This is an announcement and Request for Comments on SQBL a new

open-source XML format for the cross-platform development of questionnaire

specifications. The design decisions behind SQBL and additional details are the

subject of a paper to be presented in 2 weeks at the 2013 IASSIST conference in

Cologne, Germany:

– Do We Need a Perfect Metadata Standard or is “Good Enough” Good Enough?

– http://www.iassist2013.org/program/sessions/session-c4/#c220

However, to ensure people are well-informed ahead time, I am releasing details

ahead to conference.

The gist

SQBL – The Structured (or Simple) Questionnaire Building Language is an

emerging XML format designed to allow survey researchers of all fields to

easily produce questionnaire specifications with the required structure to

enable deployment to any questionnaire platform – including, but not limited

to, Blaise, DDI, LimeSurvey, XForms and paper surveys.

The problem

Analysing the current state of questionnaire design and development shows that

there are relatively few tools available that are capable of allowing a survey

designer to easily create questionnaire specifications in a simple manner,

whilst providing the structure necessary to verify respondent routing and

provide a reliable input to the automation of questionnaire deployment.

Of the current questionnaire creations tools available, they either:

_Prevent the sharing of content (such as closed tools like SurveyMonkey)

_ Require extensive programming experience (such as Blaise or CASES)

• or use formats that make transformation difficult (such as those based on DDI)

Given the high-cost of questionnaire design, in the creation, testing and

deployment of final questionnaires a format that can reduce the cost in any or

all of these areas will have positive effects for researchers.

Furthermore, by providing researchers with the easy tools necessary to create

questionnaires they will consequently create structured metadata, thus reducing

the well understood documentation burden for archivists.

Structured questionnaire design

Last year, I wrote a paper “The Case Against the Skip Statement”, that

described the computational theory of questionnaire logic – namely the

structures used to describe skips and routing logic in questionnaires. This

paper was awarded 3rd place in the International Association of Official

Statistics ‘2013 Young Statistician Prize’ http://bit.ly/IAOS2012. This paper

is awaiting publication, but can be made available for private reading on

request. It proposed that this routing logic in questionnaires is structurally

identical to that of computer programs. Following this assertion, it stated

that a higher-order language can be created that acts as a “high-level

questionnaire specification logic” that can be compiled to any questionnaire

platform, in much the same way that computer programming languages can be

compiled to machine language. Unfortunately, while some existing formats

incorporate some of the principles of Structured Questionnaire Design, they are

incomplete or too complex to provide the proposed benefits.

SQBL – The Structured (or Simple) Questionnaire Building Language

SQBL http://sqbl.org is an XML format that acts as a high-level language for

describing questionnaire logic. Small and simple, but powerful it incorporates

XML technologies to reduce the barrier to entry and make the description of

questionnaire specifications, even in raw XML readable. Underlying this

simplicity is a strict schema that enforces single solutions to problems,

meaning SQBL can be transformed into a format for any survey tool that has a

published specification.

Furthermore, because of its small schema and incorporation of XML and HTTP core

technologies, it is easier for developers to work with. In turn, this makes

survey design more comprehensible through the creation of easier tools, and

will help remove the need for costly, specialised instrument programmers

through automation.

Canard – the SQBL Question Module Editor

Announced alongside the Request of Comments of SQBl is an early beta release of

the SQBL-based Canard Question Module Editor http://bit.ly/CANARD. Canard is

designed as a proof-of-concept tool to illustrate how questionnaire

specifications can be generated in an easy to use drag-and-drop interface. This

is achieved by providing designers with instant feedback on changes to

specifications through its 2 panel design that allows researchers to see the

logical specification, routing paths and example questionnaires all within the

same tool.

SQBL and other standards

SQBL is not a competitor to any existing standard, mainly because a structured

approach to questionnaire design based on solid theory has never been attempted

before. SQBL fills a niche that other standards don’t yet do well.

For example, while DDI can archive any questionnaire as is, this is because

of the loose structure necessary for being able to archive uncontrolled

metadata. However, if we want to be able to make questionnaire specifications

that can be used to drive processes, what is needed is the strict structure of

SQBL.

Similarly, SQBL has loose couplings to other information through standard HTTP

URIs allowing linkages to any networked standard. For example, Date Elements may

be described in a DDI registry, which a SQBL question can reference via its

DDI-URI. Additionally, to support automation a survey instrument described

inside a DDI Data Collection, rather than pointing to a DDI Sequence containing

the Instrument details can use existing linkages to external standards to point

to a SQBL document via a standard URL. Once data collection is complete,

harmonisation can be performed as each SQBL module has questions pointing to

variables, so data has comparability downstream.

SQBL in action

The SQBL XML schemas are available on GitHub http://bit.ly/sqbl-schema that

also contains examples and files from video tutorials.

There is a website http://sqbl.org with more information on the format that

provides more information on some of the principles of Structured Questionnaire

Design.

If you don’t like getting your hands dirty with XML you can download the

Windows version of the Canard Question Module Editor from Dropbox

http://bit.ly/canardexe and start producing questionnaire specifications

immediately. All that needs to be done is to unzip the file and run the file

named . Due to dependencies flowcharts may not be immediately

available, however this can be fixed by installing the free third-party

graphing tool Graphviz http://www.graphviz.org/

Lastly, there is a growing number of tutorial videos on how to use Canard on Youtube.

Video 1 – Basic Questions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijk00SqoBGk (2:17 min)

Video 2 – Complex Responses http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3Vrn2B4EO4 (2:17 min)

Video 3 – Simple Logic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrAWbOF-UW8 (4:11 min)

There is also an early beta video that runs through creating an entire

questionnaire showing the side-by-side preview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FImaXn7EYk (13:21 mins)

Joining the SQBL community

First of all there is a mailing list for SQBL hosted by Google Groups:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/sqbl.

Along with this each of the GitHub repositories http://bit.ly/sqbl-schema,

http://bit.ly/CANARD include issue trackers. Both Canard and SQBL are in

early design stages so there is an opportunity for feedback and input to ensure

both SQBL and Canard support the needs of all questionnaire designers.

Lastly, while there are initial examples of conversion tools to transform SQBL

into DDI-Lifecycle 3.1 and XForms, there is room for growth. Given the

proliferation of customised solutions to deploy both paper and web-forms there

is a need for developers to support the creation of transformations from SQBL

into formats such as Blaise, LimeSurvey, CASES and more.

If you have made it this far thank you for reading all the way through, and I

look forward to all the feedback people have to offer.

Cheers and I look forward to feedback now or at IASSIST,

Samuel Spencer.

_SQBL & Canard Lead Developer

_ IASSIST Asia/Pacific Regional Secretary

http://about.me/legostormtroopr

http://au.linkedin.com/in/legostormtroopr/