There are many tools that can help you create online quizzes or questionnaires. These tools usually come with basic functionalities where you can setup the questions and apply some validation, but that’s typically where the capabilities end.
Using Excel for building online quizzes may not be the go-to option for some, but this approach provides some unique advantages. In addition to the simplicity of just typing in your questions and answers in a streamlined grid structure, you also get the ability to incorporate an elaborate logic. With this in mind, you can also create online quizzes easily with SpreadsheetWeb. Essentially, any type of logic you can create in your workbook can be carried over to your quiz in the form of grading the results in a specific way, or a dynamic layout where you can hide or display certain questions based on other answers or simply change their order.
Let’s take look at a quiz template created in the Designer. This application consists of an introduction page where the users can enter their details, and 20 multiple choice questions. Feel free to download the Designer template (with *.des file extension) from this link.
To import this template, log into your account, and simply click Create a New Application. On Step 2, instead of using a workbook, select from or drag-and-drop the template file (*.des) you have downloaded into the Excel Spreadsheet field.
Go through the next steps and finalize creating your new web application. To configure the questions, begin by downloading the underlying workbook from the server. To do this, press the green Download Excel Model button next to the application name on the Applications page.
Replace the placeholder text with your questions and answers in the cells with yellow background color. Enter the correct answers into column J. Of course, you don't have to fill out all 20 questions – Simply replace the text for however many questions you need, and enter FALSE for the rest of the questions under column A (Visible).
Next, select what information you would like to collect on the Introduction page. You can disable a field by replacing the TRUE label under column A with FALSE. The input names (i.e. ID) can also be changed later from inside the Designer settings.
Make sure to Save your Excel workbook. Then, upload the Excel file into the Designer application. To do this, click the orange Edit Designer Application button next to the application name, and go to the Application module. Select from or drag-and-drop the updated Excel file into the Spreadsheet File field, and press Update.
We recommend previewing the application before publishing to make sure that everything looks good. To do this, click the dial menu on the top right corner of the screen in the Designer interface, and press Preview. If you need to make any changes in the Introduction page question labels, you can do so from the control settings by going into the User Interface module for that page.
If everything looks good, you can finalize your changes and publish the web application by pressing Publish from the same dial menu.
Once published, you can send the link for online quizzes to your users or embed them on your website. To get the application URL, simply open a new record by pressing the application name on the Applications page, and copy the link. For instructions on embedding an application on your website using iframe, please see this page.
When your users enter their information, answer the questions, and press the final Next button to see their results, their data will be saved in the database. You can access the saved records from the Data page. You can either go to the Data page from the top menu and select your web application from the dropdown, or click the purple View Data button next to the application name on the Applications page (Note that this button will only be visible once a record is saved).
On the Data page, you can open, edit, delete any records saved under the application. You can also download the quiz database using the Download All and Download Selected buttons on the top menu, or the Download button next to a record.
That’s all! You can also enable more advanced features like required inputs. This way, you can prevent users from transitioning to another page or saving, before filling out the required fields. You can also customize the results page by adding more details like a comparison of how other users did who took the same test.
Want to get a notification whenever a test is submitted? You can enable automated email messages to use this feature. This can also be used to capture the emails of the end users and send them a more detailed report of their results upon entering their email.
One of the most important aspects of a data collection process is reporting. With SpreadsheetWEB, you can easily create a dashboard application that can help you analyze the results and see the aggregate data from all recipients.
The fact that this web application is based on an Excel workbook means that you can create an even more advanced logic by changing formulas in the underlying file. This way, you can add your own grading system, branch out the user to different questions based on their answers, or really – anything you can build with formulas.
