Embedded Files
In the Dictionary, you define the data you use for tailoring — whether you collect the data in a survey or pull data in from a database.
Terms to know
Terms to know
Characteristic: the name of a survey question you'll use for tailoring (or the name of a piece of data from a database)
Values: the names you give the possible answers to questions (or pieces of data)
Examples:
"What's your favorite color?" gets a characteristic name of FavoriteColor.
"Blue" is one possible value for FavoriteColor.
Characteristics
Characteristics
General
Characteristic name
Characteristic name
Avoid spaces and special characters (underscore, period, and hyphen are ok).
Start with letters, not a number.
Tips to make characteristics easy to sort, find, and use:
Using NameFirst and NameLast (as opposed to FirstName and LastName) will keep items together if you alphabetize your list.
Using MetaCog1 and MetaCog2 will also sort together, but you may not remember what the 1 and 2 mean. Names like MetaCog-Test and MetaCog-Learn might be more helpful.
"This is a derived characteristic"
"This is a derived characteristic"
Check this box if your characteristic is derived from other characteristics, such as:
Age is derived from someone's birthdate.
ExamPercent is calculated from the student's raw exam score and the total points possible.
StressScore is a sum of answers to an 8-item scale.
Then complete the remaining details under Derived Details at the bottom of the page.
Derived Notes explain the way the derived characteristic should be calculated.
Derived Calculation is where someone (e.g., a software developer) can write the calculation in Python code.
Question type
Question type
Radio (vertical layout): vertical radio buttons let people choose one from a set of response options
Scale (horizontal layout): displays radio buttons horizontally (like a Likert-type scale)
Checkbox - multiple option: lets people chose one or more from a set of response options
Pop-up - one option: displays values in a pop-up (dropdown) menu, users can choose one (e.g., for states or months)
Fill-in - text input: users can enter a single line of text
Fill-in - text area: users can enter multiple lines of text into an expandable box
Data type
Data type
Text: For responses stored in the database as text like StronglyDisagree or OncePerMonth.
Whole Number: For number-based responses with no decimals, like from a 1 to 5 Likert scale.
Number with Decimal: For number-based responses with decimals.
Date & Time YYYY-MM-DD-DD:HH:MM: For responses stored in the database in a date/time format.
Validation
Validation
None: People can skip the question without a warning prompt.
Loose: People can skip, but they get a prompt. You can write the prompt or use the default "Please provide an answer to this question."
Strict: People have to answer before they can move on to the next question.
TIP: After you enter the information above, click Add Characteristic to save your characteristic and to see more options.
Survey question
Survey question
Enter the text of your survey question. This is the text that will appear to the user.
Source name
Source name
Choose the source of the data for this characteristic, such as a particular survey or a database.
If you don't see your sources in this list, go to Sources in the top left menu bar to add them.
Notes
Notes
These notes are just for the team — they're not visible to users.
Response Values
TIP: Value sets are handy for values you use over and over (like Yes / No / Maybe or a 5-point Likert scale).
Click Add new value set if you want to define a new value set.
Use the Assign a value set menu if you want to use values you've already defined.
Add or edit a value set - "Value"
Add or edit a value set - "Value"
Value is for text-based options like lists of colors, types of cuisine, and so on.
Value Name: This is the value name you'll use for tailoring logic — it's not seen by the user (e.g., LtBlue).
Response Text: This is how the value appears to the user in a survey (e.g., "Light blue").
Substitution: A substitution allows you to enter the answer someone chose into a tailored sentence (e.g., "You told us your favorite color is $FavoriteColor.") In the substitution field, enter the text exactly as you'd like it to appear in the sentence ("light blue") being mindful of case, plurals, and grammar.
Map-to: It's easiest to tailor using values like Red and Blue, but some people like to save only numbers in databases. Map-to allows you to do both: tailor on Red but map it to 1 (for example) for database purposes. Enter whatever numerical values you want to save for each value.
Add or edit a value set - "Range"
Add or edit a value set - "Range"
Range is for Likert scales (1 to 5), percents (0 to 100), and so on.
Range Min / Range Max: Enter the lowest and highest allowable values for your range.
Min Description / Max Description: Enter the words that appear on the scale, such as "Strongly agree" and "Strongly disagree."
Add or edit a value set - "Length"
Add or edit a value set - "Length"
Length is to specify a number of characters for text fill-ins like first name (e.g., 20 characters) or numerical fill-ins like weight (e.g., 3 or 4 digits).
Min Value / Max Value: Enter the lowest and highest number of allowable characters for your fill-in box.
TIP: Be mindful of whether your question is required.
If it's not required, make sure your minimum is 0 (otherwise people would still have to enter at least one character to move forward).
If it is required, your minimum should require at least 1 character (otherwise they could enter nothing, making it effectively skippable).
TIP: When you add your value set, MTS will suggest a default Value Set Name. If you plan to reuse these values for other characteristics, rename the set so you can easily find them later. Some rules apply:
Do not use punctuation.
Start with letters, not numbers (use Agree1to5 instead of 1to5Agree).
Assign a value set
Assign a value set
Choose the set of response options you want for this characteristic.
If you don't see items in the menu, click Add new value set or go to Value Sets in the upper right menu to add them.
Default value (if unanswered)
Default value (if unanswered)
You can specify certain default values to be saved into the database if users don't answer questions. If you don't specify your own, MTS has these built in:
Text values default to an empty state.
Whole Number = -1
Number with Decimal = -99.9
Date & Time = 1904-01-01-00:00:00T-0500
Sources
Sources
Source refers to the source of the data for a characteristic — for example, whether the data comes from a database or one of your surveys.
Add A New Source: Give your source an easily-identifiable name (e.g., BIO101 if your data comes from a Bio 101 survey). You can also enter a description if you like.
Characteristics Without Sources: It's easy to forget to add a source if you're adding a lot of characteristics at once. This list tells you which characteristics don't have sources so you can easily assign them.
Value sets
Value sets
On this page, you'll see all the value sets you've created for all of your characteristics. Value sets can be used by one or many characteristics.
TIP: Before making a change to a value set, look for Linked Characteristics at the bottom of the page.
Any edits you make on this page will apply to all of the linked characteristics.
To make edits to the value set for just one characteristic, click that characteristic's name in the Linked Characteristics list and edit from the Characteristics page.
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