Comparison Reports allow you to compare and combine like-questions across multiple surveys in order to compare the means using a one-sided t-test. It can be valuable to compare means to track changes in responses over time (longitudinal analysis), between interventions (pre/post tests), or aggregating data to get a general sense of how students are responding across contexts (e.g., using question bank questions in a variety of surveys across programs and departments).
The first step in creating a Comparison Report would be to contact Support to request which questions from which existing surveys you would like us to build into a comparison report. Please note that the questions must be close-ended questions (no open-ended text box questions), and they must be exactly the same question text and scale. For example, you cannot compare questions with 5 point scales to questions with 7 point scales.
Once our Support team notifies you via email that the Comparison Report has been built, you are able to create Views in order to generate a custom report and visualize the data.
To create a view of your data in the Baseline Comparison Report Tool, please follow the steps below:
1. Log into Baseline and select "Benchmarks" from the grey menu bar at the top of the page. On the left-hand side of the page, select the third tab down which will display "Your campus' name - Benchmarking".
2. Select the benchmark you are interested in viewing from the Benchmarks drop-down. (If your benchmark doesn't appear here, please contact your Baseline Support Specialist). Select the "Create View" button.
Review the introduction instructions and select "Continue."
4. Average Segment: You can select groups of projects to be used as an average segment view. Projects that you do not have direct access to are labeled with the date they started. This feature can be helpful if you wish to aggregate data from questions asked across multiple projects. For example, if you wanted to combine the scores of a question like "This activity helped me to understand resources available to me on campus" which may have been asked in several different surveys in order to get an overall sense of how helpful your programs have been at sharing resources to students.
To create an average segment, first select the projects you wish to average from the project list, then type a name for the average segment and select "Create". Note: If you do not need an average, you may skip this step.
5. Project Segments: Select single projects to be used as segments in the view. Projects that you do not have direct access are labeled with the date they started. This feature can be helpful if you want to compare data sets to one another. For example, if you want to compare results from a pre-test to a post-test, or data from one year to another.
You will see the list of projects available for comparison. Click each project title to add it as a new segment in the view.
6. Select Questions: First, select the main segment for the view (either a single project or an average) and the questions to display on the benchmark view. Only questions that are on the main segment, or on all of the projects in the case of an average, will be shown. Changing the selected segment will reset all of your question selections. We recommend selecting the most recently administered segment, as this tends to create a more visually intuitive report.
7. Select Filters: If needed, you can apply a filter to your view. Select the question from the drop-down, then check the box by the answer(s) you wish to filter, and select "add filter." This will apply the filter to ALL PROJECTS. For example, if you wanted to filter by your data set by all female respondents, this filter would be applied to all projects in your view. Note: If you do not wish to apply any filters, you may skip this step.
8. Review & Finish: Enter a specific name for your view. We recommend a name that indicates what you are comparing and if any filters have been applied. To review your included segments, questions, and applied filters, click the plus sign to expand each section. Click "Finish" to complete your view and review the comparison data.
9. Now that you have created your view, you are able to export your views in Word, Excel, or PDF by clicking the appropriate links in the upper right corner of the View.
Your View is automatically saved and can be revisited anytime by navigating back to your institution's Benchmarking tab.
Once you have created your View, it is time to analyze the data! Review how to interpret the Comparison Report Results here.
If you are interested in viewing an in-depth tutorial on creating Comparison Reports, and how to interpret the results of your view, we recommend viewing this short video.