PAGE 6 — THE DECREE — DECEMBER 8, 2000
NCWC
By MADELINE WALLS
Two business professors at
North Carolina Wesleyan College
made a presentation at the Com
puters on Campus National Con
ference Nov. 12-15 at The Uni
versity of South Carolina.
Patricia Matisz Smith and Ed
Showalter presented the paper and
topic “Collect Data on the Web
With On-Line Surveys Using
Frontpage.”
Smith and Showalter took a
laptop, demonstrated how to make
a survey form, then went through
the exercise of having the confer
ence attendees respond to the
form.
“Our session will feature cre
ation of a simple survey using the
form wizard,” said Smith before
the conference. “We will collect
questions from participants and
later publish the survey on North
Carolina Wesleyan College’s web
page.
We have used on-line surveys
with the software application
FrontPage to collect information
on the web. In this paper we will
describe three different surveys
and the information we obtained
and used,” she said. Smith added
that the use of on-line surveys is
a non-scientific method of data
collection. The respondents are
self-selected and may or may not
give identification. The decision
to use this type of data collection
is predicated on acceptance of
these restrictions.
The first survey described in
their paper was of students who
had taken a January Term class.
The survey form simply asked for
a general comment, the class the
student had taken, user email,
contact requested, and a large
block for comments. The results
were sent to Smith’s email ad
dress. As each email arrived, it
was forwarded immediately to the
appropriate professor.
No data analysis was needed
for this project, simply feedback
and comments. The professors
who received feedback said that
it was useful to get the informa
tion students volunteered. The
email system was fast and effi
cient.
Most responses were gathered
within a week of the publication
of the web address to the com
munity.
COLLEGE CARTOONIST:
Charles M. Schulz Award
Eligibility:
Open to any student cartoonist at a college newspaper or
territories. Student
must attend same college. Material must have been pub
lished in a college newspaper or magazine during 2000.
Sponsor:
The Scripps Howard Foundation
http://www.scripps.com/foundation>
Prize:
$2500 and a trophy
Presentation:
The awards for 2000 will be presented to the winner(s) at
CkjhTrfw National Press
Washington, D.C. Winner agrees to attend.
Entries must be postmarked by Jan. 5, 2001.
If you know someone who is a college cartoonist
please pass on this information.
If you would like to contribute to our student newspaper
and submit your work next year for this award, contact;
Dr. D. Kaye Campbell
Adviser, The Decree
Rm 182 PC
X5194
Also contact
Ms. Shannon St. George
Editor-in-Chief, The Decree
°Rri82 pfCampbell’s door
Rm 182 PC, and on the Decree office door, Hartness
Center, behind the piano.
The second on-line survey was
more complicated. This survey
was needed to provide data for the
program review of the business
administration major degree. There
were 52 questions, many with mul
tiple choices for answers.
It was created using the wizard
available for creating the form.
(Surveys are created using HTML
forms.) They later edited the form
to simplify its look. The results
were sent to an Excel file for
Showalter s analysis. Tlie beauty
of this approach is that all data
collected may be studied with
sophisticated software. The sur
vey is available online at; http;//
faculty.ncwc.edu/BusDiv.
The third project was a simple
guest book for a web page.
FrontPage has a guest book avail
able to link to a site. The results
from the guest book are sent by
email to the designer of the page.
The log is available to other us
ers of the site after a comment
has been submitted. The guest
book is available at; http;//
faculty.ncwc.edu/psmith/China/
People%20to%20Peopieh,n,
Each of the above forms i
created m Smith’s office Sii
FrontPage is one of the Micros
family of products, the leani
curve is not steep.
All the skills that users k
m Word and Excel come ii
play. There are similar toolba
The commands cut, copy J
paste come in handy. FrontPi
provides an HTML version oft
form. Smith, a non-progranun
used this for proofreading
some editing.
* want what you want.
We ve begun a survey of students on campus to find out what you wanttn
Campbell s door box, Room 182 PC P into Dr,
please do.'''®an article, then
Thanks for your support of The Decree!
— Shannon St. George, Editor-in-Chief
1. Comics/cartoons that make sense
2. Sports (national) other than just colleges: NFL, NBA etc
o. uames ’
4. Calendar/dates of on-campus activities, sports etc
6.' S'oemf
7. Random comments/complaints section
8. Surveys
9. Coupons for local restaurants
10. Prices of beer at different convenience stores
Other
I. e.a„ attachment, send to Ms. St. George and^y to d" Campbell:
nb. obStGeorge@ncwc.edu
iHonfif. u ncwc.edu
Please puTthe w“d" SeaL^’inlhe Subl^ctTnroi^^^^^^^^^^^^
- abovT
Again, please put the word Decree in the Subject line of your email.
cation'^should be°s'ubmmed"i^the Photos, the copy and photo identifi-
JPG or TIFF attLhrnente '' artwork/photos as
•All submissions can also be left in Dr. Campbell's door box, Rm 182 PC,
5194^ questions, please call Ms. St. George at x 4935 or Dr. Campbell at x
NO anonymous submissions, please.