Send Announcements and Reminders

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WebQ can send email messages to your participants when a survey or quiz is published. WebQ can also send reminders messages at a time you specify.

About announcements and reminders.

WebQ can send announcements about your survey or quiz to your participants via email. Announcements are sent at the date and time you have chosen to publish the survey. You can customize the subject line and message text included in the announcement; WebQ automatically includes the URL of the survey or quiz and some instructions at the end of your message.

If you add email addresses to the list while the survey is published, announcements will immediately be sent to the newly added email addreses.

Some security settings require you to provide a separate list of email addresses to which the announcements and reminders will be sent. Other security settings use the same information you entered to provide access to the survey to send the email messages. For example, if you choose to use a group as your security setting, WebQ will send email to the members of the group using their UW email address or other email addresses associated with their Catalyst account (if any).

Each email address will only receive a single announcement of the survey. If you need to pilot your survey with people who will respond to the survey later, we recommend making a copy of the survey. If you need to re-survey the same population over time and want to use WebQ's announcement and reminder features, we recommend making a copy of the survey.

WebQ can also send reminder messages about your survey or quiz to your participants. Depending upon the security setting you selected, reminders will only be sent to participants who have not yet completed the survey or quiz. The chart provides a quick overview of which settings can keep track of participants who have not yet submitted their answers, and which cannot:

Security Setting Announcements
*Anyone with a UW NetID *Anyone WebQ does NOT keep track of who has completed the survey. Automatic email reminders will be sent to all the people on the "Reminders" email list.
*Members of a defined group of UW NetIDs *People with specific email addresses WebQ keeps track of who has completed the survey. Automatic email reminders will only be sent to those who have not responded.
*People using a custom ID If emails are associated with custom IDs, then WebQ keeps track of who has completed the survey and email reminders will only be sent to those who have not responded.
If emails are NOT associated with a custom ID, then email reminders will be sent to all the people on the "Reminders" email list.

Send announcements for surveys and quizzes using "Anyone" or "Anyone with a UW NetID" security.

If a survey or quiz uses "Anyone" or "Anyone with a UW NetID" security, you must enter the email address(es) to which you want announcements and reminders sent. Follow these steps to send announcements:

  1. Navigate to the "Edit Announcements" page. There are two ways to get to the "Edit Announcements" page. If you are building a survey or quiz for the first time, you can click Next at the bottom of the "Security" page. If you have saved a survey or quiz and are continuing, you can click Announcement on the "Summary" page. You will move to the "Edit Announcements" page.
  2. Select Have WebQ send announcements when the survey is published. The page will expand to display the announcement options.
  3. Enter the email address(es) to which you would like announcements to be sent in the "Email addresses" area. Be sure to separate addresses with commas, or to enter just one address on each line.
  4. Enter the subject and message of the announcement. A default subject and message is provided if you do not want to create a custom message. You do not need to include the survey URL in the message; WebQ will automatically add the survey URL to the end of your message.
  5. If you want, you can create and schedule reminders (following the steps below).
  6. Click Save to continue to set publishing dates (if this is the first time you are building a survey) or return to the Summary page.

Send announcements for surveys and quizzes using "Members of a defined group of UW NetIDs" security.

If a survey uses "Members of a defined group of UW NetIDs" security, WebQ uses the email address associated with the UW NetID to send email announcements and reminders. Follow these steps to send announcements:

  1. Navigate to the "Edit Participants and Announcements" page. There are two ways to get to the "Edit Announcements" page. If you are building a survey or quiz for the first time, you can click Next at the bottom of the "Security" page. If you have saved a survey or quiz and are continuing, you can click Announcement on the "Summary" page. You will move to the "Edit Announcements" page.
  2. Be sure you have attached the group of participants. If not, select a group from the drop-down menu and click Attach Group. If you don't have an existing group, you can follow these instructions to create a new group, and then select and attach the group.
  3. Select Have WebQ send announcements when the survey is published. The page will expand to display the announcement options.
  4. Enter the subject and message of the announcement. A default subject and message is provided if you do not want to create a custom message. You do not need to include the survey URL in the message; WebQ will automatically add the survey URL to the end of your message.
  5. If you want, you can create and schedule reminders (following the steps below).
  6. Click Save to continue to set publishing dates (if this is the first time you are building a survey) or return to the Summary page.

