Mulit-Select Questions
A multi-select question gives the applicant a defined list to choose from and allows them to choose more than one answer. An example of this would be;
Idea posted April 26, 2011 by Grant Elliott, Foundant Technologies
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Chris Dahl commented
Hi all,
Multi-select functionality is complete and has been released in 4.1.0 on February 4, 2014. If multiple responses are selected for a multi-select question, these responses show up in Export Data and Reporting as a list of delimited values. Using "contains" in reporting should allow you to filter on the responses.
Thanks again for the suggestions and feedback. We really appreciate it.
-chris -
Ideas commented
A vote from us in favor of a multi-select option.
posted September 11, 2013 by Julia Boerth, First Hospital Foundation
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Ideas commented
Chris, I see the nested list option as distinct from a multi-select option. Right now, in several of my forms, I use an approach similar to the example Meredith created. For example, I have a first question that asks them to choose a single response, and then in my next question I ask them to choose from another list if they had responded in a certain way on the first question. If using the nested list option currently available in the report fields as a model, it works generally well. However, I've found that sometimes applicants leave the second and/or third fields blank (perhaps b/c they don't know until they click in the field that a further response is desired). So I've ended up going in and entering the information on their behalf. I don't know if there is a way to force a response or let the applicant know that additional responses are required.
For multi-select, I currently do it two ways. 1) I use multiple questions starting with a first being labeled as primary, and then next as secondary, and so forth. 2) I use a drop-down list, and list out all of the possible combinations. This works okay but it would really be much easier to have a multi-select. For exporting or merging, my priority is that it lists all of the answer choices selected. (sorry I can't be more clear on the mechanics - I'm still new enough to the system that I yet haven't had the need for a more complicated export need) For reporting, I would indeed want the ability to filter. So, for example, if someone selected both apple and orange, and another selected just orange, I'd want to be able to pull up both in a filter on orange. It also would be helpful to be able to pull up those records who selected more than one option as compared to just a single option (for example, to answer the question, how many of our grants are focused on work in multiple towns as compared to those grants focused on a single town).
Kate
posted September 8, 2013 by Kate Shirah, John Rex Endowment
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Ideas commented
Thanks Melinda -- that data export format would work for us for the geography question that I want to ask on our GLM app too.
Chris - is something like this possible?
posted September 5, 2013 by Meredith Huffman, Genuardi Family Foundation
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Ideas commented
I would love to have this capability as well. We used to use a system called Wufoo for our grant and scholarship applications that did allow for a multi-select fields. When the data is exported, the question exported as multiple column headings (a column for each selection) and then if the applicant checked that box, then the box label exported under each column. If a box wasn't checked, then the cell was left empty. Not sure I'm using the right terminology or explaining it correctly, so see below as to how we set up the question and then how it exported. The Entry ID rows indicate each applicant.
Check the scholarship/s for which you are applying:
Zack Arnold Memorial Scholarship
Heather Bird Memorial Scholarship
Persis McClure Hurst Memorial Scholarship
McKinley Avenue Presbyterian Church Student Scholarship
posted September 5, 2013 by Melinda Waldroup, Community Foundation Alliance Inc.
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Ideas commented
I like Kristin's idea of the "nested list." Sticking to the geography of service example, I could see the first "level" of question being (for example), county(ies) served, and the second level, an indication of what percetage of service falls in each of the selected counties. Our geographic area is very specific -- so the possiblities are perhaps more manageable. So to illustrate, I'd envision using it like this:
Q: Which counties in southeastern PA does the program for which you are applying for funding serve? (Please check all that apply)
A: [multiple-selection radio button list format]
__ Chester County
-------> if "Chester" is checked pop up Q: What percentage of this program's services benefit Chester County?
__ Delaware County
__Montgomery County
__Bucks County
__Other
Q: If you selected "Other", please provide us with more information.
A: [text area format response]
This second level is equivalent to the town listing in Kristin's example. However, if this second level of response would derail the whole thing from happening, I would gladly take just the first level of multiple selections!
Chris, to answer your questions - in my case the "max" number of offered responses applicants could select would have to be 100%, or 5 of 5. Regarding reporting, I'd probably want to discuss with you (is that possible?), but off the cuff I would say that a comma-delimited list in a single cell when I export is not useful. I would want each of the radio button possiblities to be in a separate column/cell so that I can sort on them. To your second question, Chris, I don't have a sense of how much that type of filtering would impact software performance overall -- but it would definitely bring value to be able to better capture and report on this data. We do have a servicable (if slightly clunky) work-around to the geography question that I came up with a year and a half (or so) ago with Kris and Betty -- you can see it in our LOI (and if anyone else wants to see it I am happy to share).
Thanks for considering this!!!!
