Your smartphone has advanced to the point where it can more or less function as your own portable computer, mapping and data collection companies have taken advantage of this by creating applications like Arc Collector and Survey123. This lab goes over the process of using Survey123 online to create a form that can drop a point on a map. In this case a mock form will be created for a homeowners association to get an understanding of how prepared people are for disaster preparedness.This survey technology is very beneficial because it reduces time and costs less money. Without Survey123, forms would need to be printed out and distributed to all the homeowners. This would then be filed away or entered into a GIS system (if they had access to one). Survey123 makes eliminates the need for paper forms to be printed and delivered. It also puts the information directly into a spatial database. This is important because if a disaster did occur, this information could be given to emergency response teams and could be used to save lives.
Methods:
This lab was done by following the ESRI online course Get Started with Survey123 for ArcGIS. To create a survey, the online version of form creator was utilized on the Survey123 website. A enterprise account was necessary to access this. The user first clicks "Create a form" and is prompted to pick the web designer version. Once this is complete the user will see a screen like the image below.
This is the interface that the user creates their form from. In the "Add" tab on the right, they are able to select what kind of question they want to add to their survey. These range from simple text inputs, to multiple choice, to dropping a geopoint on a map. The question the user selects can be dragged into a spot on the survey or simply clicked on to be added. Once the question is added the user can edit the question to display the text, a hint, and what the answers are if it is multiple choice or select one. The user can also select if the questions are required or not. The tutorial went over how to add a variety of questions related to disaster preparedness. It also went over how to make certain questions only show up if certain answers are selected and how to quickly make a lot of questions by using the duplicate feature. Once the survey was done, it was viewed in preview mode to see how it would look on a computer, tablet, and phone. This is so the user can customize the format to look right on whatever platform would be viewing it the most. Once this was complete, the survey was published. The following image is an example of what a finished survey looks like.
Results:
The online version of Survey123 is an easy way to create surveys that can be accessible to anyone who has the app or access to the internet. It is a well created way to make a survey with no headache at all. It allows the user to customize the survey enough to be unique to their use and is not limiting. The resulting survey looks nice and is not confusing to use. This is important because nobody want to have to complete a survey that confuses them. This goes back to the old saying K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid. One of the most important things that comes from Survey123 is a point feature class that can be added to most Arc platforms. The geopoint question drops a point and the rest of the survey is stored as attribute data for that point. This data can be printed out as tables, but as geographers we don't like that, so this data can be added to maps! This feature class can also be shared with emergency service entities to allow them more information about who they are trying to rescue. Things like how many floors and how many people in the house are very useful to those people. Routing services can also be created based off these features for emergency services.
Conclusion:
The online version of Survey123 is very easy to use. I have experience using the desktop version that involves making a form on Microsoft Excel and that is nowhere near as easy to use as the online version. A couple questions come to mind comparing the two, how easy is it to get this survey onto a portal? It appears that the online version can be accessed to anyone with a ArcGIS online account but what about portal? Do they have a portal version of the Survey123 web designer? The web designer is WAY easier to use and would be very useful to use with a private portal. Other than these small concerns, Survey123 is a powerful tool that can be used for many things. The feature created from Survey123 can be brought into ArcCollector, when this feature is used in collector, it shows a nice interface for dropping points with whatever drop down menus were created for that survey. When used with collector, a geopoint question is not necessary because the user is dropping the point in collector. Overall, Survey123 is a very useful tool that only makes spatial data easier to collect!
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