All Research Guides

A Guide From Domandata

Survey Software for Teaching Research Methods

Written by Domandata, which makes a survey platform. We name our product where it fits and say where another tool fits better. Claims about other tools link to their own documentation, checked ; confirm anything decisive with the vendor or your institution.

Methods courses increasingly ask students to design and field a real survey. The software choice shapes what they learn: a forms tool teaches question writing, while a research platform also teaches randomization, routing, quotas, and analysis-ready data.

Instructors also have practical constraints: every student needs access, student work and data must stay appropriately private, and grading should not mean chasing links by email.

The short answer

Start with what your university already licenses, often Qualtrics or Google Workspace for Education, which students can use at no cost. For courses on experiments and survey methods, look for per-student privacy, instructor visibility, and an LMS connection; Domandata Classrooms give each student full features inside the course, keep students' surveys private from classmates, let the instructor see everything, and grade through Canvas. Several experiment and conjoint tools offer free or discounted teaching licenses.

What matters in a teaching tool

  1. 1

    Access for every student

    Students should not need to buy software. Check for an institutional license, a free tier that covers the assignment, or a course license paid by the instructor or department.

  2. 2

    Privacy between students

    In a shared workspace, students often see each other's drafts and data. For graded work, students' surveys should be private by default, with the instructor able to see everything.

  3. 3

    Ethics review for class projects

    Many institutions do not require full IRB review for classroom exercises that are not designed to produce generalizable knowledge, but rules vary and change if results will be published. Ask your IRB before students collect data.

  4. 4

    Student records and privacy law

    In the U.S., FERPA governs education records; surveys administered to K-12 students by institutions receiving U.S. Department of Education funds also fall under the PPRA. Check how your institution applies these to course data.

  5. 5

    Grading and the semester lifecycle

    An LMS connection lets students submit from the course page and grades flow back. Plan what happens to student work and data when the semester ends.

  6. 6

    Teaching real methods

    If the course covers experiments, choose a tool with built-in random assignment and exports that keep the assigned condition, so students analyze what they designed.

Options for instructors

Use what the university licenses

Qualtrics says many institutions hold full licenses that students can access with a university email. Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals includes Forms at no cost for eligible institutions.

Qualtrics

Enterprise survey platform that many universities license campus-wide, and the default tool in much of academic survey research.

Pricing model
Usually an institutional license at no personal cost to students and staff, on terms set by your university's agreement. A capped free account is meant for trying the platform.
Where it runs
Cloud only. Publishes ISO 27001 and FedRAMP certifications.

Strengths

  • If your university licenses it, it is already paid for and usually reviewed by IT.
  • Mature, deep feature set, including Survey Flow randomizers and quotas.
  • Exports to CSV, Excel, and SPSS.

Watch out for

  • Access depends on your institution; leaving it can mean losing the license.
  • The free account caps responses, active surveys, and questions per survey, which rules out most studies.

Sources:Qualtrics Free AccountsQualtrics Account CreationQualtrics RandomizerQualtrics Security

Google Forms

Free form builder in Google Workspace that writes responses straight into a Google Sheet.

Pricing model
Free with a Google account and included in Google Workspace, including Education editions.
Where it runs
Cloud. Covered by Google's HIPAA Business Associate Agreement only under a Workspace agreement.

Strengths

  • No setup, and familiar to collaborators and students.
  • Responses land in a spreadsheet immediately.

Watch out for

  • No SPSS, Stata, or R export; you get a Sheet or CSV.
  • Branching is section-based, with no built-in treatment arms or quotas.

Sources:Google Forms: ResponsesGoogle Forms: BranchingGoogle Cloud HIPAA Compliance

A course built around survey methods and experiments

Domandata Classrooms give every student full features on their course surveys, paid for by the instructor's seats. Students' surveys are private from classmates by default, the instructor sees every survey, the classroom archives at semester end, and Canvas assignments submit and grade through LTI 1.3.

DomandataOur product

Browser-based survey platform built for academic social-science research: survey experiments, conjoint, and analysis-ready data.

Pricing model
Free plan for drafting and previewing; fielding a study, Flow logic, and exports need a paid individual or team plan with published self-serve pricing.
Where it runs
Cloud only, on U.S.-based infrastructure providers.

Strengths

  • Randomized treatment arms (weighted, stratified, or balanced) with the assigned condition saved in every export.
  • Conjoint, MaxDiff, list experiments, and reaction-time tasks built in, without custom JavaScript.
  • Native SPSS (.sav) and Stata (.dta) exports with a generated codebook, plus Qualtrics .qsf import.
  • Links OSF preregistrations and deposits replication materials to Harvard Dataverse or Zenodo.

