Survey+Tips

Objectives of a Survey: The key to developing a good survey questionnaire is to keep it short while ensuring that you capture all of the information that you need. This is not an easy task. Before you even begin to design your survey questionnaire, you should develop a set of objectives for your research and list out the information that you are trying to capture. This list of objectives and research goals will serve as your plan for the survey questionnaire.

Types of Questions: There are two different types of questions that can be used to collect information. The first is called a structured or fixed response question and the second is called non-structured or open question. It is important to understand when and how to use these questions when designing your survey.
 * Structured (fixed response)**

Structured questions are questions that offer the respondent a closed set of responses from which to choose.

Yes No || Which subject do you enjoy the most at school? Math Science English Foreign Language History Government Art / Music Other || How many hours a day do you spend doing homework? 0 to 1 hour 2 to 3 hours 4 to 5 hours more than 5 hours ||
 * Examples of Structured Questions:**
 * Do you have a driver's license?

When writing the selection of responses for a structured question, you should make certain that the list covers //all possible alternatives// that the respondent might select AND that //each of the answers is unique// (ie they do not overlap). So for example, in the homework question above, we have included every option on the number of hours (from 0 to infinity). Also, you will notice that we were careful not to overlap the hours when defining the ranges by stating them as "0 to 1 hour" and "2 to 3 hours" rather than saying "0 to 1 hour" and "1 to 2 hours".

Sometimes, including general catch all responses (such as "Other", "Don't know", "None of the above", etc...) at the end of a list of answer choices will help to ensure that the data you are collecting will be accurate.

You should also make sure that all of the answers are //relevant// to the question. Irrelevant responses may distract the respondent in addition to adding unnecessary length to your survey questionnaire. Consider the following change to the favorite school subject question.
 * Example of a Bad Question With an Irrelevant Answer Choice**

Math Science English Foreign Language History Government Art / Music Football Practice Other ||
 * Which subject do you enjoy the most at school?

If we added a choice of "Football practice", we may find that football practice is someone's favorite "activity" at school, but it is not relevant to this particular question which asks "Which //subject// do you enjoy the most at school?"


 * //Consistency//** is very important in writing the list of responses. All of the responses should be similar so that no single response stands out to the individual except the answer that is true for them. Consistency simply helps to ensure that you are not leading respondents to a particular answer by making that answer different from the others. It also makes it much easier for respondents to find the answer that is relevant to them. Here's an example using the homework question you have already seen above:

0 to 1 hour 120 to 180 minutes 4 to 5 hours more than 5 hours ||
 * Example of a Bad Question with Inconsistent Answer Choices**
 * How many hours a day do you spend doing homework?

Sometimes you will be interested in obtaining a person's opinion on a topic, subject, product, event, etc.... To capture varying degrees of emotion about a subject, it is best to use either a rating or a ranking question. A **rating question** asks respondents to explain the degree with which they feel about a certain topic, subject, event, etc... For example:


 * Please describe how you felt about the Homecoming Pep Rally.|| Unsatisfied || Somewhat Satisfied || Satisfied || Very Satisfied || Extremely Satisfied ||
 * (1) || (2) || (3) || (4) || (5) || ||

A **ranking question** asks respondents to explain how they feel about something by comparing it to other items in a list. For example:


 * Please rank the following Homecoming activities in order of preference (starting with 1 for your favorite activity).

___Homecoming Pep Rally ___Homecoming Parade ___Homecoming Football Game ___Homecoming Dance ||

In general, if you are trying to get a respondent's opinion about something, it is best to have them do a rating rather than a ranking. A ranking asks respondents to list their responses in order of preference.

Non-structured questions, or open-ended questions, are questions where there is no list of answer choices from which to choose. Respondents are simply asked to write their response to a question. Here is an example: ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ || The disadvantages to using open-ended questions is that it can be much more time consuming and difficult to analyze the data. In general you should try to minimize the number of open-ended questions in your survey questionnaire. However, you can create a **partially structured question** such as the following:
 * Non-structured (open-ended)**
 * What do you like best about the Science Buddies Classroom Scientists Program?

I really enjoy science My teacher asked me to sign up My teacher made me sign up My parents asked me to sign up I'm bored in science class & thought this would be fun I thought it would help me do a better project I thought it would help me win the Science Fair I thought having a Mentor to talk to would be fun I knew other students who were doing it Other _____________________ ||
 * Why did you sign up for the Science Buddies Classroom Scientists Program (please select all that apply)?

Here are some tips and tricks to help you ensure you are developing a good survey questionnaire: > This is a very common mistake in survey questionnaires and one that will severely impact the results of your data. When you are writing a question, you must make sure that you are only asking one question at a time. > **Here is an example of a double-barreled question:** > || How have teachers and students at your school responded > to the new 45-minute lunch period? > Satisfied > Unsatisfied || How have __teachers__ at your school reacted to the new 45-minute lunch period? > > Satisfied > > Unsatisfied > How have __students__ at your school reacted to the new 45-minute lunch period? > > Satisfied > > Unsatisfied || > When developing your survey questionnaire, you want to make certain that you are asking the questions in a neutral way, ie that you are not leading them toward a particular answer. This may seem simple, but when you are writing questions you will often find that the way you phrase the question may reflect your underlying opinion. Here is an e**xample of a Leading Question and How to Correct it:** > > || Do you think that the new cafeteria lunch menu offers a better variety > of healthy foods than the old one? > Yes > No >  No Opinion || How do you feel about the new cafeteria lunch menu compared to the old one? > The new menu offers a better variety of healthy foods > The old menu offers a better variety of healthy foods > The selections are similar > No opinion || > If you have more than six questions in your questionnaire, then you should make an effort to organize your questions so the respondents can answer them as quickly as possible. A good way to organize the questions is to group them together by subject. This way your respondents can focus their thoughts and answer a series of questions around these thoughts. > A clean layout will make it much simpler for people to respond to the questions and for you to collect the data. Make sure that your method for marking answers is well explained and that your answer boxes are consistent throughout the questionnaire. See the following links for some sample survey questionnaires from Science Buddies.
 * Tips to creating a good survey questionnaire: **
 * **Clearly state your intentions with the research.**
 * **Include instructions with your survey questionnaire**
 * **Don't ask for personal information unless you need it.**
 * **Keep the questions short and concise**
 * **Ask only one question at a time (the double barreled question)**
 * **Bad Question: Double-barreled Question** || **Good Question** ||
 * **Make sure the questions are unbiased**
 * **Bad Question: Leading** || **Good Question: Neutral** ||
 * **Order/group questions according to subject**
 * **Present the questions in a clean and organized layout**