Computer-based evaluation forms

ACM Computing Week 1995 was evaluated using computer-based survey forms. The electronic evaluations were e-mailed to conference attendees who filled out the evaluation forms and e-mailed them to Nancy Wahl, the ACM Computing Week '95 Activities Evaluation Chairperson. The forms were processed by a computer program which extracted, tabulated, and formatted results. This was the first time that electronic evaluations were used to evaluate Computing Week. The design of the computer-based survey forms is compared to the design of paper-based survey forms. The difficulties encountered in developing a program that can parse survey forms looking for answers that were put in unexpected places are described and suggestions for improving the evaluation process are outlined.