Please help us help you and fill where relevant: Issue with Question Display Order in LimeSurvey – Need Help!
Your LimeSurvey version: Version 5.6.39+230926
Own server or LimeSurvey hosting: LimeSurvey Hosting
Survey theme/template: Research project
==================Hello everyone,I need some help with a technical issue on LimeSurvey.In my study, participants have to answer five questions before receiving feedback, then five more afterward. These questions are randomly drawn from a set of 10 questions in total. The goal is for each participant to see 5 questions at the beginning and then the remaining 5 after the feedback.Technically, we managed to set this up in LimeSurvey by using the same randomization group for both sets of questions. Everything worked fine when participants completed the questionnaire, but when exporting the results, a problem appeared:LimeSurvey displays all responses in a fixed order based on the question codes, without reflecting the actual order in which they were presented to participants. As a result, it is impossible to tell which questions were shown before or after the feedback, making data analysis unusable.I am looking for a solution to retrieve the actual order in which questions appeared. Is there a way to obtain, for example:

• A timestamp for each response to reconstruct the display order
• A way to track the question display history for each participant
• Any other method to recover this information

In the results, there is also a "seed" field, which might be useful, but I am not sure how to use it.If anyone has an idea, I would be really grateful! Thanks in advance for your help 😊

Please do not double-post. It wastes the time of the volunteers helping here.

Of course,
Obviously you must have fixed columns in the database.
Randomisation is an instrument to avoid bias.

To get the order of your questions you may use the property "qseq".

E.g. in an equation 
{list(Q1.qseq,Q2.qseq,Q3.qseq,...)}

Joffm 

Thanks a lot! I will try it for the next participants. However, I would also like to know if it is possible to retrieve this information for participants who have already completed the study. I have already conducted about twenty sessions, and these data are crucial for my analysis. Is there a way to retroactively extract the order in which the questions were displayed for these participants?

No.

Unfortunately, retroactively there is no way to know in which order the questions have been shown if you had not switched on the recording of the timings, then you could go through it and see which questions were seen first.

That is why you thoroughly test your survey before going into field. Testing also includes to have a look at the database and see if everything is recorded correctly and if you can work with this for analysis.

Astichlo wrote:

Thanks a lot! I will try it for the next participants. However, I would also like to know if it is possible to retrieve this information for participants who have already completed the study. I have already conducted about twenty sessions, and these data are crucial for my analysis. Is there a way to retroactively extract the order in which the questions were displayed for these participants?
 

It's crucial, but you didn't test and check before send link to participant ?

Thank you very much for your feedback!
I conducted pre-tests before launching the questionnaire, mainly before its activation, as I was cautious due to the notice indicating that no further changes could be made once the survey was activated. After activation, I carried out additional pre-tests and reviewed the database. However, my primary focus was on verifying other key information essential for my analyses. I did not foresee that the display order of the questions would not be automatically recorded, as I assumed this would be a standard feature.

I did check, but I primarily focused on the display and retrieval of other key data. At the time, I simply verified how participants' responses appeared and didn’t specifically check the order of appearance, as I assumed the randomized order would be recorded automatically. Managing several projects simultaneously, I didn’t pay close attention to this particular detail.