This lesson explains the approach chose to create and operate on-line questionnaires for the i-structures course. As with other functions of the course, the process is controlled by special styles and formats within a Microsoft Word document. As this is a very specialized task, the syntax is much stricter, and needs to be followed faithfully to obtain reliable results. We have mad good experiences with this approach, however.

What is a questionnaire?

In the i-structure course, questionnaires are not separate entities that are created and operated in a completely different and separated fashion than normal content. Indeed, the whole idea is that a questionnaire can appear anywhere in the text (almost), so that the teacher can ask “small” questions in-line, allowing the students of make a quick check of their current understanding of the subject matter.

These small tests are automatically and instantly corrected, and give a feedback to the student, with the possibility for the teacher to direct specific remarks corresponding to each possible answer, correct or incorrect. Such a questionnaire is usually quite short, with possibly only one or two questions. Other questionnaires may be longer, for example to test a larger amount of material, typically at the end of a chapter.

It is thus possible to distinguish the following types of questionnaires: