Surveys and Questionnaires

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Surveys and Questionnaires
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Surveys and Questionnaires

• Data Collection and Information Gathering Skills
• Being able to undertake a Literature Survey
• Being able to design and conduct interviews
• Being able to design and analyse questionnaires
  associated with undertaking a survey

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Surveys and Questionnaires

• Program Contents
• How to choose between various methods of
  administering questionnaires
• The difference between open and closed questions
• Constructing a questionnaire
• How to ensure validity and reliability

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Surveys and Questionnaires

• Administering Questionnaires
• Questionnaires can be administered and responses
  collected in a number of ways -
• questions can be read to the subject and verbal
  responses recorded by the researcher
• respondent can be given a list of questions and
  the questionnaire completed at that time
• subjects can respond in their own time and the
  questionnaire returned at a later date

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Surveys and Questionnaires

• Types of Questions
• Questions asked may be of two types -
• Open questions
• allow the respondent to answer in their own words
• Closed questions
• supply the respondent with two or more answers
  from which they must choose one

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Surveys and Questionnaires

• Open or Closed Questions?
• It is important to consider -
• the level of information the respondent needs to
  know about the topic
• the ease with which the content of the answer can
  be communicated
• how motivated the respondents may have
  to be
• the level of language skills of the respondents

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Surveys and Questionnaires

• A Staged Approach to Producing a Valid
  Questionnaire -
• Stage 1
• decide whether your research idea is really
  suitable for conducting a survey by means of a
  questionnaire
• Stage 2
• Identify which areas uncovered in the literature
  survey are the most important and ensure the
  questionnaire addresses all the pertinent issues

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Surveys and Questionnaires

• A Staged Approach to Producing a Valid
  Questionnaire -
• Stage 3
• decide exactly who the questionnaire is aimed at
• Stage 4
• translate the research objectives into specific
  questions and check that the answers will provide
  the necessary data

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Surveys and Questionnaires

• Validity
• Within the context of a quantitative study there
  are 2 types of validity -
• Internal
• External

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Surveys and Questionnaires

• Validity
• Internal validity can be checked by -
• cross checks
• respondents to postal questionnaires being
  interviewed
• having a good rapport between respondents and
  researcher

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Surveys and Questionnaires

• Reliability
• Is concerned with measurement, and seeks to
  establish that a reliable and repeatable result
  has been achieved

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Surveys and Questionnaires

• Reliability
• Reliability can be checked by -
• asking the same questions twice (test-retest)
• internal checks (similar questions are asked
  without being repeated)
• logical tests of consistency