We often distribute surveys to a group of people and analyze the results for research, administrative and event planning purposes. The process is labor intensive if use paper based surveys. However creating a computer based survey may require knowledge of scripting languages and databases, therefore might be even more labor intensive for many. Here, we review a bunch of easy to use survey tools that would allow you to collect data in different forms without any need for programming.
Google forms can be used by either creating a form from a template, or by creating a spreadsheet and affiliating a form with it. It is very easy to use and provides you with tools to ask open handed and multiple choice questions to the survey takers. The data is stored in a Google spreadsheet file and can easily be exported to Excel.
SurveyGizmo has a free version, with limited but still handy tools, and different paid versions, with additional functionality. The free version would be sufficient for most surveys. But if you are planning on collecting data from 50 000 participants for your research, you will need to pay for one of the professional version because the free version allows only 250 responses per month.
SurveyMonkey allows you to create 20 different type of questions, provide multi-language support and allow you to download the results in different formats, including pdf and Excel. It has different registration options. The basic, free account, allows you to create unlimited number of surveys, with 10 questions and 100 responses per survey. If you want to have an unrestricted account you can either buy the monthly account for about $20 or register for a year for $200.
The Oncourse survey tool does not provide a wide range of functions, like its commercial counterparts, however it is completely free, and might come in handy if you are already using Oncourse for a project.
If you decide to use any of these tools and need help, or just would like a brief tutorial on how to use each of them, please stop by the IC office (ED 2002) or make a reservation with one of our consultants by sending an email to ic@indiana.edu. We are here to help you!
The Instructional Innovations Blog 
Hi,
Thanks for including SurveyGizmo on your list.
Freesourcing.org recently posted an extensive, 3rd party free account features comparison chart you may find informative: http://freesourcing.org/blog/?p=178
Also wanted to let you know SurveyGizmo offers Academic/NPO discounts as well as free Enterprise accounts to students that can be used for classwork, senior thesis research, dissertation research, etc… More on that can be found here: http://www.surveygizmo.com/free-student-account/
You can find helpful tutorials and webinars on our site and if anyone ever has any questions please let us know, we’re happy to be of assistance.
Thanks again,
Donna
@SurveyGizmo