Best regards to my MT friends,
Meredith
posted September 4, 2013 by Meredith Huffman, Genuardi Family Foundation
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Ideas commented
I think what I am looking for is probably a separate issue from a multi-select question. But I do still think being able to format into one, two or three columns is a good idea. :)
What we are being asked (read that as: required) to do is a distribution report and it may be a function better handled by a tool outside of Foundant that uses data dumped from a followup in Foundant. I'm currently completely at a loss as to how to do it but I'm thinking maybe a really well-designed excel spreadsheet will better handle the filtering.
The basic scenario is: Organization A reports they serve three counties (let's say Hill, Liberty & Toole). Now my job is to break down the number of people served by community and also the distribution of funds. In my perfect world they start with a list of counties and click the ones they serve. Then that triggers another list of the cities within that county and they can click the actual towns they serve (either all of them or they can hand pick based on the counties selected.... Chester, Joplin, Shelby.....) Then I would end up with an actual list of towns (rather than a mix of counties and towns that I have to guess....) and I can do some mapping and manipulation based on populations.
I would imagine it would be so slow and painful it would have to run as a separate followup to work at all.... which is why I'm trying to think of it as a spreadsheet instead.... I can imagine it... I'm just not sure how to design it.
posted September 4, 2013 by Kristin Han Burgoyne, Montana Arts Council
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Chris Dahl commented
Hi all ...
I'm a bit late to the "multi-select" party ... but it definitely sounds like, at least in the past, there was plenty of energy around this suggestion. And I can certainly understand the impetus for this feature.
On one hand - collecting the information - it's pretty straightforward. The only real question I can think of on a first pass is are there any limits on how many of the options a user can select (i.e. only 5 out of 10?)?
However, on the other hand - what to do after it's collected (i..e in Data Export, Reporting, Merge Documents) - is less straightforward. For instance, in the comment Kristin made about having 56 counties as options ... if a user selects all 56, and you go to report on it, what should display for the Geographic Area report field? A comma-delimited list of the 56 counties? And should you be able to filter on Geographic Area in this case ... i.e. you only want to select requests that had a Geographic Area of Washington County? If so, there will certainly be performance trade-offs as it's not trivial to do this type of filtering ... would potentially poor performance on Data Export and/or Reporting be acceptable (and note this would be significantly worse when there were more requests)?
Please add your thoughts and we will continue to consider this. Thanks,
-chris
posted July 8, 2013 by Chris Dahl, Foundant Technologies
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Ideas commented
I would be great to have the Multi-select question be available in the forms.
Clement
Kern Family Foundation
posted June 21, 2013 by Clement Mariaselvanayagam, Kern Family Foundation
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Ideas commented
To make it really, really perfect..... the defined list field would have the option of one, two or three columns.... For example: To mark counties served (56 possible) they can look at them in 3 columns on the page rather than a scrolling list of 56.
posted April 11, 2012 by Kristin Han Burgoyne, Montana Arts Council
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Ideas commented
I would really, REALLY appreciate having a multi-select feature! It would be a huge improvement to almost every one of our applications.
posted December 13, 2011 by Leah Suhrstedt, National Trust for Historic Preservation
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Ideas commented
This is looking like a high priority item. Thanks to all who have commented and rated thus far!
-raymond
posted July 5, 2011 by Raymond Burket, Foundant Technologies
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Ideas commented
A veritable dream come true!!
posted June 30, 2011 by Mary Yager, Nebraska Humanities Council
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Ideas commented
Brilliant idea! It's been on my wish list since 2007.
posted June 29, 2011 by Rossana Martinez, Lily Auchincloss Foundation
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Ideas commented
In a team meeting we are just discussing if this was possible when designing the questions on our applications. Our Director thought it would be great to be able have the applicate choose from a multiple choice list and have the ability to choose more than one answer.
Is the an active feature for form construction?
posted June 24, 2011 by Angie Boecker, Central Minnesota Arts Board
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Ideas commented
Same here!! We would love to be able to use multi-select questions. Right now we need one for geographical questions (counties served) which would be a rather long list, and also funding areas (only five).
posted June 23, 2011 by Sue McInnish, Alabama Civil Justice Foundation
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Ideas commented
I am excited to see this is a priority -- this has been on the top of my GLM "wish list" for some time!
posted June 20, 2011 by Meredith Huffman, Genuardi Family Foundation
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Ideas commented
Wonderful!! this will be Very useful!
posted May 11, 2011 by Kathryn Treanor, Dietel Partners, LLC
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Ideas commented
We need multi-select for both Geographic Area and Program Area.
posted May 11, 2011 by Anne Douglas, Southwest Florida Community Foundation
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Ideas commented
This is a great idea -- for our internal use, we'll be categorizing grants, and they sometimes fall into more than one category. It would be helpful to be able to pick more than one choice on a report field, for example.
posted May 11, 2011 by Colleen Reed, Healthcare Initiative Foundation