3rd Party Survey Import - Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Preparing your CSV for Import 

Step 2: Import Your Survey into ThoughtExchange

Step 3: Edit Your Imported Survey

Step 4: Launch and Analyze Your Survey

Step 1: Preparing Your CSV for Import

To ensure a successful import to ThoughtExchange, it's essential to clean up and optimize the CSV file downloaded from the survey platform (e.g., Google Forms, SurveyMonkey). This involves preparing and cleaning up the CSV file before importing it into ThoughtExchange.

 1.3 Example of a Cleaned CSV File

Let’s look at an example of a CSV export from a Google Forms survey that you want to import into ThoughtExchange: 

Here is some cleanup of the CSV file we need to do before importing it into ThoughtExchange:

1. (Red Box) Remove the column with the timestamp as we do not support date formats.
2. (Green box) Since there is a whole survey answer option that includes commas/semicolons not intended to be separators for multiple-choice options, those characters need to be removed and replaced with a space. For example, in this answer option, we have ‘School F, G, and H’ as one answer. This will need to be converted to ‘School F G and H’. 

If you imported it as is, the commas in ‘School F, G, and H’ will be treated as a separator, and will be imported as multiple choices, like so: 

*Exception: Retain commas in the CSV for questions that have multiple answer choices, where the commas are intended to separate the options.
 

Here is a quick video guide on removing commas from your CSV (example exported from a Google Forms survey): 

Remember that we do not support survey questions containing Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Any questions containing PII from contacts MUST be removed from your CSV file before completing the import to ThoughtExchange. 

A note about exporting from Qualtrics: 

When exporting from Qualtrics, you should select only the following options:

• Download all fields
• Use choice text

Upon downloading the CSV from Qualtrics:
 

1. Remove the rows that are not related to questions or participant answers, e.g., rows 1 and 3 in the example above.
2. Additionally, remove any columns that do not contain questions you want to import (e.g., Column Q in the example above).
3. This cleanup can be done in spreadsheet editors like Sheets or Microsoft Excel before importing (as demonstrated in the example above), or in ThoughtExchange after the import by deleting unnecessary survey questions in the Edit section, as detailed in the following section.

3. Enter the survey details:

• Title: Name your imported survey.
• Objective: Add a brief description of the survey's purpose (not visible to participants).
• Creation Date: Select the date the engagement took place 

4. Upload your CSV File: 

• Select the correct file format:
  • Single Line CSV: For exports from Google Forms, Microsoft Excel, or Qualtrics.
  • Double Line CSV: For exports from SurveyMonkey.
• Drag and drop your file or click Choose File.

5. You will be prompted to select the columns of data you would like to include in your Import and to indicate if a column contains any PII:

This warning box will appear upon the indication that any columns contain PII:

To restart, just refresh the page and re-import. 

Step 3: Edit Your Imported Survey
 

Once the import is complete:

1. Review and adjust your survey:

• By default, all questions are imported as mandatory. Change them to "Not Required" if necessary to match your source survey Failing to make this adjustment will impact the completed count and percentage in your results.

  

• Adjust the order of answer options if necessary
• It is at this point that you should add any Survey Topics you would like to add to the survey results. Note that you won't be able to add it after launching the imported survey. 

  

  

• Video guide of editing order of answer options:

  

• At this point, you can also add new options manually. For example, if you're importing a survey question like "Teachers respect me as a person," and no participants select the answer option "Strongly Disagree", that option won't appear in the export and, therefore, will not be imported. You can manually add this option to ensure it doesn't affect your analytics. 

• It is also recommended to check each survey question and survey question type to make sure they match the original survey:

  

  2. What cannot be edited?

  • At this point, you will not be able to edit the content of imported answer options. These will be greyed out and locked in *for now*
  • Certain question types, depending on the format.

  3. Special Considerations:

  • For single line format, we can only detect options that participants picked. This is not a problem for double line format.
  • *You will be able to edit the content of the answer options after you have launched the survey import 

Step 4: Launch and Analyze Your Survey

1. Launch Your Survey:
   • Click “Save & Next” to review the Summary page.
   • Click Import & Go to Results to finalize.

2. Access Results:

• Once you get the "Imported successfully" popup, click on Go to Results:

• Imported data will be able to be analyzed using Article, Advisor and the Survey analysis tab as if the survey was run in ThoughtExchange. Reports will also be available. 

3. Filters and Reporting:
 

• To filter the results of your imported survey, click on Filters:

• Once you have selected your filter sets, click on Apply filters. You can reset all filters at any time. 

Video Guide to filtering the results of your imported survey

Tips for specific Survey Question Types 

• Ranking Questions:
  • Can only be imported in single line and double line format.
• Matrix Questions:
  • Imported as matrix questions from SurveyMonkey and Google Forms.
  • Imported as specific types (likert, single select, etc.) from other platforms.
  • Analysis in Results remains unaffected.
  • To get a group of questions to import as Matrix question types, the column headers have to follow this format
    <Question matrix title> [<Question title>]

    

• Date Questions:
  • Not available currently.
  • Can be imported as single select or open-ended questions.
• Social Pinpoint Format:
  • Answer text must be included in each response instead of "1".
  • This change aligns with Survey Monkey format for import.
• Single Line Format:
  • Question options based on participant answers.
  • Unselected options will not be detected for the question; can be added manually.
• Extra Rows in Headers:
  • Platforms like Qualtrics may add extra rows that need to be removed.
  • Single line format: we only need one row for column headers.
  • Double line format: we need one row for questions, and one for options.
• Single Select Questions with Commas:
  • Imported as multi-select questions.
  • You MUST remove commas from answers in the CSV for single select import, as well as any commas in multi-select questions that are not intended to be separators for multiple choice options.
• Single Select Questions with Semicolons:
  • Imported as multi-select questions.
  • You MUST remove semicolons from answers in the CSV for single select import, as well as any semicolons in multi-select questions that are not intended to be separators for multiple choice options.
• Open-Ended Questions:
  • If commas or semicolons are present, import as multi-select.
  • Change question type manually if needed.
• Likert and Satisfaction Score Questions:
  • These question types must be manually changed.
  • Detection feature is being developed.
• Question Limits:
  • Maximum 100 questions per survey.
  • Up to 100 answer options per question.
• Survey Features:
  • Depends on the features enabled for the room.
• Here are the formats we currently support, and the compatibility of each question type with ThoughtExchange

• If you encounter an error you are unable to resolve, please send an email to help@thoughtexchange.com.  Title the email subject as “Import Error - (Your Organization Name)”. In the body of your email, please include:  Screenshot of error The original source of your CSV file (e.g. Google Forms, Survey Monkey) If possible, a link or PDF to the original survey (To protect your participant privacy, please do not send us the CSV file within emails).