Jun 17 2017
12:52 PM
- last edited on
Aug 06 2023
01:54 PM
by
TechCommunityAP
Jun 17 2017
12:52 PM
- last edited on
Aug 06 2023
01:54 PM
by
TechCommunityAP
It's great to see that Microsoft has made the Forms product available to non-Educational tenants. But now that many of us have it available in our toolbelt, questions started around its use and purpose and how it would play along with other related products. Here's my initial thought on this topic.
Overview
Microsoft Forms is a cloud-based product that was created specifically for the education sector for managing surveys and quizzes. Recently, a preview of the tool was rolled out to Office 365 Business tenants. Using Forms, you can create surveys in minutes and share them with others to start collecting responses immediately.
Today, there are only four types of questions available to be added to a Form - text, multiple choice, rating, and date.
Like some more advanced survey solutions, Microsoft Forms lets you add branching for single-answer multiple choice questions. Branching lets you build your forms such that questions that are irrelevant to a responder can be avoided.
You also have the option to shuffle multiple choice questions (not that anyone would ever share the sequence of answers to their question :).
Education-specific Options
The Forms version available on Office 365 Education tenants contain several additional features that are more geared towards testing and evaluations. A Quiz question option exists, which lets you specify which options are correct for multiple choice questions.
Overall, at the survey level, you can apply specific settings that are typically used when creating tests or assessments, as noted below.
Two of the main appealing features I found are external sharing and mobile access. The ease with which Forms can be shared with external users is important when trying to collect data from users who are not in my organization. A good example of this is when I work with clients on satisfaction surveys. In the past, these would be run through Excel Surveys or other applications that would require importing of the data into my tenant. The second main feature is around the mobile accessibility. Let's face it, when many of us receive a message about a survey, we usually try to do it outside of our core hours. With the mobile-friendly interface, you can complete the surveys virtually anywhere and on any device.
Responses
Microsoft Forms provides you with real-time responses, which is great if you’re trying to use it to gather a specific number of responses, for example if you are running an adoption campaign. The Responses tab provides a summary that shows the number of responses for each multiple-choice
question, average score for ratings, and specific responses provided for text questions.
You can also export your Form responses into an Excel document for further analysis.
Accessing Data
One of the first questions that came to my mind was how easily I could interact with the surveys as they are being completed. Microsoft, it seems, anticipated this demand by introducing trigger in Flow that initiates a workflow when a new response is submitted. As Microsoft Forms and Microsoft Flow are both tied to the same tenant, you are able to simply select the specific Form from a drop-down list.
Once the trigger has been configured, additional actions can be added to leverage the submitted Form data. More details on this integration is covered in Microsoft Forms and Flow - Leveraging Real-Time Survey Results in the Cloud.
Conclusion
As a Preview release, Microsoft Forms looks promising for several reasons
Sep 08 2017 06:33 AM
My experience, virtually useless.
Doesn't have a name box, instead shows everybody as Anonymous.
Feedback not viewable on excel download
User cannot use same link and look at the feedback a teach gives them.
Wasted a good few hours building 10 quizzes here. Where is the thumbs down button!
Sep 30 2017 08:25 PM
Hi @Paul Donnelly,
Sorry to hear that your experience wasn't a positive one. Was the survey you created one that is shared within your organization (tenant) or public? When you create an internal one, then the Email and Name fields are filled-in. Otherwise, they are marked as anonymous.
I'm not sure what you mean by Feedback not being viewable. Are you using an Education tenant? If so, then some of the functionality may be limited.
Have you considered using Flow to extract the survey results? Please feel free to reach out to me if you have further questions.
Sep 10 2019 03:55 AM
Great read.
We've recently introduced Office 365 into our business and are running through all the GDPR and Retention Policies for our staff when they use the apps. One query I can't find the answer to is WHERE is the data actually stored for Forms? I know you can click the "Show Results" button and the data appears, but where is that data physically held and how long is it there for?
Just because, if we have any queries on the data that we have held on people (should we gather such information from a Form), then we need to be able to get hold of it. At the moment, if a member of staff creates a Form and collates data... if he/she goes off sick, would anyone else in the tenancy be able to get that data?
I've read that Flow can be used to move data into Excel Spreadsheets and stored locally... but what about the data BEFORE it goes there. Where is it exactly?
Thanks in advance,
Peter
Feb 22 2023 03:03 AM
Feb 22 2023 08:43 AM
@Khat2une just select the dropdown option from the 3 dots at the bottom right of the choice question.
Rob
Los Gallardos
Intranet, SharePoint and Power Platform Manager (and classic 1967 Morris Traveller driver)
Feb 23 2023 02:24 AM
Feb 23 2023 04:55 AM
@Khat2une you can copy & paste from an excel spreadsheet into a choice question in Forms.
Rob
Los Gallardos
Intranet, SharePoint and Power Platform Manager (and classic 1967 Morris Traveller driver)
Feb 23 2023 06:29 AM