Survey Software HQ

FROM THE CALSTATE FRESNO COLLEGIAN.
Of those polled, 84 percent of students reported that they regularly use their cell phones for sending and receiving text messages. Of those who text, 70 percent admitted to text messaging while in class.
Excerpt from the article: In a generation of technology and information, students have the ability to engage in constant communication with others, but this practice may actually harm their education, according to a recent poll. The informal survey conducted around the Fresno State campus revealed some prevalent issues regarding students’ usage of text messaging. It looked at the frequency of text messaging by students and their attitudes about its effects in the classroom. “This is a multi-tasking generation and many people think they’re not being distracted,” said Dr. Tamyra Pierce, a Fresno State associate professor of mass communication and journalism. The survey, which was distributed to Fresno State students of ranging class levels, looked at their regular use of text messaging. In particular, it focused on the frequency of text messaging while in class. Of those polled, 84 percent of students reported that they regularly use their cell phones for sending and receiving text messages. Of those who text, 70 percent admitted to text messaging while in class. “I’m not at all surprised by this,” Pierce said. “I see it all the time.” Pierce, who has conducted formal surveys of her own regarding the use of text messaging and MySpace among high school students, said 47 to 49 percent of students text message and 10 percent admitted to text messaging during an exam. The real question: Is this frequent text messaging harmful to students’ educations? The informal campus poll revealed that 64 percent of students believe that text messaging in class draws their attention away from lectures. “Several semesters ago I had to go to a ‘no cell phones in sight’ policy because it just got out of control,” Pierce said. “Students think they can do it all and they won’t be distracted, but I think they are.” Many students, however, say that their studies are not affected by their texting habits. Fresno State junior Amy Munson admits to texting on a daily basis. “I actually have a Sidekick and a cell phone for texting and I’m on them all the time,” said Munson, a communication major. “Honestly, I text to stay awake in class,” Munson said. “As long as I’m constantly doing something, then I won’t completely zone out on what the teacher’s saying. It almost helps me listen because at least I’m getting bits and pieces.” Fresno State senior Martin Campanella believes the prevalence of text messaging also depends on the type of classes students are in. “I’m an engineering major,” Campanella said. “It’s mostly guys in my classes, so you don’t see it as much. I think girls text a lot more. It is like they can’t wait to talk about all this stuff.” Kevin Tague, a third-year health science major, said he rarely text messages but it still affects his concentration. “You hear it all the time,” Tague said. “Even when phones are on vibrate it gets annoying.” But this scattered concentration and distraction is what Pierce warns students about. “You get so engrossed in it and sure you may only miss this much, but that small amount may be what’s on the exam,” Pierce said. While Pierce has enacted a no cell phone policy in her class, many teachers have yet to go that far. Munson said some teachers do get more of her attention than others. “If someone’s just standing there for an hour talking, guaranteed half the class isn’t going to hear a thing,” Munson said. “I definitely get more involved when there’s interaction in group work and then I won’t text.”

Release Notes New Features

Active Directory Integration: Prior to this release, network authentication for the CHECKBOX application was done through an IIS configuration. With 4.1, CHECKBOX will now directly authenticate Active Directory users. When network login is enabled, a user will be able to browse to the login page and enter his/her active directory user credentials and login in to the application without having to specify a new set of credentials specific to CHECKBOX.

URL Rewriting: URL Rewriting will allow survey administrators to provide access to surveys via a more”friendly” url. Currently, survey URLs have a form that is extremely long:

(http://mysurveys.com/checkbox/Survey.aspx?s=f3cf6c7c18a94dca9a4f5918823ed686).

Long URLs have three major drawbacks:

1. They are not easy to remember.

2. They arepotentially intimidating and could reduce response rates.

3. When put into some emailclients, the strong can wrap and break the link.

Our new URL rewriting feature will solve these three problems.

CAPTCHA item type:

CHECKBOX 4.1 will include a CAPTCHA item type. CAPTCHA stands for “CompletelyAutomated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. When used, this item type will prevent computer “bots” from finding and populating CHECKBOX surveys with false or spammy responses. This automated means of determining if a respondent is human is required to increase the security of our web-based application.

Resolved Issues

• Report images are now cached in the database to prevent issues with web farms. • Auto-login for network users should now work properly for default.aspx. • The USERNAMENOTUNIQUE error that occurred when updating network users has been resolved. • Fixed issue where “Automatically Log User In” option for invitations did not work. • Fixed install issue that caused Windows or FreeForm connection string options to not update configuration files correctly. • Changed default log file location to c:\temp\CheckboxExceptionLog.txt from c:\temp\ExceptionLog.txt. • Average Score ItemEditor Score Option is now correct • Email response item now allows delimited email address list • Cross tabs report items calculate percentages correctly • Added report filter documentation to the help system • Can now delete incomplete responses • Welcome text properly aligned for users with only report viewer permissions

Spring tends to bring new life into the environment… trees are becoming greener, perennials are starting to sprout again, and lawns are starting to get back into shape. Springtime at Prezza means we are preparing for a whole new slew of technical goodies including: 1. New Checkbox Online Pricing and Packages 2. The release of our new Checkbox multilanguage kit 3. The release of an automated Ultimate Survey > Checkbox upgrade utility (this will be cool). 4. The unveiling of our Checkbox Mobile package - which lets people sync up data collected from mobile devices to a Checkbox server (wireless or through a docking station).

We have made some significant changes to our products and branding. One of the biggest things we are doing is naming our hosted survey offering something different than our core server-software offering. CHECKBOX Online is our hosted survey solution that is catered strictly towards business professionals who need to conduct surveys FAST. The surveys are hosted on Prezza’s servers - and there’s nothing the survey designer needs to install ever. All that is required is an internet browser. You don’t even need Active X support like some systems. We’ve added an ALL-INCLUSIVE PRICING MODEL which we believe will make it a very simple choice as opposed to survey solutions which charge per response fees and per survey fees. CHECKBOX ONLINE PRICING

Sometimes people forget how easy we here at Prezza make to test drive our products online. While most companies require a significant registration process, we simply hand our interested prospects the keys to our tools, and let them decide if they might be right for their organization. The following link http://demo.checkbox.com/samples/login.aspx is available through our website, but it is also available right here. Test our the surveys, the different items you can add - including pictures and style sheet. Go ahead and embed a YouTube video right inside an HTML item. Hopefully you get one step closer to seeing what makes our software special. Until next time Brian