QTS Knowledge Profile System (QTS: Quizzes, Tests and Surveys)
Key end benefit: Access CRM's Kn owledge
Profile (QTS) enables clients to refine or enhance communications
and marketing promotions based on critical information obtained directly
from the target audience.
With QTS clients can quickly initiate quizzes, tests and surveys
through the Internet to evaluate reader comprehension. Questions
can be designed to appear in a pop-up window or special format.
Interactive features give clients the ability to re-test based
on individual answers and refine until comprehension is at its
highest level for that audience.
Overview
Primary users of Access CRM’s Quiz, Test and Survey (QTS)
resource, who create a Knowledge Profile via QTS, are writers,
educators, researchers and marketers. The QTS module enables primary
users to gather critical information from their target audience
segments, whether it is a student’s ability to comprehend
a subject or a marketing company’s need to know how well
a product is being received.
Depending on program objectives, QTS can be used for
| • Writers
– Comprehension or opinion • Educators – Knowledge level • Researchers – Surveys • Marketers – Product reception, comprehension, personalized sales copy |
Using HTML, interactive questions can be imbedded in Internet documents such as web sites and emails. Clients can design articles, promotions, quizzes, tests or surveys to verify the reader’s comprehension or knowledge of critical information.
QTS-generated results are available immediately giving clients the ability to act quickly. Also, the underlying technology in the QTS resource can be combined with other Access CRM resources to create solutions that greatly enhance our clients’ ability to both test and learn more about their audience, and apply that knowledge to refine programs and products to improve results. For example, using Access CRM’s Database Resource new data can be added to customer records that can be used for future promotions.
How it works
Knowledge profiles enable primary users to score and analyze reader comprehension – whether it be educational subject matter, articles or promotions – quickly and cost efficiently. Traditionally, telemarketing and direct mail surveys have provided knowledge profiles at great expense to the primary users both in time and money. The Internet is the logical venue for developing a knowledge profile because it facilitates an online, real-time dialogue between the primary user and reader at a minimal cost.
QTS software builds questions in any format and arranges them into organized quizzes, tests, or surveys. QTS functions are accomplished online in an interactive mode, which features instant display, processing, and storage of results. This allows program administrators and primary users to confirm reader comprehension and collect data for future use.
QTS Features
1. Building Questions
Clients can direct the program administrator to have a quiz or question in a pop-up window, replace the original text page or use formats such as radio buttons, dropdown lists or scrolling list boxes. The type of question response the client desires dictates the format.
| • Multiple Choice
– display available as radio buttons, dropdown lists
and scrolling list
boxes • True/False or Yes/No – display available as radio buttons or dropdown lists • Quantity – display available as a text box, with restrictions to accept numerical data only • Full-text comment – display available as test boxes formatted within the document or appearing in new popup windows |
All of these question formats can be scored instantly except full text comment questions. Administrators can choose to add, edit, delete, copy, and reuse questions as required to meet the program needs.
2. Interactive Features
Writers
Writers can use QTS to measure comprehension of any written work, from a magazine article or editorial to a complicated product sheet, detailing information from installation to usage. Program administrators can:
| •
Design questions to test reader comprehension. Questions can
be true or false, yes or
no, multiple choice or open-ended. • Re-question reader based on the initial answer to determine if a different approach improves comprehension score. • Conduct an opinion poll on the material written by questioning readers on key points of the article – asking readers whether they agree or disagree, like or dislike. |
The interactive features give writers the ability to measure how well they communicate. By being able to re-test, based on the initial answers, writers can refine their work so they achieve the highest level of reader comprehension. Equally important is the ability to gather opinion on written material, enabling writers to write clearer, more comprehensible instruction sheets and user pamphlets.
Educators
Educators can use QTS software to determine the knowledge level of their students or audience. The interactive software allows administrators to create and control the administration of tests. Specifically, program administrators can:
| •
Include specific instructions or comments for each question
or group of questions. • Set up specific comments to appear with each correct or incorrect answer. • Show results and/or answer comments immediately upon the completion of each question, after a series of questions, after a specified time period, or not at all. • Re-question students and prevent them from moving on further in the text until a correct answer is supplied. • Indicate the portion of the text containing the correct answer when questions are answered incorrectly. |
Additionally, when a user/reader finishes a test, the software can be configured to automatically re-educate the user/reader by pulling out all the wrong responses from the text and explaining the correct answers. A test can also be retaken immediately or anytime thereafter using the above interactive features to ensure comprehension.
