Transcript Blaise Questionnaire Documentation/Codebook

Demonstration of a Blaise
Instrument Documentation System
“BlaiseDoc”
Gina-Qian Cheung
May 25, 2005
Institution for Social Research
University of Michigan
Agenda
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•
•
•
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Introduction
BlaiseDoc Design
Blaise Questionnaire Generator Demo
BlaiseDoc Codebook Demo
Some outstanding issues and next step
2
Current Approach
E.g., QxQ’s, Resp. Booklet
UM SRC BlaiseDoc Flow
Blaise datamodel
External lookups
SAS ODBC link
BlaiseDoc
(Interface program)
Config.xml
(location of file &
record of selections)
Support
DB
DDIGen
SAS
Frequency
DB
(Produces XML)
*.xml
(one XML per
language)
TEXT
RTF
System
produces
HTML
Questionnaire
DDIxForm
Your previous
selections
are saved
Four key
components
(transforms XML)
TEXT
RTF
HTML
Codebook
Word processor / browser Interprets
XSL Stylesheets
Scripts
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DDIGen Creates eXtended Markup
Language (XML) Output
• Creates tagged elements (e.g., variable or question)
from Blaise datamodel metadata (information about
survey instrument variables, e.g., name, question
text, code frame, etc.)
 Tags
• Bracket elements (examples follow)
• Comply with Data Documentation Initiative (DDI)
 Hierarchical tree structure
• Generates comprehensive metadata about all Blaise
survey instrument variables
 Opens possibility of using XML metadata in many
ways, by many systems, and customizing display of
those metadata to meet many needs
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DDIxForm Transforms XML, Based
on XSL Stylesheet Scripts
• eXtended Stylesheet Language
Transformation (XSLT) uses stylesheet
scripts (*.XSL) to traverse XML tree, looking
for elements and generating formatted
outputs (e.g., HTML, TXT, RTF, PDF, etc.)
 HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is used
for commands an internet browser interprets
to decide how to display information
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Examples of Elements, Attributes, &
Data in Blaise XML
• Elements
 codeBook
 var (variable element)
 qstn (question element within var)
 qstnlit (question text, element within qstn)
 varGrp (block)
• Attributes
 name (variable name, attribute of var)
 var ID (attribute of var and varGrp)
• Data
 Actual question text
 Actual short variable name (Blaise Field Name)
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Example of XML Output Based on
Blaise Datamodel
DDIGen captures Blaise
screen formatting characteristics, e.g., bold, blue,
special characters, etc.
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Basic HTML Stylesheets Available
QNaireHTML1.XSL
Field names, Q text with fills, code
frames/other Q types, lookups, universes
QNaireHTML2.XSL
… plus constructed variables, preload
variables, interviewer consistency checks
QNaireHTML3.XSL
… plus “goto’s” with links to target questions,
internal consistency checks
QnaireHTML4.XSL
… plus links to respondent booklet & help
(QxQs)
CodebookHTML1.XSL Field names, Q text with fills, code
frames/other Q types, lookups, constructed
variables, preload variables, universes
CodebookHTML2.XSL … plus frequencies
CodebookHTML3.XSL … plus links to respondent booklet & help
(QxQs)
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View Results
DDIGen captures Blaise screen characteristics,
e.g., blue for text not read to respondent
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Elements of Questionnaires
• Elements of questionnaire
 Question identifier
 Question text and fills
 Response options for code frame / other Q types
 Lookup (e.g., for states)
 Goto’s (optional)
 Preload variables (optional)
 Constructed variables (optional)
 Interviewer consistency checks (optional)
 Internal checkpoints (optional)
 Supplemental information (e.g., QxQ’s and
respondent booklets, optional)
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Elements of Codebooks
• Elements of codebook
 Question identifier
 Question
 Response options for code frame / other Q type
 Lookup (e.g., states)
 Preload variables
 Constructed variables
 Universes (respondents for whom Q’s asked)
• E.g., Females over 65
 Frequencies and Percents (optional)
 Variable characteristics (in this case for SAS,
assuming Blaise instrument; if freqs, thus optional)
 Supplemental information (e.g., QxQ’s and
respondent booklets, optional)
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Elements of Questionnaires &
Codebooks
• What you see is what you specify and what gets
programmed
 Fonts, upper and lower case, interviewer instructions,
Field Description
goto’s, etc.
Field Name
Field Tag
Example specification
SRO is developing Blaise
specification,
screen design, and programming
Guidelines.
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Codebook without Universe
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Codebook with Universe
Difference between codebook & qnaire:
Universe vs. “goto”
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Editing Stylesheets
• DDIxFORM opens the XML file and applies an XSL
stylesheet script against it
 grabs data, adds text, and produces text output
• In addition to XSL commands, XSL file contains
HTML commands that DDIxForm does not interpret,
but are copied with other text
 These commands are then interpreted by the user’s
browser or text processor to control formatting and
display
 Can edit XSL and HTML commands to change the
display of documentation
 We’re going add HTML commands to a stylesheet to
change the format of a questionnaire
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Edit Stylesheet and Generate
Revised Documentation
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Exercise 3: Edit Stylesheet and
Generate Revised Documentation
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Exercise 3: Edit Stylesheet and
Generate Revised Documentation
• [Click] on the File menu and Save
the file
• [Double click] on the Refresh
Questionnaire shortcut on the
computer Desktop
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Exercise 3: View Results
• From
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Exercise 3: View Results
• To
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Uses of BlaiseDoc
• Documentation of Blaise
Instrument
 IRB documentation
 Qnaire or codebook documentation of
final data collection instrument or
dataset
 Testing
• Can generate current documentation of instrument
for use by testers at any point in development
process
• Check question text, fills, goto’s, universes, etc.
• Developing program to read post22
Summary
• BlaiseDoc Documents Blaise survey
instruments and data
• Questionnaires
• Codebooks
• SRC has standard stylesheet scripts
that provide options for what appears
in documentation
• These can be modified to produce
additional stylesheets to meet specific
client requirements
• Quality of output dependent on original
Blaise survey instrument specifications
and programming
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“BlaiseDoc” is a Work in Progress
• We are using beta version
• Expect release of final system within
next few months
 Move to .NET
 Modifications to handle grids, rosters and fills
better
 Additions of other features requested by users
 Updated interface
 Integration of programs (DDIGen,
DDIxFORM, and BlaiseDoc interface)
 Updated documentation
• Encourage you to use system and
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Discussion / Questions
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