Survey Question Types Explained

Overview

Surveys in Learn Amp give you a simple, structured way to gather feedback, measure sentiment, and understand your learners' experiences. When creating a Survey, you can choose from six different question types. Each one captures a different style of response, helping you tailor your Survey to the insight you're looking for.

This article explains each of the six question types available in Surveys.

Functionality Breakdown

Below is a breakdown of how each question type works and when it's most useful.

Free-text

A Free-text question allows respondents to enter their answer in an open text box. This is ideal for capturing detailed thoughts, explanations, and qualitative feedback.

Radio Button

Radio Button questions allow the user to select one answer from a predefined list. This is useful when only a single, definitive choice is required.

Drop-down

Drop-down questions also allow only one answer, but present the options in a compact drop-down menu. This is particularly helpful when you have a longer list of possible answers and want to keep the Survey layout clean.

Multiple Choice

Multiple Choice questions allow respondents to select as many answers as they like from the available list. This format is useful when more than one option may apply.

Opinion Scale

Opinion Scale questions allow respondents to select a value on a customisable numeric scale using a slider. This is ideal for measuring sentiment, satisfaction, agreement levels, or any rating-based feedback.

Key features:

• Customisable range – Set your own minimum and maximum values (from -16 to 16). Common scales include 1–5, 1–10, or 0–10.

• Optional free-text comment – Enable an additional text field where respondents can explain their rating or add context.

• Visual slider interface – Respondents interact with an intuitive slider to select their score.

When to use Opinion Scale:

• Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys

• Satisfaction ratings

• Agreement/disagreement scales (e.g., Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree)

• Performance or quality ratings

Reporting: Opinion Scale responses are displayed with a histogram showing the distribution of scores, along with the average, minimum, and maximum values. If free-text comments are enabled, these are listed alongside the scores.

Poll

Polls help you gather quick feedback or gauge sentiment. Respondents can choose from predefined options, and you can optionally assign Weights to each Poll answer.

Weighted Polls: Adding Weights assigns a numerical value to each answer. This makes it easier to analyse responses, quantify sentiment, or score options more meaningfully.

Pre-requisites

Before adding question types to your Survey, make sure you have access to:

• Manage → Learning Content → Surveys, where your organisation's Survey templates and settings are located.

• Appropriate permissions to create or edit Surveys.

Required User Roles

To create and configure a Survey, you must have one of the following roles:

Creating a Survey

• Owner – Full access within their company

• Admin – Administrative access within their company

• Learning Designer – Can create and manage learning content

• Curator – Can create Surveys if they have the "Issue Surveys" permission override enabled in their policy settings

• Manager – Can create Surveys if:

  • Surveys are enabled for their company

  • Their manager permissions allow for Survey creation

Editing a Survey

To edit an existing Survey, you must:

• Have one of the roles above, or

• Be explicitly added as an editor via the "Who can edit?" field in Advanced Settings, or

• Be the original creator of the Survey

If you've been granted edit permissions on a specific Survey, you'll automatically have edit access for all Surveys of that same type.

Quick Start Guide

Follow these steps to explore and use the available question types:

1. Navigate to Manage → Learning Content → Surveys.

2. Open an existing Survey or create a new one.

3. Select Add Question.

4. Choose from the six available question types:

   • Free-text

   • Radio Button

   • Drop-down

   • Multiple Choice

   • Opinion Scale (with optional free-text comment)

   • Poll (with optional Weights)

5. Add your question text and configure the response settings.

6. For Opinion Scale questions:

   • Set the Minimum value (e.g., 0 or 1)

   • Set the Maximum value (e.g., 5 or 10)

   • Optionally enable Allow additional comment to let respondents add context

7. Save your changes once you're ready.

FAQs

Can I mix different question types within a single Survey?
Yes. You can combine any of the available question types to suit the style and depth of feedback you need.

Do Poll Weights affect how results are displayed?
Weights help you score and analyse responses, especially when you want to assign positive or negative sentiment. They do not change how options are shown to respondents.

Can learners select more than one answer in a Poll?
Polls work like single-choice questions unless designed as Multiple Choice. Only Multiple Choice questions allow multiple selections.

What's the difference between Opinion Scale and Poll?
Opinion Scale uses a slider with a numeric range and is best for rating or scoring questions. Poll uses predefined text options in a grid format and is better for categorical responses or when you want to label each option specifically.

What scale should I use for Opinion Scale questions?
Common choices include:

• 1–5 for simple ratings (e.g., satisfaction)

• 0–10 for Net Promoter Score (NPS) style questions

• 1–10 for detailed performance ratings

• -5 to 5 for sentiment ranging from negative to positive

Can respondents skip Opinion Scale questions?
Like other question types, this depends on whether the question is marked as required in your Survey settings.

Troubleshooting