Send announcements for surveys and quizzes using "People using a custom ID" security.

If a survey or quiz uses "People using a custom ID" security, you must enter the email address(es) to which you want announcements and reminders sent. If you have email addresses for all participants, you can choose to have WebQ include a specific custom ID in the email announcement sent to participants. For WebQ to match custom IDs with email addresses, you must enter each list in order -- the first ID will be matched with the first email addresses, and so on. Follow these steps to send announcements:

  1. Navigate to the "Edit Participants and Announcements" page. There are two ways to get to the "Edit Announcements" page. If you are building a survey or quiz for the first time, you can click Next at the bottom of the "Security" page. If you have saved a survey or quiz and are continuing, you can click Announcement on the "Summary" page. You will move to the "Edit Announcements" page.
  2. If you haven't already, enter a list of custom IDs in the space provided. Be sure to either separate the IDs with commas, or enter one ID per line.
  3. Select Have WebQ send announcements when the survey is published. The page will expand to display the announcement options.
  4. If you want WebQ to match custom IDs with email addresses and include the ID in the announcement, select Have WebQ match list of emails to list of custom IDs.
  5. Enter the email address(es) to which you would like announcements to be sent in the "Email addresses" area. Be sure to separate addresses with commas, or to enter just one address on each line.
  6. Enter the subject and message of the announcement. A default subject and message is provided if you do not want to create a custom message. You do not need to include the survey URL in the message; WebQ will automatically add the survey URL to the end of your message.
  7. If you want, you can create and schedule reminders (following the steps below).
  8. Click Save to continue to set publishing dates (if this is the first time you are building a survey) or return to the Summary page.

Send announcements for surveys and quizzes using "People with specific email addresses" security.

If a survey uses "People with specific email addresses" security, WebQ uses the email address you provide to send email announcements and reminders. Announcements are not optional for this security setting. Follow these steps to send announcements:

  1. Navigate to the "Edit Participants and Announcements" page. There are two ways to get to the "Edit Announcements" page. If you are building a survey or quiz for the first time, you can click Next at the bottom of the "Security" page. If you have saved a survey or quiz and are continuing, you can click Announcement on the "Summary" page. You will move to the "Edit Announcements" page.
  2. If you haven't already, enter a list of email addresses in the space provided. Be sure to either separate the email addresses with commas, or enter one address per line.
  3. Enter the subject and message of the announcement. A default subject and message is provided if you do not want to create a custom message. You do not need to include the survey URL in the message; WebQ will automatically add the survey URL to the end of your message.
  4. If you want, you can create and schedule reminders (following the steps below).
  5. Click Save to continue to set publishing dates (if this is the first time you are building a survey) or return to the Summary page.

Send reminders about your survey or quiz.

WebQ can send email messages reminding your participants to complete the survey or quiz. You can schedule reminders to be sent once, every day, every week, and so on, beginning on a specific date. If possible, WebQ will only send reminders to participants who have not yet taken the survey or quiz. For some security settings, however, WebQ cannot track who has completed the survey or not. Follow these steps to create and schedule reminders:

  1. On the "Edit Participants and Announcements" page, select Send reminders to people who haven't taken the survey.
  2. Select how often you want reminders to be sent from the "Send" drop-down menu.
  3. Select a date you want reminders to start being sent. Click calendar to open a calendar and select a date.
  4. Enter the subject and message of the reminder. A default subject and message is provided if you do not want to create a custom message. You do not need to include the survey URL in the message; WebQ will automatically add the survey URL to the end of your message.
  5. Click Save to continue to set publishing dates (if this is the first time you are building a survey) or return to the Summary page.