State of Educational Use of Blogs 2013 Survey

Over at The Edublogger, which I have shared in my Found From my Feed.ly posts, is conducting a survey to learn how educators are using blogs and obtain a comprehensive resource on the the State of Educational Blogging.  Please visit her post and complete the survey if you are an educational blogger or use blogs for your teaching or within your school.  If you have students that are blogging, then please complete the survey. The survey does not take that long to complete and can be a very beneficial piece of understanding how blogs are being used now and in the future as this survey is made available each year.

To go directly to the survey, you can CLICK HERE.

QuestBase - Create Assessments and Polls for Online and Offline

Questbase is a free service that allows users to create quizzes, tests, assessments, exams, surveys, or polls online or to be printed and given by paper.  Quietbase is currently in Beta and is compatible with all browsers, mobile, and desktop services as well.  There is not software to install or configure, just create and take assessments from any computer or device with an Internet connection.  Users can manage online exams, import questions, and mix in several different question types.  Assessments can be published online and embedded into a website.  If assessments are taken online, answers are graded automatically.  Statistics and charts are available as well in order to examine results.  To learn more, check out their features and benefits.  Users can also search for assessments that have already been created.  Users can determine whether to provide a pass code to take an assessment as well.

Remember, the service is still in beta and not all aspects are available, but QuestBase is definitely worth bookmarking.  

Pinnion

Currently in beta, Pinnion is a survey website that allows users to have access to the free basic version, or while in beta testing get access to the premium account for free.  The premium access does mean that they will want your feedback on the service.  What makes Pinnion different from the others is that it is compatible with phones and tablets. 

Pinnion allows unlimited questions and responses.  You also get custom branding and graphics as well as a custom closing message.  There is a free WordPress plug-in as well.  You can also embed the surveys onto a website as well.  There is a quick sharing feature through email and other social media sites.  Results for your surveys are available in real time with the ability to filter and report on results.  You can also export to Excel/CSV. 

You can find the apps for both iPhone/iPad and Android phones as well.  So if you are in the market for creating surveys, you might want to give Pinnion a try.

Flisti

Flisti is a free online poll website that does not require any sign up.  Flisti would be a great tool to use on the first day of school or the beginning of a unit to gauge where students stand on a particular subject.  If you teach a current events class Flisti would be a simple way to get a feel for what students are thinking on certain issues.  The tool is simple to use.  Just type in your question, type in the possible answers, choose whether you want to allow multiple answers, and then click on the "Create Poll" button.  You then get a simple URL that you can share and then go back and view later to get results. 

If you have a school or class Twitter or Facebook page you can share the poll there as well to get the word out to your students.  If students choose too they can log-in using a profile from another service and add comments to the poll, therefore making the poll interactive.  If you have students watch the news, you could create polls on news stories and get instant feedback from your students and then discuss in class the next day.  Same if you are watching a movie in class as well.

Flisti seems to be a rather simple tool to use and could be easily adapted into the classroom

Kwik Surveys

Kwik Surveys offers user the ability to create "quick" and easy surveys or forms for completely free.  You have an unlimited number of questions, answers, and surveys that you can create.  Visit Kwik Surveys to see all the features that they advertise, saving me from the trouble of reinventing the wheel and typing it all here.  You can view a 2 Question Demo survey to get an idea of how it will look.  No sign up is necessary, just click on the "Create" button and start creating your own survey.  If you want to save your surveys you will need to create an account however.

Kwik Surveys will be a great way to start the school year and discover information about your students and retrieve results without all the paperwork.  I used a lot of surveys in my classes for the purpose of creating discussion in class.  This site would be useful in getting opinions on hot topics to discuss in classes such as Sociology and History.