Online applications - a comparison of polling platforms
Pick two online applications (including at least one that you've never used before) to test, evaluate, compare and contrast. They should provide similar function, for example both mind-mapping tools, to-do lists, survey apps, meeting/polling tools etc. Prepare a reflection of at least 300 words or 90 seconds. Do you recommend either for personal or professional use? Why or why not?
Although I didn't choose to do the play activity this week there was a play element to the reflect activity. I wanted to look at polling tools and designed a survey for classmates through Google Drive and Survey Monkey. These tools were then evaluated, compared and contrasted.
The first survey was created through Google Drive. Until this course I wasn't even aware that I was able to create a poll through Google Drive and was excited to try this service. I wanted to find out which tools canvassed in the course my peers would be likely to use again in their work life. As I wanted to get an idea of all the tools an individual would use in their work life, I allowed participants to select more than one option. I also wanted to find out the popularity of tools, and while the numbers won't be exact, common selections will be able to be viewed. Initially the wording of my question wasn't clear - at first it would've appeared that I only wanted one choice to be selected - this has since been amended.
This polling platform was easy to use and the guided choices simple to follow. I also encouraged discussion about the survey (in terms of its design) on Facebook and people thought the query was worthwhile and assist in the reflection component of the course.
The results of the survey were displayed in a spreadsheet with a column named time stamp and the other outlining the selections made by participants. I liked the idea of the time stamp but the overall aesthetics were displeasing. There was no totalling of responses or graphical element to the data. There may be an option to see it in graph layout, but at this stage, because results are still oncoming, this option has not been explored. As a survey participant for another classmates survey, it was found that their survey results were displayed in a graphical format so I would like to explore this occurrence further.
For the second survey I chose to find out the views of my classmates on blogging as part of uni studies through Survey Monkey. This platform was equally as easy to use. I opted to ask four questions in this survey to find out about the blogging experiences of my classmates and these were easy to set up. On Facebook one student expressed that one of the questions was confusing due to the wording and a change was made to improve the clarity.
The results page was colourful and easy to read with data being shown in both graphical and textual formats. The use of percentages also made for an easy to understand break down of responses. Compared to the Google-based survey, the results analysis was definitely straight forward and easily to understand.
Overall, each poll was simple to set up and navigate. In order for the surveys to be effective the content and layout of the content played a key role. Due to the formatting of the results page I believe Survey Monkey is the better of the two tools for professional use. The percentages and graphs make the result display look more professional and easier to figure out the information provided. However, people should be mindful that while Survey Monkey is free for a small number of surveys and responses, it does cost money for those features to be increased. Google forms on the other had are free and would definitely be beneficial for those attempting to undertaking a quick survey or preparing something for personal use.
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