Organize forms and surveys using Question Group

Grouped questions make a survey easier to fill out. When related questions sit together, the form stays compact and respondents can move through it with less confusion. This article explains the question group feature in BlockSurvey.

Question group (QG) in surveys

A survey lets you collect an objective opinion from respondents on any subject. The results can then be used to make informed decisions on specific issues.

A question group lets you present different sets of questions to customers based on their characteristics, product interest, and similar traits. Question groups keep your questions organized when you run a survey. Each group is named so respondents have more clarity while answering. This helps respondents put more thought into the survey or form, and it works well for a quiz or a job application.

Question groups organize related questions so you can target specific audiences. This is useful when you have a series of behavior, usage, or attitude questions and want the follow-on questions to appear only after the respondent answers the original one. You can ask several related questions without adding unnecessary clutter or repetition to the survey.

Umbrella question

A question group lets you create an umbrella question with sub-questions inside it. A question group makes sense only when it has content. The umbrella question is sometimes called a "driving question" in inquiry-based or subject-based learning.

Here are a few examples of an umbrella question.

"Are there some other examples you could share with me?"

"Can you explain that a little further?"

"Can you tell me more about that?"

Umbrella questions are broad questions that guide the learning process by connecting to bigger ideas and themes. The question should be focused. It should interest the respondents and connect to the big ideas of the subject. When it is asked in written form, the umbrella question breaks down into a question group.

Question group use cases

Use cases make the question group easier to understand and connect to a real problem. Here are three that show how it works in practice.

Use case 1: quiz

You can create quizzes based on different question types, with each type covering a particular subject. The question group can be "Physics", "Chemistry", "Botany", and "Zoology", each containing questions for that subject. With this setup, the test taker has more clarity on the subject they are being quizzed on.

Use case 2: job application

You may want to collect data through a job application, and the application can have different question groups. For example, it could contain two question groups: "Personal Information" and "Professional Information". The personal information group can hold questions like first name, last name, and age. The professional information group can hold questions like job title, company, job location, salary, and experience.

Use case 3: ecommerce shipping details

Say you want to collect address details for an order form or online shop. Shipping information should be collected from customers when they place orders, and those questions should be asked before an order is placed. To do this, use a question group as above, name the header shipping details, then add your questions.

These are a few of the real-world use cases, and there are many more. Each one is different, so pick the setup that fits your survey.

QG in BlockSurvey

BlockSurvey includes a question group option, and it is easy to use. Select QG from the question type and start building. The rest is up to you when framing your questions.

Choose the question type as "Question Group" from the drop-down.

When you add a question group, a header appears where you can write the header details.

First, add the question group header details, then write the first question. Click +, to add more questions within the same question group (QG).

There is no limit on the number of questions you can add per question group.

Warning against deletion

If you delete the question group header, you lose all the questions it contains. You will see a warning message if you try to delete the group, so be careful, because you cannot undo this deletion. If you want to delete the question group but keep the content, move the questions out of the group first and then delete the header.

Also Read: Ranking Questions 101. 

To conclude

This article covered a useful set of question group use cases. Question groups are common in surveys because they tend to give clearer insight into the quality of a survey and how respondents perceive important situations. Surveys collect more complete and accurate information when respondents answer the questions within a group.

To get started with group questions, use the Group question template from our gallery.

That covers the basics of using question groups in surveys. If there are other types of question groups you would like covered next, email me at [email protected].