Overview
On publishing a survey, you must choose the time period for which to publish in. If checking in, approving and publishing in a single step, you must supply a time period at that time. A Time Period is a label that is tied to a submission that indicates when it was taken. This is primarily applicable for surveys wherein a cohort of individuals all take a survey at one point in time, and that same cohort takes the survey again at a later point in time. For example, an employee satisfaction survey opens for a week of each quarter. That week each quarter is the Time Period, and these Time Periods might be called ‘Quarter1’, ‘Quarter2’, etc. Although authenticated surveys by nature are designed to prevent multiple submissions from the same respondent, the use of Time Periods makes it possible for a respondent to complete the employee satisfaction survey each quarter, because it is designated as a new Time Period. The Time Period of a submission is stored in a variable within the survey dataset (“DATSTAT.TIMEPERIOD”). One valuable use of this variable is as a Crosstab variable when creating a query, as it allows users to see how summary statistics change over time. Without a new Time Period designated, participants associated to an authenticated survey can only take the survey once. If, however, it is a new Time Period, then the same participant can complete the survey again at the new time period.
If publishing a survey, where there is currently a version of that survey running, it is not possible to change the time period. The survey must be suspended first, and then resumed under the new time period
Change the Name of a Time Period
To rename a time period:
- Select a survey in the Survey Administration tab.
- Right-click Properties
- Select the Time Periods tab.
- Select a specific time period.
- Rename the time period name in the text field.
- Click the Rename button.
