January 2021 - Introduce Answer level charts, Stacked bars and columns, Validations, Usability improvements

As we iteratively install features for "soft" release as they are completed, some of the changes below have been available for several weeks. 

Cohort Reporting enhancements

The goals of this release were to

• speed up cohort reporting for larger response counts
• allow spacing of free-format respondent comments by formatting the merge string
• introduce comprehensive answer level reporting

The performance improvements have made Cohort Reports at least three times faster to run on average.  All feedback and cohort reports are now faster.

When you include respondent free-format comments they can now be bullet-pointed (by including a bullet point on the merge string or spaced, by specifying paragraph spacing on the style of the merge string.  You can also suppress the display of the Role of the person who supplied the comment with Title=N

Answer Level Reporting

You can now use the vertical bar and horizontal bar charts to report counts of respondents that selected each answer, either all the answers for a question or a single answer.

To support this functionality we have introduced

• new metrics of Count and CountPC to charts be able to show the number of respondents or the percentage of respondents that selected each answer.
• the ability to report at answer level in the vertical bar and horizontal bar.

An additional common requirement is to be able to group answers, for example, grouping the positive answers of always and usually, and the negative answers of occasionally and never.  To give complete flexibility we have introduced a new split type of Rating.  You will normally create a Rating Type for this purpose (using Advanced Ratings) to give you control of how the answer scores are reported.  Count (or CountPC) and the new Rating Split Type can be used with: 

• Multi Vertical Bars
• Multi Horizontal bars
• Multi Line
• Multi Polar
• Multi Spider

We have also introduced two new graph types that are only available with the Count and CountPC Metrics

• Stacked Bar
• Stacked Column

Validations

Validations are an extension of the Calculations functionality added in the last release.  They allow you to validate respondent entries in the response.  For example:

• compare the result of a calculation to a constant.  For example, see if the total of several numeric fields entered =  100
• see if allowable combinations of answers have been selected, for example maybe "Top Priority" can only be selected once per subsection.
• Validations can result in 
  •  
    • an error - the text for which will appear as a dialogue box and there will only be a Return button (that will take you back to the current section)
    • a warning - the text for which will appear as a dialogue box and there will be a Return and a Next (that will take you to the Next section) button
    • information - the text for which will appear as a dialogue box and there will only be a Next button

Cohort Initiations enhancements

We have made a number of enhancements based on user feedback.

• The user versions of the Cohort initiation and respondent screens have been made multilingual.  This not only allows for multiple languages but allows you to change the English terminology of those screens too.  Set up details are in Translations
• The user versions of the Cohort initiation and respondent screens now use the assessment branding (graphics and banners), rather than the system-wide respondent branding. (Useful with client-specific assessments)
• Roles have been changed from being system-wide to being assessment specific.  As part of the implementation, we copied all Roles in the Lookup table to the Assessment Roles for every assessment on your site.
• The Cohort initiation upload spreadsheet has been enhanced to allow for the upload of up to 10 raters at the same time, plus the automated sending of invitations.  Scroll down to Cohort Initiation CSV upload in this article for details. 

Assessment builder enhancements

We have made some usability improvements.

• The main menu of the left on the administration screen now takes you directly into the builder if you click on the assessment name, or directly to a section in the builder if you click on the section name (after expanding the assessment menu item), plus, directly to subsections and questions.

• The assessment name is now shown in the heading
• The Goto button makes it easier to access the Settings, Reports, Email Templates, Graphics, Ratings, Section list, and Roles specific for this assessment.  The Goto button has been added to the list screens of all of the above functions too.
• The Feedback button can now display any of the 5 feedback Report fields.  It defaults to (1)
• The Test Response makes it easier to see how the respondent will see the current section.  When you create an assessment or maintain an existing assessment that doesn't have a Test Response, the system will create one with that name.  You can rename the response if you wish.  If you delete it the system will create a new one when you next maintain that assessment. 
• The Copy function (for Sections/ subsections and Questions has been enhanced to allow you to copy elements to another assessment. 

Response enhancements

• Administrators can now reopen completed responses.  If a respondent completes a response, but you want them to be able to reenter it, a new button at the bottom of the Response Settings form allows you to Re-open the Response.  All of their previous answers will still be there, but they can change them.  When they complete the assessment again (by clicking the Finish button) they can download a new version of their report (providing you have enabled that) but they won't be another copy emailed to them.
• Questions with an answer format of Matrix are now displayed using the Inline answer format (down the page) when the respondent is on a mobile phone.   This makes the Matrix format usable on desktops without compromising mobile displays.
• You can now add a favorite Icon to your assessment to display on the tab of your response.  The file must be a standard 32 x 32 pixel .ico file, and when you upload it the Graphic Type is Favorite Icon.

• If a respondent attempts to exit a response (by closing the tab or browser) where there are unsaved changes - they will get a warning message that changes may not be saved.
• The section menu is now always available in a Response when you are logged on as an administrator.  It can still be made available to other users by selecting The Section Menu checkbox on the Site Settings screen.  As well as making it easier for Administrators to move around the response, it provides access to the scores and calculations (which includes validations.)  The Scores page has been improved to make it clearer and to include the average scores (Likert) as well as the percentage score.