5. Clear Questions
Target the vocabulary and grammar to the
population surveyed
What was your AGI last year?
Avoid ambiguity, confusion, and vagueness
What is your income?
Do you jog regularly?
Does your company have pension and health
insurance benefits?
How many years have you been in the program?
1-2 years
2-3 years
3-5 years
6. Short Questions
Try to keep questions to 20 words or less
Long questions can be intimidating
Travel to other countries has become
increasingly popular recently. Have you ever
traveled to another country? If yes, you might
have traveled to other countries to enjoy the
scenery. How important was the scenery in
deciding to take the trip?
7. Unbiased Questions
Biased questions contain words or phrases that
lead the respondent to a particular answer
Do you think the new cafeteria provides better
food than the old cafeteria?
Most doctors say that cigarette smoke causes
lung disease for those near a smoker. Do you
agree?
Wouldn’t you like to receive our free brochure?
8. Relevant Questions
Consider the respondents’ interest in and ability to
answer the questions
Most people do not want to appear uninformed, so
rather than admit to having little or no knowledge
about a question, they are likely to select or
provide a response
9. Types of Questions
Factual
What respondents’ know
Attitudinal
How respondents’ feel
Behavior
What respondents’ do
Demographic
Who respondents’ are
10. Question Response Formats
Close-ended responses
Mutiple choice
Must be mutually exclusive
Must be exhaustive
Rating scales
Respondents’ indicate the degree of response to the
question
Ranking
Respondents’ indicate, in order, their preference among
a list of responses
11. Question Response Formats
Open-ended responses
Allow respondents’ to answer in their own words
Unless carefully focused and worded,
respondents’ may provide minimal information
12. Other Considerations
Long questionnaires get less response than
short questionnaires
Provide a well written cover letter
Give your questionnaire a title that is short and
meaningful to the respondent
Place the most important items in the first part
of the questionnaire
Pay attention to the flow of questions
Try to keep similar questions/topics together
Use page breaks
Make it convenient to respond
15. Qualtrics Informal Learning
June 26 – Qualtrics Basics
July 10 – Panels & Distributing
July 17 – Reporting
Ongoing discussion, tips, etc on the Google+ Online Surveys
community
2PM Eastern Time for all sessions
16. References
Websites
http://www.statpac.com/surveys
http://www.analytictech.com/mb313/principl.htm
http://www.qualtrics.com/university/researchsuite/
Hardcopy
Dillman, Don. (2007). Mail and internet surveys: The tailored
design method. John Wiley & Sons, Inc: Hoboken, NJ.
Editor's Notes
Assuming that survey’s are the best methodology
What is the surveySo what is what you learn from the survey – what is the data telling you
What is the surveySo what is what you learn from the survey – what is the data telling you Now what – what are you going to do with the information?Program Development & Evaluation comes in when you USE the information that you have gathered.