Designing Questionnaires for Research

By Janna McColgan EDUC 491/EDUC 403 Research

Spring 2012

The Planning Stage….

A questionnaire or survey is a set of questions or statements related to a specific topic. Its aim is to collect a series of responses that will satisfy hypotheses and/or describe the relationship between research problems.

Short and fun examples of these can be found in magazines.More serious examples are often conducted by medical companies, marketing surveys, the education system and political polling.

HOWEVER,The purpose of questionnaires and surveys are all the same……the measure of information.

The Planning Stage….

Information collected from questionnaires can include some of the following elements:

• Level of knowledge• Opinion• Attitudes and Perceptions

What else is collected?

How is a questionnaire constructed?

Language Quality Layout Quantity

Language

Survey questions can be classified in 3 different structures:

1. Closed: Asking a respondent to choose among a set of options that mostly relate to their viewpoint.Example: I find technology class to be intellectually stimulatingAgree Somewhat Agree Neutral Somewhat disagree Disagree

2. Open-ended: No multiple choice answers. Responses are recorded in full by respondent or interviewer.Example: Why do you enjoy technology class? Answer here:

3. Contingency: Close-ended questions that applies only to a sub-group of respondents. It filters responses.Example: Are you enrolled in an technology class? Yes or No (if no, skip to question 5)

Language & Quality

Language used in a questionnaire should • contain simple vocabulary & keep questions short

• not include double-barreled questions• consider the age, culture and memory

• avoid double negatives and phrases difficult to translate • answer your research questions.

Layout & Quantity

LAYOUT• Offer instructions with an example• Include demographic questions• Order questions:A funnel sequence is each questions relating to the previous question. It can begin broad and end with questions narrowed in on a topic. This helps to prevent “shoot from the hip” bias results.An inverted funnel sequence is the reverse and requires a respondent to think more about their personal attitude before offering an overall evaluation on the broader questions.

• Total number of questions can vary. They should cover the data needed to answer your research questions, but also consider age and attention span of respondents.

Ex. 1

Ex. 2

Ex. 3

Why Pilot Test?

By selecting a small sample group who is a good representative of your main study, your pilot test will help

determine final edits and a more successful survey.

• Were your survey instructions clear?• Are the items on the survey producing the kind of

information needed.• Were the respondents able to understand your

questions?

What are some other items the Pilot tests help with?

Validity & Reliability

Did your survey questions validate your research?• Content Validity:Do the survey questions accomplish its goal of discovering information you are seeking?• Empirical Validity:Do the results of the survey correlate to what you already know?• Concurrent validity:Do the results of the survey correlate to another measurement of the same data?

Reliability=Consistency:Can we repeat this same survey, in the same conditions, using the same participants and get the same results?

CODES

Information collected from questionnaires and surveys need to be coded in order to quantify responses.

Coding organizes data and introduces the interpretations of it.

Most coding requires demarcations of segments. Each segment is labeled with a “code” – usually a word or short phrase that suggests how the data segments correspond to the research objectives.

Resources

Mertens, D. M. (2005). Research and evaluation in education and psychology: Integrating diversity with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Siniscalco, M.T., Auriat, N. (2005) “Module 8: Questionnaire Design “, Quantitative Research Methods in Educational Planning. Paris: France., Retrieved February 11, 2012 from http://www.iiep.unesco.org/capacity-development/training/training-materials/quantitative-research.html