## Type of rate scale & Possible Answers for Rate/Scale question type

Examples.

Editing Mode | Questionnaire View
--- | ---
Ex. 1 Rate (single line) Possible answers -> Do not enter anything. Settings: Nb of scale items = 4 (4 columns numbered 1...4);Type of rate scale = Normal (N/A column not needed here). | Rate Moodle for ease-of-use on a 1 (not user-friendly) to 4 (very user-friendly) scale.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Ex. 2 Rate (several lines) Possible answers. Moodle WebCT Blackboard Settings: Nb of scale items = 4 (4 columns numbered 1...4) Type of rate scale = N/A column | Rate these VLEs for ease-of-use on a 1 (not user-friendly) to 4 (very user-friendly) scale. Check N/A for any VLE you have never used.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | N/A
Moodle |  |  |  |  |
WebCT |  |  |  |  |
Blackboard |  |  |  |  |
Ex. 2a Rate ("ordering") This option makes it impossible to click more than one radio button per column; it is thus equivalent to an "ordering" question type. Settings: Nb of scale items = 3 (3 columns numbered 1...3) Type of rate scale = No duplicate choices | Put these 3 drinks in your order of preference.
| 1 | 2 | 3
beer |  |  |
coffee |  |  |
wine |  |  |
Ex. 3 Rate with named degrees Possible answers. 1=Almost Never 2=Seldom 3=Sometimes 4=Often 5=Almost Always my learning focuses on issues that interest me what I learn is important for my professional practice I learn how to improve my professional practice Settings: Nb of scale items = 5 (5 named columns) Type of rate scale = Normal (N/A column not needed here) | #### In this online unit... I prefer that/I found that...
| Almost Never | Seldom | Sometimes | Often | Almost Always
my learning focuses on issues that interest me. |  |  |  |  |
what I learn is important for my professional practice. |  |  |  |  |
I learn how to improve my professional practice. |  |  |  |  |
Ex. 3b Rate with named degrees Possible answers. 1=Almost Never 2=Seldom 3=Sometimes 4=Often 5=Almost Always interest=my learning focuses on issues that interest me practise=what I learn is important for my professional practice improvement=I learn how to improve my professional practice | The labels "interest", "practise" and "improvement" will be saved to the columns headings in the Download as text format operation, instead of the longer labels which will be displayed to the questionnaire respondent.
Ex. 4 Osgood's Semantic differential Possible answers. 1=-- 2=- 3=± 4=+ 5=++ weak|strong cold|warm cowardly|brave Settings: Nb of scale items = 5 (5 named columns) Type of rate scale = Osgood Note.- To separate the pairs of words you must use a pipe character | | #### Describe your personality on a -- to ++ scale.
| -- | - | ± | + | ++ |
weak |  |  |  |  |  | strong
cold |  |  |  |  |  | warm
cowardly |  |  |  |  |  | brave
Other possible display (Describe your personality on a negative/positive scale)
| -3 | -2 | -1 | 0 | +1 | +2 | +3 |
weak |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | strong
cold |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | warm
cowardly |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | brave

## Notes.-

For this question type you have two display options. The default option displays the Likert scale degrees as numbers (1...5). If you prefer to have named degrees instead of numbers, you'll have to enter those names in the Possible answers list (see Example 3 above). On each line of "possible answers" enter the degree number, immediately followed by the equal sign = immediately followed by the name you want to give to that degree.

Actually, the number preceding each named degree is only there to remind you of its position on the horizontal scale; it is not used by the programme, and you might as well use, eg. 0=Almost Never; 0=Seldom; 0=Sometimes; etc. But you must begin with a number immediately followed by the equal sign = .

If the number of named degrees in the possible answers list is different from the number determined by the value you entered in the Nb of scale items field, this will be automatically adjusted when you save the question. If you decide to use named degrees for your Likert scale, it is recommended (but not obligatory) to start your list of possible answers with the named degrees, and then to enter the various items to be scaled (e.g. "my learning focuses...", "what I learn is important", etc. in Ex. 3 above).

Example #3b shows a possible "hidden" option, for exporting - in responses - shorter label instead of the longer text values. If you never export your data for studying it in stats packages you won't need this option. Please note that the example is provided here for the Rate with named degrees question sub-type but it works for all Rate question sub-types except Osgood which requires short left and right options anyway.

Updated by JR on 17/02/09