Survey design/Workshop

Survey Design Workshop

Workshop: Wednesday 1 February, 2012, Time 9.30 - 12.30, Presenter: James Neill, Venue: 7B13, University of Canberra, ACT, Australia

A workshop about how to design a survey for a research project. Educational level: this is a tertiary (university) resource. Completion status: this resource is ~75% complete.

Outline

This workshop involves three one-hour modules:

1. Theory of survey-based research, including pros and cons
2. Survey design principles - Nuts and bolts of survey design, including types of questions and response formats
3. Survey examples and draft survey designs

Participants

The target audience is post-graduate research students in the early stages of developing survey-based research proposals or surveys. However, anyone who wants to learn how to design a survey can join in. There are no prerequisites. See participants for more info.

Objectives

Survey research

1. Common methods for the design and implementation of survey-based research (e.g., face-to-face interview, mail survey, internet survey)and the pros and cons of each method.
2. Iterative development of research questionnaires
3. Pros and cons of survey administration methods:
   1. F2f interview
   2. Telephone survey
   3. Mail survey
   4. Internet/mobile survey

Survey design

Examine nuts & bolts of questionnaire design, including:

1. Question types
2. Response formats
3. Layout
4. Pilot testing
5. Sampling

Critically review example surveys

1. Review existing examples
2. Review participant in-progress examples with a view towards planning, drafting, and/or revising of an initial draft (pilot) survey.

Materials

1. View the Survey design workshop (Slides) (use full-screen mode)
2. Download: Example surveys for critical discussion
3. Recommended Readings (particularly Fowler and Nardi)
4. Ask questions as we go - or add them here

Recommended reading

These recommended readings explain survey (questionnaire) design in more detail:

Online articles

1. Author unknown (nd). Smart survey design.
2. Creative Research Systems (2008). Survey design: How to begin your survey project.
3. Frary, R. B. (1996). Hints for designing effective questionnaires. ERIC Digest.
4. Leung, W. (2001). How to design a questionnaire. Student BMJ, 9, 171-216.
5. Pollograph (2008). Designing a survey.
6. StatPac (c. 2007). Questionnaire design considerations.

Book chapters

1. Fowler, F. J., Jr. (2002). Designing questions to be good measures. In In F. J. Fowler, Survey research methods (3rd ed.) (pp. 76-103). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
   • Google Books (Note: pp. 80-81, 87-89, 91-92, 95, 97, 100-102 are missing)
   • html (earlier version, full text)
   • Or contact the instructor for a full copy
2. Nardi, P. (2006). Developing a questionnaire (Ch 4). In Doing survey research: A guide to quantitative methods (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. UC-eReserve

Books

You should be able to find some books about survey research and survey design in your university library.

1. Alreck, P. L., & Settle, R. B. (2004). The survey research handbook (3rd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
2. Backstrom, C. H., & Hursh-César, G. (1981). Survey research (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.
3. De Vaus, D. (2002). Surveys in social research (5th ed.) London: UCL Press.
4. Dillman, D. A. (2007). Mail and internet surveys: The tailored design method 2007 Update with new internet, visual, and mixed-mode guide (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
5. Frazer, L., & Lawley, M. (2000). Questionnaire design & administration: A practical guide. Brisbane, Australia: John Wiley.

See also

1. Workshop
   1. Instructor notes
   2. Evaluation
2. Topics
   1. Implementation
      • Sampling
      • Response rates
      • Margin of error
   2. Level of measurement
   3. Online surveys
   4. Research purposes
   5. Survey design