QEDML is a newly developed XML-based standard for encoding survey questionnaire designs so that they can be deployed in a variety of output formats and contexts, ranging from paper based documents, to online surveys, to scripts for Computer Aided Telephone Interviewing software packages. QEDML Designer and QEDML Web Server are software packages built on the QEDML standard, that enable professional survey and business professionals to easily create and deploy high quality questionnaires and data collection forms.
The presentation will discuss the technical architecture of the underlying QEDML specification for the encoding of multi-lingual survey questionnaire designs. It will also provide a demonstration of the capabilities and use of the QEDML Designer and QEDML Web Server software packages.
Examples scripts will be based on the Wave 11 British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) “questionnaire”:/files/bhps/doc/pdf_versions/questionnaires/bhpsw11q.pdf (PDF)
Target Audience
The presentation will be of particular interest to social science researchers, survey professionals and others involved in the design or deployment of survey questionnaires, online data collection forms or feedback surveys.
The presentation will also be relevant to computer scientists and IT professionals who are interested in the practical application of XML as a native file format for the encoding and manipulation of complex documents or in the application of XML and XSLT for transforming programming language scripts.
Background Information
What is QEDML (Questionnaire Editing & Deployment Markup Language)?
QEDML Designer is a software solution that enables professional market researchers, educators, web site administrators, and business professionals to easily create and deploy high quality survey questionnaires, curriculum assessment tests, and data collection forms in a wide variety of languages across all of the commonly used data capture methodologies and platforms.
QEDML Designer allows the user to quickly and easily build professional surveys and questionnaires by simply combining “intelligent” survey component building blocks either from a standard template, or from a library of pre-existing questionnaires. Once built, QEDML Designer allows the user to automatically generate professional looking survey questionnaires in a variety of document output formats such a Microsoft WORD, Adobe PDF, and HTML. QEDML Designer can also automatically generate questionnaire script files that allow the questionnaire to be deployed using Web-based, CATI (Computer Aided Telephone Interviewing) or CAPI (Computer Aided Personal Interviewing) systems for data collection or analysis.
QEDML Designer is a truly global solution – a single questionnaire design can be rendered in multiple languages including double byte languages such as Chinese and Japanese; with each language variant being able to share the same design framework and code. All of the design code and language translations are stored within a single document, that can be easily edited using the QEDML Translation Editor utility, or any Unicode compatible text editor.
QEDML Designer is built-on the XML open system standard platform, allowing it to integrate with a variety of other questionnaire and data analysis tools, and enabling questionnaire developers to easily extend the environment. The native file format for QEDML Designer is QEDML (Questionnaire Editing and Deployment Markup Language), an XML application that encodes the questionnaire design as text using simple, human readable XML tags. As a result, QEDML documents can be understood, interpreted and edited using standard (off-the-shelf) text editors and XML applications.
QEDML Designer implements a “Design Once, Deploy Anywhere” architecture. QEDML documents can be transformed using standard XSLT applications into a variety of output document types, enabling a questionnaire design created in QEDML to be used to automatically generate export scripts in a wide variety of common survey questionnaire scripting formats. QEDML Designer ships with a large number of script translators that support the most commonly used questionnaire deployment; and knowledgeable end-users are able to create their own custom script translations by modifying one of the standard XSLT document definition templates.
QEDML Web Server is a software package that allows survey questionnaires encoded in QEDML to be deployed as online surveys, and manages the data collection and reporting process.
Why QEDML?
Questionnaire design is a core activity engaged in by all market research professionals, and is also relevant to a broad set of educators, business professionals, and web site administrators. QEDML Designer represents a significant advance on existing specialist questionnaire design software, and offers distinct advantages over general productivity applications for the design and deployment of survey questionnaires. QEDML Designer is as affordable, intuitive and easy to use as a word processor; yet more powerful, open and flexible than existing professional questionnaire design packages.
QEDML Designer is the first open standards based solution capable of encoding complex survey questionnaire designs, and the first to provide an integrated library of pre-built, professionally designed, multi-lingual questionnaire components.
About the Presenters
“Philip Cookson”:mailto:philip@philology.com.au is the Research “:mailto:jason@philology.com.au Director and “Jason Sobell is the Chief Technologist of Philology, an Australian-based, global technology research consultancy.
Jason and Philip are the architects and developers of the QEDML standard, and associated QEDML Designer and Web Server software. Prior to founding Philology, Philip Cookson was the Senior Director for Market Research & Analysis at Apple Computer Inc. (USA); and has worked in Marketing Research and Technology Product Management roles with Apple, Oracle and Novell. Philip has a Masters Degree in Physics (Monash University) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Science (Melbourne University). Jason Sobell is an experienced professional software engineer, who has worked on a wide variety of development projects and IT consulting assignments in Europe and Australia. Jason has a Masters Degree in Information Technology (RMIT University), and is also a contract lecturer in Database Design with the department of Computer Science at RMIT and the University of Melbourne in Australia.
“About Philology”:http://www.philology.com.au/
Philology is an Australian based, global technology research consultancy. Founded in March 2003 by Philip Cookson and Jason Sobell, Philology exists to develop innovative solutions to technology and marketing research problems through creative intellectual reasoning, and the use of leading edge technologies and analytical methods.
Presented by:
Philip Cookson and Jason Sobell (Philology)
Date & time:
21 Apr 2004 13:00 pm - 21 Apr 2004 14:00 pm