Random Display of Survey Questions (Randomization)

Random display of questions in the survey (randomization) is useful mainly for creating quizzes, tests, etc., where we want the answers, questions or blocks of questions to be displayed to the respondents in a different order. We have three options:

1. Random sorting of question answers;
2. Random sorting of questions in a block;
3. Random sorting of blocks in a multi-block questionnaire.

Blocks are only available to 2KA and 3KA private package users.

1. Random sorting of answers to the question

If you want the answers to a particular question to appear in random order, the procedure is as follows:

• in the tab 'EDIT' - 'Questionnaire', click on the toolbar of the question (click on the blue bar where the name of the question is located), for which you want to randomly sort the answers;
• in the question editor that appears on the right, select 'Random' under 'Order categories'.

When you click on the survey, the answers to this question will be displayed in a different order each time: Example of a question with random sorting of answers >>

By using para data, it is possible to track the order of questions a particular respondent was exposed to. This data is accessed in the 'DATA' - 'Browse' tab, where the 'Para data' option is checked under 'Quick settings'. For each respondent, we can see in what order the answers were shown to him. See example:

• random Q1 means that the answers to question Q1 have been arranged in random order;
• the numbers in each line indicate the order in which the answers were shown to a particular respondent.

2. Random sorting of questions in a block

If we want the questions to appear in a random order in a block of questions:

• set the questions in a block;
• then click on the toolbar of this block to move to the block editor;
• under the option 'Randomize block content' select 'Questions'.

Such a block must not contain page breaks.

We also have the additional option of determining the number of questions displayed. We can set the respondents to be shown all the questions or only a part, e.g. random 5 from a block of 10 questions. For more information and other detailed instructions for structuring the questionnaire into blocks, see the Manual >>

3. Randomly sort blocks in a multi-block questionnaire

If we want the blocks to appear randomly to a respondent in a questionnaire that has several blocks of questions, we follow the procedure below:

• move questions to the desired blocks;
• create another main block in which we place all the blocks for which we want randomization;
• the main block must start before the first block and end after the last block - the layout of the blocks must therefore look like this;
• after that, click on the toolbar of our main block and move to the editor;
• select 'Blocks' under the 'Randomize block content' option.

Such a block must not contain page breaks.

You can also use the 'Structuring Into Blocks' survey example from the survey library (section '1KA Questionnaire Templates', 'Conditions and Filters') as a template for a questionnaire structured in blocks, which you can copy and customize.

The structure of the questions in blocks is even more clearly visible if you use the 'Display collapsed (one line) view' option, which is located in the left menu under the 1st button (Advanced editing settings) when editing the questionnaire.