Monitoring questions

A monitoring question is a single question that the apps ask, for example a school’s name, a teacher’s role, or a yes or no observation. Questions live in question banks and are added to forms by reference, so one question can appear on many forms.

Open a question from a question bank or from a form’s question list. The header shows the question’s short name with the subtitle Monitoring Question. Editing and deleting are administrator only.

Details

The Details card shows:

Field	Meaning
Question Text	The wording the app shows
Order	Its default position
Guidance	Help text for the monitor
Subject	What the question is about (see below)
Ask Again?	Whether to re-ask or show the previous answer (see below)
Input Type	The kind of answer (see below)
Comment Type	Whether a comment is allowed or required

Options

For single-select questions, the Options card lists each choice with its Text, Advice, Action, Rating and Comment Prompt. Administrators can add an option with New Option (fields Option text, Advice, Action, a numeric rating, and Comment prompt), and edit or delete existing options.

Editing a question

Administrators edit a question’s number, Question text, Short name, Guidance, and its input type, subject, comment type and “Ask Again?” setting (the edit dialog labels that last field Verification Type; it is the same setting the question’s details show as Ask Again?).

Editing and deleting are blocked when a question is in use

A question that has already been added to one or more forms cannot be edited. You will see the message “This Question cannot be edited because it’s already added to several forms”. For the same reason, a question that is in use on any form cannot be deleted. Remove it from the forms first, or create a new question instead.

Input types

The Input Type decides what kind of answer the app collects:

• Name: a person’s or place’s name.
• Teacher Role: chosen from the country’s teacher roles.
• Text: free text.
• Number: a numeric value.
• Date: a date.
• Phone Number: a phone number.
• Single Select: one choice from a list of options.
• Multi Select: any number of choices from a list.
• Section Header: a heading only, with no answer.
• Photo: a photograph.

Subjects

The Subject decides which part of a visit the question belongs to, and therefore which tab it appears under when added to a form:

• School
• Head Teacher
• Class Teacher
• Class Teacher Observation
• Pupil

Comment types

The Comment Type controls whether the monitor can add a comment alongside the answer:

• No Comment: no comment field.
• Optional: a comment may be added.
• Required: a comment must be added.

Ask Again?

The Ask Again? setting controls what happens on a repeat visit:

• Display Old Answer: the app shows the answer from last time so the monitor can confirm or change it.
• Ask Question Again: the app asks the question fresh each visit.

Next: Question banks