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REDCap 101.7: Introduction to Surveys

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REDCap 101.7: Introduction to Surveys

Owned by Ashley O'Connor
Last updated: Feb 17, 2023 by Alyssa Hill
3 min read

Projects in REDCap can be simple and benefit from a single survey, or very complex and benefit from multiple surveys and/or data entry forms to accommodate different types of participants for multi-site studies, longitudinal studies, or both. Regardless, it’s important to thoughtfully design your project and data capture instruments in advance.

Enabling Surveys

In your project, navigate to the “Project Setup” tab. Under “Main project settings”, click “Enable” next to “Use surveys in this project?”

Next, click “Online Designer” under “Design your data collection instruments”

Select “Enable” for each instrument you’d like to use as a survey in your project

After enabling a survey, you will be directed to the “Survey Settings” where you can design your survey and make changes to:

  • Font, text size

  • Survey color theme

  • Question display format and numbering

  • Expiration date

  • Enabling text-to-speech functionality

  • Survey instructions

  • Survey completion message

  • Enabling confirmation emails for participants

  • Response limit

  • Enabling save and return later functionality

  • Survey termination settings

  • Enabling auto redirect to next survey

Note: Public surveys are typically used for anonymous surveys or surveys collecting identifiable information, and are usually linked from a published website or emailed link. Public surveys allow for participants to fill them out more than once. To use a public survey, your survey must be the first instrument in your project.

Private surveys are typically used with a participant list in REDCap, and invitations are sent through email or text and responses are tracked. To use a private survey, the first instrument in the project is not enabled as a survey.

 

Protected Email Mode

REDCap has the ability to enable ‘Protected Email Mode’ for all alerts, survey invitations, and survey confirmation emails OR for those where Protected Health Information (PHI) is piped into the email subject or body.

Rather than sending the full email, the recipient will receive a surrogate email with a link leading them to a secure REDCap page to view the full email.

This can be enabled by selecting “Additional Customizations” under the “Enable optional modules and customizations” section in Project Setup.

From there, you may check the box to enable Protected Email Mode, select the type of emails to use this function, edit custom text for the email header, and add a custom logo.

The participant will receive an email similar to below.

They will click “Read the message”, and be directed to a secure webpage to view the email. If they have never accessed a REDCap survey with Protected Email Mode or it has been more than 30 days, they will be directed to a page instructing them to enter an emailed security code before they can view the email.

 

Survey Setup & Distribution Overview

Advanced Survey Information

 

Head over to the next section of REDCap 101, or head back to the table of contents.