Demonstration of a Blaise Instrument Documentation System BlaiseDoc

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Demonstration of a Blaise Instrument
Documentation System BlaiseDoc

• Gina-Qian Cheung
• May 25, 2005
• Institution for Social Research
• University of Michigan

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Agenda

• Introduction
• BlaiseDoc Design
• Blaise Questionnaire Generator Demo
• BlaiseDoc Codebook Demo
• Some outstanding issues and next step

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Good Instrument Documentation

• Accurate content
• Flexible elements
• Quickly produced
• Readable
• Standard appearance
• Not easy.

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Current Approach
E.g., QxQs, Resp. Booklet
Your previous selections are saved
Four key components
System produces
Word processor / browser Interprets
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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
charac- teristics, e.g., bold, blue, special
characters, etc.
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Basic HTML Stylesheets Available
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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)
• Gotos (optional)
• Preload variables (optional)
• Constructed variables (optional)
• Interviewer consistency checks (optional)
• Internal checkpoints (optional)
• Supplemental information (e.g., QxQs 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 Qs 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., QxQs 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, gotos, etc.

Field Description
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 users
  browser or text processor to control formatting
  and display
• Can edit XSL and HTML commands to change the
  display of documentation
• Were 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, gotos, universes,
  etc.
• Developing program to read post-processed SAS
  dataset against original Blaise datamodel and
  generate XML for final codebook
• SASToSAS--similar to BlaiseToSAS
• Creates new datamodel for use with BlaiseDoc

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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
• Need to think about questionnaire and data
  documentation requirements during instrument
  specification
• You can use BlaiseDoc throughout instrument
  development cycle, to test the instrument and
  check question wording and fills, skip logic
  (gotos), including DK / RF skip logic, etc.

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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 provide feedback
  (to Gina Cheung)
• See slide 4 for location of installation program
  and user guide
• Work with your Blaise programming and data
  operations team members to get the results you
  need and expect

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Discussion / Questions