What is a Form?

An electronic form is a way for Sonia administrators to replace paper forms that can be completed by a respondent via their web browser (or mobile app for students and university supervisors).  The form can be completed by the user right in Sonia (no download/upload required).

The information entered on the forms is retained securely in the Sonia database. 

• Like a paper form, different parts/questions may be completed by different people
• Unlike physical forms, it is available instantly.

Completed forms become a permanent record that can be exported, printed, or saved as you wish.

Forms are designed by university staff to fit their own purposes and each school can create and customise an unlimited number of them. 

Sample forms are available upon request from the Sonia team. If you would like to contribute a form to this pool, please remove your logo and references to your school, and send it to the Sonia Support Team by filling out this Sonia Support Form from community.lumivero.com 

Sonia Form Example

The image below shows a mock-up in Microsoft Word of a fictional form, “Pet Care Journal”.



In the above example, the form consists of 7 lines or questions (marked in red). 

• 1 is an ornamental or informative label
• 2 and 3: Tables containing a series of questions
• 4 and 5: Simple text or multiple-choice questions
• 6 and 7:  Locations where a student and their supervisor can sign the form to acknowledge their completion of the form.

The green numbers in the first table indicate data fields that the student needs to complete about their placement. 

In the second table there is a column for the student’s evaluation of their own skill in this area and a column to be completed by their supervisor.

Once a form has been assigned to a student, a supervisor or site contact for completion, it will appear in Sonia Online for that person.

Here is how the form looks to a student once it has been designed in Sonia:


The key points from this screen:

1. The student details in the top table have been automatically filled from Sonia data and have been set to be read only for the student.
2. Only fields with the small pencil icon are editable by a student.
3. The signature lines have been replaced with “Action buttons”
   1. Save button (for partially completing a form)
   2. Click to complete button

A user signs the form by clicking an action button.  NOTE: Once they do this, all of the read-write questions for that respondent ABOVE the action button will be locked - they can no longer be modified. The user's full name and date/time of completion will be embedded in the form (replacing the Action button)

Fields that are not locked will still be marked as editable.

Sonia Form Topics:

What is a Form

Form Field Types

Mastering the Form Designer

Forms Online

Forms and Accessibility

Additional Fields Info