CLASS ACTIVITY Aug 17

Read the following post in regard to composing a questionnaire/survey. When you have finished click on the link to SURVEY MONKEY, create a basic account and view the embedded tutorial. If you still have time up your sleeve continue to work on Assessment event #1

Creating your Questionnaire

Firstly, brainstorm the question, "What do I want to know?"

Working from your “brainstorm session” break down each issue or detail into a single coherent, concrete thought or concept. Look for items that might be dealing with two or more different ideas or concepts. Split these up into separate lines or bullet points. Look for items that are vague or abstract and consider how they might be made more concrete.

Decide what kind of rating format you want to work with - for example, you might be measuring "level of satisfaction" (5-point scale with responses ranging from "very satisfied" to "very dissatisfied") or you might be measuring "level of agreement" (responses ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree"). Often, it does not matter so much which format you choose; what matters is that you use it consistently in the survey and phrase all questions similiarly. (It is OK have different rating formats for different sections of your survey, but keep changes to a minimum and be sure you keep the transitions clear in your own mind.)

Keeping your rating format in mind, turn each line or bullet point in your outline into a survey item. Do this by re-phrasing each line in the form of a question or statement that works with the rating format.

At this point, you have your initial set of survey questions and focus areas, but your work is not done yet. Chances are your survey is much too long at this point. If your survey is too long, people will not take the time to fill it out. It is now time to start looking for ways to shorten the survey. At the same time, you do not want to drop items that will get you the information you need. The balance between shortening the survey and making sure you get the data you need, can be tricky to find. Ultimately, you must make a series of judgement calls in regard to these issues, but stick to this basic rule for each and every question - ask yourself exactly what kind of information each and every question will give you, and do you really need it? If you cannot come up with a concrete answer, you should drop the question. Generally, you should not keep items in your survey simply because you think they might come in handy at some point.

After you have finished shortening the survey, look for ways to make each question more precise. Problem areas include:

Complex wording or structure – This will confuse some people and make your data less precise. Use simple sentences and vocabulary.
Vague or overly general questions - Are any of your questions so broad that they will not give you specific, actionable information? Ask yourself what you will learn from the responses. This will determine whether a question is too vague.
Items that could be misinterpreted - Many words have different meanings to different people.
Questions with a "right" answer – Be sure you do not lead your respondents to answer in a particular way by making them think you "want" them to provide a certain response. Your items need to be presented neutrally.
Double-Barrelled Questions - These are questions that ask about more than one thing. If you see the word "and" or "or" in your question chances are it is double-barrelled. Data from items like this are useless because you have no way of knowing what part of the question each respondent was thinking of when responding.

Adapted from http://www.custominsight.com/articles/effective-survey-questions.asp