Designing

Surveys/Ques/onnaires and Sampling

Session 8

Designing surveys / ques/onnaires

Importance of Ques/onnaires
A ques/onnaire is a formalized method of collec/ng data from respondents to measure
purchase and usage behavior a@tudes, opinions, inten/ons, awareness variety of respondent characteris/cs

Ques/onnaire Objec/ves
Translate the informa/on needed into a set of ques/ons that the respondents are willing and able to answer Mo/vate the respondent to get involved, be honest, cooperate and complete Minimize response error straight forward, simple

Achieving the objec/ves

Link between ques/ons and informa/on needs Ques/on content Response format Ques/on wording Ques/on sequence Physical form Pre-test and nal draN

Decide on ques/on content Questionnaire Design (continued)

To improve accuracy or willingness to answer accurately 1. Respondent unable to provide the data Phrasing the ques/on, instruc/ons 2. Respondent does not remember un-aided recall/ aided/ recogni/on 3. Personal or sensi/ve informa/on Explana/on

Decide on Response Format

Open ended free to respond in own words Advantages: allow general a@tudes to be expressed, which can aid in interpre/ng later ques/ons can provide researcher with insights and explana/ons establish rapport with the respondent conclusive research ndings with quota/ons from open- ended ques/ons can enrich research ndings useful for exploratory research purposes

Decide on Response Format (con%nued)

Disadvantages of open-ended format:

Interviewer bias in interpre/ng response /me and cost to code the responses implicit extra weight given to respondents who are
more ar/culate respondents

higher eort and /me commitment required of

Decide on Response Format (con%nued)

mul*ple-response ques*ons required to choose from an explicit list of op/ons
Advantages: reduce interviewer bias easy and quick to administer reduce /me and eort respondents put in replying reduce cost and eort associated with data processing can limit responses to a set of interest Disadvantages: design of ques/ons requires considerable /me and cost

Decide on Response Format (con%nued)

Issues in mul/ple-response ques/on design:
number of alterna/ves
collec/vely exhaus/ve usually mutually exclusive

posi*on bias depending on order of alterna/ves.

Avoid using - alternate order of alterna/ves split design, where half of respondents see one scale, and the other half a dierent one

Dichotomous ques*ons oer choice of two responses and oNen a third neutral alterna/ve Advantages: all the advantages of mul/ple-response ques/ons Disadvantages: may miss many grades of feeling measurement error from forced choice error depending on posi/ve or nega/ve posture of the ques/on

Decide on Response Format (con%nued) (con%nued)

Decide on Ques/on Wording

Guidelines for ques/on wording:
use simple language use unambiguous words avoid leading ques/ons Avoid biasing ques/ons Avoid implicit assump/ons Avoid es/mates Avoid double-barreled ques/ons Consider the frame of reference Are the opera/ng hours of the library adequate to the students needs, in your opinion? Are you, personally, content with your librarys hours of opera/on.

Deciding on Ques/on Sequence

Guidelines for ques/on sequence: use simple, readily understood opening ques/on ask general ques/ons rst place uninteres/ng and dicult ques/ons late in the sequence arrange ques/ons in logical order

Sampling

Sampling Fundamentals
benets of sampling versus a complete census Important sampling concepts" popula/on sampling unit sampling frame

Sampling methods
Comparison of probability and non-probability sampling methods