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How do I maintain randomization or rotation order across Choice questions, Grid questions, and pages? (Power Surveys)

Lisa Wong
Updated
Tip: You can do this in modern surveys and the scripts are now available! For more information, see:

This script will allow participants to see Choice question options, Grid rows, Grid columns and page items in the same randomized or rotated order throughout a survey. The question/page which contains the order you would like to maintain will be referred to as the Original question/page. The question/page that will be re-ordered according to the original will be referred to as the Follower.

Both Original and Follower can be one of the following question types:

 Type A
 Following/Reordering Options 		 Type B
 Following/Reordering Rows 		 Type C
 Following/Reordering Columns
  • Choice Questions (standard and visual)
  • Pages: options=each item on the page
  • Single Choice Grids (standard and visual)
  • Multi Choice Grids (standard and visual)
  • Scale Slider Grids
  • Single Choice Card Sorts: rows=cards
  • Single Choice Magnetic Boards: rows=magnets
  • Multi Choice Magnetic Boards: rows=magnets
  • Rank Order Grids
  • Rank Order Sorts
  • Allocation Grids
  • Allocation Sliders
  • Single Choice Grids (standard and visual)
  • Multi Choice Grids (standard and visual)
  • Single Choice Card Sorts: columns=categories
  • Single Choice Magnetic Boards: columns=boards
  • Multi Choice Magnetic Boards: columns=boards

Notes:

  • The items to be re-ordered in the Follower must correspond with the randomized or rotated items of the Original.
  • The Original can have more items than the Follower but these additional items should not be included in the randomization or rotation and therefore should be anchored in the Original. E.g. the Original may have a None of the above option that is anchored, but the Follower may not have this option.

Detailed Steps

Adding and setting up the Questions

  1. Click on the Questionnaire tab of your survey.
  2. Create your Original question/page as required and select Randomize or Rotate in the properties of the question/page.
  3. Ensure that extra options in the Original question/page are anchored.
  4. Create your Follower question/page as required. You do not have to select Randomize or Rotate in the properties of the Follower question/page.

Apply the script

  1. Copy the appropriate scenario script from below.
  2. Select the Follower question/page in the Questionnaire Tree.
  3. In the Scripting section of the Follower question/page, click Edit Scripts.
  4. Paste the script into the On Load tab.
  5. Change ORIGINAL to the name of your Original question/page.
  6. Change FOLLOWER to the name of your Follower question/page.
  7. Click Save.
  8. Validate and test your survey.
  9. If you would like to maintain randomization order across multiple questions/pages, repeat all the above steps for each Follower in your study.
Scenarios Script
Scenario 1: Type A to Type A
Scenario 2: Type A to Type B
Scenario 3: Type B to Type A
Scenario 4: Type B to Type B		  FollowItemsOrder(ORIGINAL, FOLLOWER);
Scenario 5: Type A to Type C
Scenario 6: Type B to Type C		  FollowItemsOrder(ORIGINAL, ActionsTo.Columns,  FOLLOWER);
Scenario 7: Type C to Type A
Scenario 8: Type C to Type B		  FollowColumnsOrder(ORIGINAL, FOLLOWER);
Scenario 9: Type C to Type C  FollowColumnsOrder(ORIGINAL, ActionsTo.Columns,  FOLLOWER);

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