Introduction to Panels
This article will introduce users on the Panels feature in Baseline. Panels allow you to create subgroups of populations within your Baseline site that can be used in the following ways:
- Filtering existing survey data
- Sending a survey to a specific population
- Creating a subgroup, based involvement data from your Engage site
- Validate respondents for a survey
Who has access to Panels?
- To give someone access to create a panel from an excel file, please contact our Support team at or your consultant.
- To give someone access to view panels that have been created, a site administrator can grant the system role of “Engage Panels” to a user in the site. This will allow the user to view panels that have already been created and create new panels based on Engage involvement data. To learn more about User System Roles available within Baseline, click here.
Assigning Panels
Panels can be used by individuals who have permission to panels as long as the panel has been assigned to a survey.
By applying a panel to a project, that project will be accessible when you go to the Project Results section of a project. You will also be able to see which panels have been applied to projects from either the Project Dashboard or Panels section.
Creating Panels
Panels can be created using several methods. Panels can be created from a Survey or from an excel file.
From a Survey:
- Panels can be created from filtered survey data. For example, you can create a panel of students who have indicated they are looking to get more involved on campus for future communication.
- First navigate to the survey that you’re hoping to build the panel from.
- Next, navigate to the Project Results and add the relevant filters you’d like to add to create a sample that you’re hoping to turn into a panel.
- Finally, navigate the Create Panel option under Filters. Name your panel a name that will be easy to recognize in the future and click Create Panel.
From an Excel file:
- If you’re looking to create a panel from an Excel file, your first step will be to provide an Excel file (tab delimited) of your sub-population to support@campuslabs.com.
- After our Support team confirms they’ve added your file, navigate to your Panels Tab. From here, click on New Panel to reveal a drop down.
- Choose From Email/External Id.
- Name your panel, provide a description that will help you or anyone else distinguish this panel, and click Save.
- We recommend adding a date here as well so that you’re reminded when this panel was created.
- Next, you’ll be able to add members from your panel. Choose which identifier you will be using (based on what you provided to Support) and paste the identifiers in the open textbox. Once this is done, click on + Add Member List
- Next, you’ll see your users added along with any matching identification information that’s connected to those users.
Using Panels
You can use panels to filter existing survey data, develop a mass mailing for a survey, and validate responses.
Filtering Existing Survey Data
You can use a panel to filter results in a survey where you have collected identifiers (either student email address or ID).
After assigning a panel to a survey, you can filter the results by the panel you created under the Filters tool on the results page, as shown in the screenshot below.
Once a panel has been applied, results can then be filtered by that panel. You may want to do this, for example, if you have a sample of students whose responses you would like to compare to that of the larger population.
Survey Mass Mailing
Panels can also be used to develop a mass mailing for a survey. This can be helpful when you want to send a follow-up survey to an event tracked through Engage, or students that hold a specific position.
Once your survey is ready to administer, create your mass mailing. When adding recipients to the mailing, you will notice a tab called From Panel that will allow you to assign a panel to this mailing (screenshot below).
Validating Responses
When sending out your survey via generic link, you also have the option to verify that the intended respondents are responding. For example, if you’re sending out a Graduation Interest survey, and you only want your 4th year undergraduate students to respond, you can couple your Panel with a Validation Screen to ensure only your Seniors are responding. As a bonus, this combination will also ensure that any respondent who has already taken the survey, will not be able to take the survey again. To do this, simply reach out to our Support Team and let them know which panel you’d like to couple with a validation screen. You can also indicate this when you first request your project.