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Build a Panel

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Distributing

Use the Panels tab to upload a list of contacts into a panel that can be accessed when distributing a survey. A Panel can include the recipient name, email address, and any additional information (Embedded Data) you would like stored with the panel members’ responses.

Step-By-Step

create a new Panel
  1. Go to the Panels tab and click the green Create New Panel button.
  2. Give your panel a Panel Name.
  3. If desired, give your panel a Destination Category.
  4. Click Create.
  5. Choose how you would like to import panel members: Add Panel Members using a web-based form, Import From a File to upload a spreadsheet of members, or Import From a Survey to use previous survey responses to build your panel.
manually add members to your Panel
  1. Follow the steps for Create New Panel, and select to Add Panel Members manually.
  2. In the form that appears, fill in the Email, First Name, and Last Name for your panel members. Make sure that you don’t have white space before or after the inserted text.
  3. If needed, click the gray Plus Sign to add additional fields to your panel, including an External Data Reference, the participant’s Language, or any other Embedded Data field. Customize the names of your Embedded Data fields by clicking on the field name.
  4. Click Save.
import Panel Members from a file
  1. Follow the steps for Create New Panel and select to Import From a File section.
  2. Create a spreadsheet in Excel or any other database program. Download the Example Document to learn how to format the file. The File must contain one column with the header FirstName, one column with the header LastName, one column with the header Email, and if needed, additional columns for any other data (embedded data) you would like to have saved in the panel. Click here to jump down to QTips for information on importing the panel members’ Language codes.

    WARNING: When you add embedded data to your panel, this extra information will be attached to the responses of your panelists. Note that to see this embedded data in your reports you must go into the Survey Flow of your survey and add in embedded data elements for the embedded data columns. Also, be aware that if you delete your panel after collecting responses, the embedded data will also be deleted and will no longer be attached to the responses from the panel.

  3. Build your file. Add panel members to your spreadsheet, with one row for each panel member.
  4. In the File menu, select Save As.
  5. Give your file a name, and set the File Type to CSV or Comma Separated Values.
  6. In the Import From a File pop-up box, select Choose File.
  7. Select your file and click Open. The file must be closed on your computer for it to import successfully into Qualtrics.
  8. Check the Verify Fields preview of your panel to ensure that Qualtrics is recognizing it properly.
  9. If the fields are not showing up as a table in the Verify Fields preview, select Import Options and change the Delimiter and Enclosure until the Verify Fields preview displays properly.
  10. Select Import.
import panel members from existing survey data
  1. Follow the steps for Create New Panel, and select to Import From a Survey.
  2. Select whether you want to Update Recipients (if some of your survey participants are already in the panel) or Create New Recipients (if you are building a new panel or adding to an existing one).
  3. Select a survey you wish to use for your panel information and choose a Response Date Range if desired.
  4. If creating new participants, choose which Question and which Question Field will represent the First Name, Last Name, and Email in the panel.
  5. If updating existing panel members, also specify which fields the Question and Question Field should be saved as in the panel. Note that if you are updating panel members, you have to distribute the survey to the panel you are wanting to update.

More Information

QTips
  • When adding panel members manually, you can copy and paste cells from a spreadsheet into the Qualtrics web form so that you don’t have to type all of the information manually. Just make sure there are no spaces before or after the text you copy in.
  • Embedded Data is very useful when distributing to a panel. For more information about Embedded Data and how to use it in your panel and survey, visit the Embedded Data page.
  • When importing the Language for panel members, the survey tool looks for the language code in capital letters. So import the two-letter language code. English is EN, Spanish is ES, French is FR, etc. Here is a useful resource for determining language codes (reference the “ISO 639-1″ column at the far right).