflect targeted demographics. Wave based weighting can also be used to apply unique weights over various time periods or specific categories, which can be useful for long-running programs that require multiple weighting configurations.
Learn more about Response Weighting at the Qualtrics Support website.
- Select Data & Analysis.
- Then select Weighting.
16.1. Click Create new scheme.
16.2. You can now select the type of weighting and then choose which responses to weight.
Need More Help?
Questions related to training, support, survey creation and design
Contact Qualtrics support at 800-340-9194 or visit the Qualtrics support site.
Problems accessing Qualtrics or questions about your Qualtrics account
Faculty/Staff - contact the IT Help Desk at [email protected] or 657-278-7777.
Students - contact the Student IT Help Desk at [email protected] or 657-278-8888.