Creating Surveys with Office

There are occasions where additional primary research is required for a project. While professional researchers must comply with a formal review process for approving research that involves human subjects, a student who wants to add some survey results to a class paper shouldn't have any problems. These instructions are for individuals with access to Microsoft Office 365 and the Office app Forms.

Purpose: Create a survey using the Microsoft Office 365 Forms app.

There are two ways to start. The first is to access Forms from the MYSCSU screen.
The second way to access Forms is from the dropdown app menu available on the top left corner of the browser screen, in most Office 365 apps.
On the forms page, there are very few options. Make sure the My forms tab is selected. Select New Form. Do not select New Quiz because that will not allow you to create a survey.
The new form has a place for a title and a button for adding new questions. Click on the title field to customize the title. Enter a description is an optional field. Click Add new to add the first question to the survey.
Any of the four kinds of survey questions are good options for a class survey. Choice lets you create multiple answers from which a survey subject can choose. Text lets you create an open field in which a survey subject can write their own answer. Rating is a way for you to propose a situation, product, or opinion that you want survey subjects to evaluate. Date is for questions to which the answer is a preferred date. This survey might even be a way to collaborate on schedules when planning meetings.
For the purposes of these instructions, I selected the Choice option. Enter the question in the question field. Each question automatically comes with two default answer fields:  Option 1 and Option 2.  Write your own words to replace the text "Option 1" or "Option 2." Click Add option to add over three options. In the picture, I created four optional answers.
Forms will always automatically save the form. You can identify the status of the saved form. Below the top menu bar, in the top right of the screen is a status update. The status of my example reads "Saved."
Optionally, you can click on the Theme tab to select from among preset themes.
To complete your survey, you need to distribute the survey to friends or student peers. Click on the Share tab. The Copy option is the default selection. Use the Copy button to copy the URL address of the survey. There are other options for distribution. Past the URL into the method you are using for distribution (i.e. Blackboard discussion post, etc.).
After friends and peers have answered the questions, Forms gives a real-time analysis of the answers. Open the survey. Click ont he Responses tab. Review the pie charts that represent the analysis of the answers. These instructions can help you post a link to Blackboard. Note: My example only has one subject so there is only one result. However, the pie chart will become more dynamic when more subjects respond to the survey.

All instructions and documentation written by:

Dr. Jason Lawrence, M.S., Ph.D.

Theory and Practice of Professional Communication

Artificial Intelligence writers, Internal Documentation, and Emergent Texts
Visit my Official Blog, my LinkedIn profile, or my Web Page.

Find a School: Southern Connecticut State University

Signature line

explaintheneed

Purpose: wordswordswords

All instructions and documentation written by:

Dr. Jason Lawrence, M.S., Ph.D.

Theory and Practice of Professional Communication

Artificial Intelligence writers, Internal Documentation, and Emergent Texts
Visit my Official Blog, my LinkedIn profile, or my Web Page.

Find a School: Salt Lake Community College

Finding a Shared File in OneDrive

A person can share both files and folders in the same way; these instructions will picture a shared folder. Often, in my classes, I will share a OneDrive folder with the entire class. Students need to find the shared folder before they can use it. However, once they find the folder, they can save any file they want to the folder and the entire class can access the file. Therefore, if the class is sharing a Microsoft Word document, the entire class can edit that document together.

Purpose: These instructions will help people find a shared file in their OneDrive. 

Once a file or folder has been shared with you by the owner, you will receive an email. In this example, Karen Lawrence shares a folder called "shared_classfolder" with my email account. Open your Outlook email program or browser. Locate the respective email. Click on the file or folder to open it. Alternatively, click on the Open button. You can continue to open the folder from this email.
A second method to open a file or folder. Open OneDrive in your browser. Look for the Shared option in the left navigation bar. This link will open a list of all files and folders that are shared with you. Pictured in this example, the "shared_classfolder" folder and "presentation" PowerPoint slide deck are shared with me. Click on the "shared_classfolder" link.
The interface for a file depends on the file. For instance, the "presentation.pptx" file in the picture above will open in Microsoft PowerPoint. Whereas, the following image shows the interface for a OneDrive folder. Click on the New menu to create a new document in the folder. Click on Word document to create a Microsoft Word document. Your computer will automatically enerate a Word document webpage and you will see the Microsoft Word interface.

All instructions and documentation written by:

Dr. Jason Lawrence, M.S., Ph.D.

Theory and Practice of Professional Communication

Artificial Intelligence writers, Internal Documentation, and Emergent Texts
Visit my Official Blog, my LinkedIn profile, or my Web Page.

Find a School: Southern Connecticut State University

Set up Bookings with Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft Office 365 for Business comes with Bookings. This feature allows a user to publish a Bookings page on their website or position a link in their email signature. With this published Bookings page, clients and colleagues can request meetings that are recorded on your Outlook calendar. Whereas only internal employees on the Outlook network can send appointment invites through Outlook, people external to the organization are unable to set Outlook appointments. However, Bookings changes that. These instructions assume you have Microsoft Office 365 for Business and access it through the employee single-signon of Southern Connecticut State University. For further instructions about creating email signatures, use this link for the relevant instructions.

