QDS System Overview

As the name says, QDS is a Questionnaire Development System. It is a complete system for developing and administering data collection applications.

QDS enables you to:

  • Produce all materials needed to administer a questionnaire or complete a form from a single set of easily developed and maintained specifications.
  • Reuse field-tested questions by copying specifications between questionnaires.

QDS provides you with:

  • Rapid development of questionnaires and data collection software (Data Entry, CAPI Module, ACASI Module, or Web Module).
  • Multiple modes of administration from a single set of specifications with no additional specifications or programming.
  • Computerized interviewing without programming.
  • Support for multiple language interviews.
  • Codebook and change history.
  • Ready-to-analyze data exported directly to SAS, SPSS, Stata, or MS Access Data sets, or to an ASCII file.
  • Paper questionnaires.

In QDS you may create, or “build”, several products from a single Specifications File. For instance, you can build interview control files for data entry, Computer-Assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI), Audio-assisted Computer-Administered Self-Interviews (ACASI), and Web-Administered Interviews as well as paper questionnaires and analytical codebooks.

Tip: All QDS products—Questionnaires, Codebooks, Change History Reports, and Control Files—are created through the Design Studio Build Menu.

The ability to build multiple control files can be very useful, even when you anticipate using just one mode of administration for most data collection. For example, although you may choose to administer an ACASI interview to most respondents, you may desire to switch to CAPI for respondents who have difficulty either working with computers or reading. During a power failure, or in a remote location, you may want to use a paper-and-pencil version of your form. If you’re undecided about which method(s) to employ for your study, try each to see what works best.