Assigning labels to the ratingscale

Assigning labels to the ratingscale

by Rickard Carlsson -
Number of replies: 6

I want to use the 1-5 rating scale wich is perfect for my reasearch. However i would want a label on the left side of the number 1 and a label on the right side of the number 5. I would like it to look like this:

I have short temper

Dont agree at all                 Totaly agree 

                      1  2   3   4  5 

Or:

I'm self critic

Don't agree at all 1  2  3   4  5 Totaly agree

Is this possible? As of now i can only get the numbers to work - no labels.

I don't want to use the radio buttons because i want it horizontal and they are line up vertically.

 

                              

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In reply to Rickard Carlsson

Re: Assigning labels to the ratingscale

by Dirk Weller -
Hi! You can use Html code in the questions. The following code will make things look close to what you had in mind:

I'm self critic <br><br> <b>[1] Don't agree at all ... [5] Totaly agree</b>
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In reply to Dirk Weller

Re: Assigning labels to the ratingscale

by James Robertson -

Hi Dirk,

I have the same requirement, using 1-5 for Poor...Excellent.  Thanks for your suggestion.  I have followed your lead and added [1]Poor...[5]Excellent as the first and last elements in the clump of questions.  It looks better now but it still leaves the word Excellent closest to the 1, which might be visually confusing.  What is needed is a way to place text to the right of the selections, or to place a small 2-3 char mnemonic above the 1 2 3 4 5 at the top (e.g., P, F, G, VG, E), or to place Poor to the left of the 1 2 3 4 5 and Excellent to the right of it.  Having some options available for use either alone or in combination would be especially helpful. 

In my questionnaire I had already included my scale (1=Poor, 2=Fair,...5=Excellent) on the line above the 1 2 3 4 5 (as a right-justified final line of the question), with the expectation that anyone who can read could keep the order straight.  But then while testing the survey I started marking 1 for Excellent and didn't realize my error until I was looking at the results after submitting blush. 

You solution is pretty resourceful and may be the best we can do.   Still, I would like to put Poor to the left of 1 2 3 4 5 and Excellent to the right, just in case some of the students are as right/left challenged as I am wink.

Thanks,

Jim Robertson.

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In reply to James Robertson

Re: Assigning labels to the ratingscale

by James Robertson -

Hi everyone (not sure where to post this, so I'll reply to myself),

A further question: is there a way to specify the horizontal placement of the ratings block in rating questions?  I can use the question text to place a bold Poor...Good...Excellent above the 1 2 3 4 5, but I can't stabilize the horizontal position of the question text relative to that of the 1 2 3 4 5 and associated ratings block.  As the browser window is resized (width), the question text begins to move at a different point than the response block (unless a field text is very long). So even if I get them lined up in some views, they become misaligned when the window is resized. 

Another way to state the problem: while the 100% width of the questionnaire appears to take all question texts into account, the 100% width of the ratings block seems to be calculated independently for each ratings question based solely on field lengths.  The question text uses the same width as the rest of the questionnaire, but the ratings block does not, making it impossible (for me so far at least) to stabilize horizontal alignment between the text of a ratings question and the rating block.  Is there a way around this?

Thanks,

Jim.

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In reply to Rickard Carlsson

Re: Assigning labels to the ratingscale

by Mark Stevens -
Hi,

Friendly question:  why are you against the radio button?  It is true that it means more scrolling, but it is very clear for your user.  What you want is for the user to read a question, and answer it correctly, right?  The use of numbers does not benefit the user, and you can easily recode your data with BBedit or any search and replace tool.

For an example of what I mean, see: http://moodle.snevets.com/mod/questionnaire/phpESP/public/survey.php?name=TestForMoodleLanguage

We just ran 99 surveys with 250+ students filling in 5 separate forms, and we eliminated all questions regarding "What does 5 mean?" and "If I agree, do I put 1 or 5?"

Scroll and be happy smile

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In reply to Mark Stevens

Re: Assigning labels to the ratingscale

by James Robertson -

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your advice.  I've set up both a radio-button version and a drop-down box version.  At this point I am leaning towards the drop-down box, but either way it looks like a little scrolling eliminates the confusion.  Still, I would like to have used the scale if I could have made it clearer.

Thanks,

Jim.

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In reply to James Robertson

Re: Assigning labels to the ratingscale

by Carlos Nunes -

Hi to all,

I don't know if you noticed but, there is a way to set the radio buttons horizontally (in the "Rate (1..5 scale)").

When you are editinf the question you can write 1 (or more questions) in the "possible answers" text boxes.

I've attached a picture with two examples (with 1 and 3 questions).

I think that this can help you with your problems. 

Scroolinf is Evil! mau

Bye! smile

Attachment questtionaire.JPG
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