Purpose: Set up Bookings in an email.

Log in to the mySCSU webpage. From among the mySCSU apps, click the Bookings button. A new page with promotional information will open.
Disregard all promotional materials, unless you have the desire to read more about Bookings. Click on the Get it now button.
Immediately, a small dialogue box will open. Select the Add a booking calendar option.
There are two fields. In the first field, write who the Bookings is for. In the second field, write what the Bookings is for. Press the Continue button.
A Just a moment box will appear, with a circle animation. The amount of time you need to wait will be determined by your computer, connection speed, and browser version. Do not push any buttons while you wait for your Bookings account to generate.
The Bookings home page will open with a user friendly dashboard. The large icon buttons are designed to walk you through the set up of your Bookings account.
Look at the vertical selection of navigation options on the left side of the page. Click on Business Information so that you can set up your Bookings profile. When people seek to set up an appointment, this information will be useful for external users to schedule their appointment.
Fill in the Business Information fields with your own personal information. Fill in the Business hours with your daily availability. Whereas an internal colleague can view your outlook to schedule an appointment, an external user cannot see your calendar. It is best to identify the full range of your general availability.
On the top left corner of the dashboard is a place for a picture or business logo. Click anywhere on the logo location to open an Bookings settings bar on the right side of the screen. Click Upload new logo. A file selection window will open. Navigate through your files to select the image of your choice. Click the Open button to open the image in the logo corner of the Bookings dashboard.
From the left Navigation bar, select the Booking page link. The Booking page will open. There are many settings on this page that rely on other Bookings settings that are meant for businesses or departments with several employees sharing the same Bookings page. There are not any changes that you need to make to set up a personal Booking page. Press Save and publish at the top left of the Booking page.
One of the panels on the Booking page changes to provide additional links for published Booking pages. For an email link, you need only copy the URL link in the Share your page text field. You can select the field, select all, and copy the URL. Alternatively, you can select the Copy button.
Open your email software or log in to your email browser for this next step.
Highlight the text you want to make a link in your email. Once the email is sent, the email recipient can use the link to send an appointment invitation to you. In Microsoft Outlook, click on the button at the far right of the Messages ribbon. In other email programs or browsers, you need to find the option to create a hyperlink.
The Edit Hyperlink dialog box will open. Paste the URL into the Address text field. Click on the OK button. You can complete your email, as needed, and send the email to your recipient. The user can use the link to set up an appointment with you.

All instructions and documentation written by:

Dr. Jason Lawrence, M.S., Ph.D.

Theory and Practice of Professional Communication

Artificial Intelligence writers, Internal Documentation, and Emergent Texts
Visit my Official Blog, my LinkedIn profile, or my Web Page.

Find a School: Southern Connecticut State University

Planning for Launchpad Assignments (the easy way)

Some students who use Launchpad for the first time want to know the best way to find and complete assignments. These instructions assume that a student has registered a McMillan access code and has logged in to Launchpad.

Purpose: Access Launchpad assignments and easily spot their deadline.

When you login the Launchpad website, there are two ways to view the assignments and their deadlines. Method A (Less effective) Locate the stack of blue, collapsed assignments. The deadlines are listed under Assignments. Notice the To Do button on the right. Click one of the highlighted bars to open one of the collapsed assignments. The next picture shows what that looks like Metod B (Highly effective) On the navigation bar to the left, is a vertical list of icons. Locate the Calendar icon. Select the Calendar icon to open the calendar.
This view of the deadlines is confusing. The following are reasons Method A is not encouraged. When I assign an exercise, test, activity, or reading, the entire unit moves to the Assignments list. Only some of the assignments are marked with To Do; that means only those assignments are assigned. While Launchpad pulls the entire unit over, all other assignments, without a To Do are not assigned. Finally, you will need to open and collapse each unit individually to locate the due assignments. Don't bother with Method A.
Method B (Highly effective) The calendar identifies each individual assignment on the day it is due. The entire group is not visible because only the assignment shows. This is the easiest way to see the exact assignments on the exact they are due in the order they are due.
Click on the due assignment you wish to complete, with the mouse. A message window will open with an option on the bottom left. Click on the Open button to open the assignment.
Several Kinds of Assignments
Quiz Assignments like this simply require the selection of the correct answer and click the Submit button. You will not get a chance to change your answer or take the quiz again.
Reading Assignments like this simply require you to read the assignment. There is no other action you need to take.
Learning Curve Assignments like this are adaptive tests that help you learn course principles. When you get a question wrong, Learning Curve will teach you and give you another chance to get it right. The test will continue running until you successfully complete the test with a high score.
Writing Assignments like this simply require you to read the prompt, write the required text in the field, and click the Submit button. You are encouraged to read any available reading assignments before performing writing assignments.
Tutorial Assignments like this require you to watch the video and respond to a question. Those questions may be quiz questions or writing prompts. Click Submit when you complete the question.

All instructions and documentation written by:

Dr. Jason Lawrence, M.S., Ph.D.

Theory and Practice of Professional Communication

Artificial Intelligence writers, Internal Documentation, and Emergent Texts
Visit my Official Blog, my LinkedIn profile, or my Web Page.

Find a School: Southern Connecticut State University