Watch out for

  • Does not sign HIPAA Business Associate Agreements, so it is not suitable for studies that require one.
  • Cannot be self-hosted, and the data-hosting region is not fixed by contract.
  • The free plan cannot collect responses; fielding a study requires a paid plan.
  • A newer, smaller vendor: its SOC 2 Type I audit is still in progress, which some IT reviews ask for.

Sources:Domandata PricingDomandata Trust Center

Discounted or free teaching licenses

LimeSurvey discounts cloud plans for coursework, Sawtooth offers a free teaching license for conjoint and MaxDiff, Inquisit EDU covers undergraduate projects for a term, and Labvanced sells classroom licenses that give students extra recordings.

LimeSurvey

Open-source survey platform you can host yourself or use as a hosted cloud service.

Pricing model
Community Edition is free to self-host under the GPL; LimeSurvey Cloud has a free tier and paid subscriptions, with education discounts.
Where it runs
Self-hosted or cloud, with cloud regions including Germany and Finland and a GDPR data-processing agreement.

Strengths

  • Full control of the data when you host it yourself.
  • Exports to SPSS, R (via a plugin), Stata, CSV, and Excel.

Watch out for

  • Self-hosting requires someone to maintain, secure, and update the server.
  • Routing is written as relevance equations, and some statistical exports need extra configuration.

Sources:LimeSurvey PricingLimeSurvey Exporting ResultsLimeSurvey ExpressionScript

Sawtooth Software

Long-established commercial conjoint suite covering choice-based conjoint, adaptive conjoint, and MaxDiff, with hierarchical Bayes estimation.

Pricing model
Annual per-user subscriptions, with discounted academic research licenses, free teaching licenses, and free grant licenses for graduate students.
Where it runs
Web-based Discover or the Windows desktop Lighthouse Studio, with free hosting on Sawtooth servers or self-hosting.

Strengths

  • Mature hierarchical Bayes estimation and market simulation.
  • Advanced designs such as adaptive choice-based conjoint.
  • Free licenses for many students and instructors.

Watch out for

  • Lighthouse Studio runs only on Windows.
  • Oriented to utilities and market simulation rather than the AMCE estimands common in political science.

Sources:Sawtooth Academic PricingSawtooth Academic Grants

Inquisit

Reaction-time and cognitive testing software from Millisecond, with a lab app, a web service, and a large library of ready-made tasks.

Pricing model
Term or perpetual licenses, from single-experiment to department and campus licenses.
Where it runs
Inquisit Lab runs on lab computers; Inquisit Web runs studies online on computers and mobile devices.

Strengths

  • Built for timing precision in cognitive tasks.
  • A large library of standard tests included with a license.

Watch out for

  • A paid license is needed to run studies.
  • Programming happens in its own scripting language in the Lab app.

Sources:MillisecondInquisit Web Academic Licensing

Labvanced

Browser-based no-code experiment builder that includes webcam eye tracking.

Pricing model
Yearly licenses in tiers capped by recordings per year, plus a small free plan; eye tracking requires a premium tier.
Where it runs
Cloud, on servers in Falkenstein, Germany.

Strengths

  • Webcam eye tracking that stores gaze coordinates rather than video.
  • No coding required for most designs.

Watch out for

  • Its public security page does not say whether a data-processing agreement is offered.
  • The free plan allows only a handful of recordings.

Sources:Labvanced LicensesLabvanced SecurityLabvanced Eye Tracking

Before students collect data

  • Every student has access without buying software
  • Your IRB has confirmed how class projects are treated
  • Students' drafts and data are private from classmates
  • Consent text explains that this is a class project
  • No identifying data is collected unless the assignment requires it
  • Assignments submit and grade through your LMS
  • You know what happens to student data at semester end

Frequently Asked Questions

Do student survey projects need IRB approval?

It depends on your institution and the project. Many IRBs treat classroom exercises that are not intended to produce generalizable knowledge differently from research, but that changes if students plan to publish or present results. Ask your IRB before students collect data.

What free survey software can students use?

Students often already have Qualtrics through a university license, and Google Forms or Microsoft Forms through institutional accounts. Open-source tools such as LimeSurvey are free to self-host, and some vendors, including Sawtooth Software and Labvanced, offer teaching or classroom licenses.

Does FERPA apply to class survey data?

FERPA protects education records, meaning records directly related to a student and maintained by the institution. Whether a particular class survey dataset counts depends on its content and how it is kept, so follow your institution's guidance, and avoid collecting identifying data the assignment does not need.

Can students see each other's surveys?

In many shared team workspaces, yes. In a Domandata Classroom, each student's surveys are private to the student and the instructor unless the student shares them, so graded work stays individual.

References

Keep Reading

Domandata Classrooms

How classroom workspaces, seats, and privacy work.

Connect Canvas to a Classroom

Create, submit, and grade assignments through LTI 1.3.

Choosing Free Survey Software

Free options and their catches.

Survey Experiments Guide

Teach conditions, assignment, and analysis in order.