Researchers
Researchers can use QTS to conduct online surveys for a product or service that is traditionally researched through telemarketing, direct mail or focus groups. Features which are particularly relevant for researchers are the ability to:
| • Include specific instructions
or comments for each question or group of questions. • Design questions in a variety of formats: true or false, yes or no, agree or disagree,multiple choice or open-ended. • Re-question reader based on the initial answer to determine if a different approach improves product/service acceptance or comprehension score. |
The primary benefit to researchers using interactive features is that surveys can be conducted and modified quickly, at minimal costs, and results are available immediately. Turnaround time, critical to researchers’ clients, can be significantly reduced so decisions can be made in a timely manner.
Marketers
Marketers can do all of the testing and surveys described above through QTS interactive features. Program administrators can help marketers obtain important actionable data for many users within their marketing organization. For example:
| • Copywriters can test comprehension
of advertising and promotional materials at various stages
of creative development – from concept to key benefits
to completed copy
– for specific
audiences. This leads to personalized messages based on what
is important to
the reader. • Product managers can develop sales tools, marketing materials and product brochures  that
clearly present a product’s consumer benefit by
testing and re-testing reader comprehension, and conducting surveys to determine consumer acceptance of their product or service. • Sales staff can support customers by conducting customer satisfaction surveys and asking for customer opinions. |
With QTS interactive features, marketers have the flexibility to develop promotional and product material that is relevant to target audiences based on feedback that is obtained directly from those audiences. Actionable data is obtained quickly and at minimal costs. That means marketers can get their message out faster.
3. Adaptable Project Structure
Administrators can also create real-time “adaptable structures” within QTS projects, whereby selected answers modify the content and/or order of the rest of the project, eliminating questions/comments that are not relevant and adding in additional questions/comments that are relevant to the profile of the respondent.
This feature is essential for building surveys and expediting response. For example, if a survey respondent indicates he or she has children, questions about children would be included in the survey. If this is not indicated, then these questions will not appear in the survey.
4. Embedding Questions
A project can be a stand-alone Quiz, Test, or Survey or embedded directly into any Internet document – web page, email, e-book – or other digital media, by inserting a text link, icon, or actual question into the document. If the actual question is not embedded into the document, the link can either open a pop-up window containing the question or refresh the existing window, replacing the text with the question. The text can reappear after the answer is submitted.
Administrators can:
| • View project activity online in real time or in daily,
weekly, or monthly summaries. • View statistics by individual, group, or aggregate of all respondents. • View individuals and groups by cycle or a specified time period. • Examine and compare individual questions and entire tests to each other. • Enhance numerical data by graphing and charting solutions by exporting data into preformatted MS Excel templates. |
5. Scoring and Regressing
Each question, in any format, can be scored as a traditional test with each answer option being labeled right or wrong. Or, each question may contain answers that are weighted with different values. This is particularly important for marketers who are assessing how well key information is being communicated, or how well the recipient understands the product or service being discussed. Another marketing benefit is that the responses can determine what is a consumer priority for the product or service in question. As a result of weighting responses, more detailed regression reporting can be made available, which will enable the client to take more intelligent actions based on the response data received.
6. Administration Flexibility
While QTS is easy enough to use for one-time projects, the administration module includes features designed for organizations that need to deal with considerable amounts of survey, quiz, and test generation on a regular basis.
Administrators have powerful organizational tools that allow them to:
| • Establish questions in any
category. • Establish projects in any category. • Use, reuse and modify categorized questions, or sections of projects, in any number of projects. • Set security parameters allowing projects to be responded to either anonymously or by predefined users. |
Building Solutions
By linking QTS with other Access CRM resources such as Database,
Content Management, and Email, individual program solutions can
be created for our clients. Through proper use of information gathered
from QTS projects, our clients quickly and easily learn more about
their current customers, their targeted prospect audience or the
abilities of their students. Programs and products can then be
created or adapted to meet the audience needs.