PPT mk527

profileKevinLiang
123.ppt
Home>Business & Finance homework help>Financial markets homework help>PPT mk527

Designing Effective Questionnaires

Survey/Questionnaire Data …

  • Use type appropriate to population, topic, and budget.
  • In-person
  • Telephone
  • E-mail / web
  • Self Administered / Mail

Don’ts!

  • Don’t ask a question if you already know the answer!
  • Don’t ask a question if you’re not prepared to do anything about the answer!
  • Don’t ask “nice to know” questions.
  • Ask questions only if you know what you will do with the answers.

What do you really want to know?

  • Take three minutes and write down four or five things you would really like to know from a questionnaire you are designing.

Asking good questions

  • Questions should be clear and precise
  • Make it easy to complete
  • Know your audience
  • Protect anonymity of respondents
  • Proof read and edit
  • Pilot test!

Other considerations

  • Data analysis
  • How will you use the results?
  • Who needs the results?
  • Timing of the survey/questionnaire

Designing Questionnaires

  • Keep it short and on point.
  • Use questions that have been used and tested by others if possible
  • Be sure questions have “face validity”.
  • Include important demographic questions.
  • Make sure ALL questions are germane to the evaluation.
  • Pre-test all questionnaires on same population.

Types of Question/Format

  • Open-ended
  • Yes or no
  • One best answer
  • Select all that apply
  • Rating or Ranking
  • Retrospective (post-then-pre)

Open-ended

  • Free text
  • Provide richer detail
  • Must be clear in what you are looking for
  • More difficult to get people to fill out sometimes
  • Takes more time to analyze

Yes or No

  • Simple
  • Use with information that has no middle ground
  • Do you own your own home?
  • Are you a U.S. citizen?

One-best answer

  • Provide only one of many possible answers

“Of the following, which topic would you MOST like to receive information about?”

a. Pasture Management

b. Farm Estate Transfer

c. Dairy Cattle Nutrition

Select all that apply

  • When you want to have more than one answer to a question

Which appliances do you own? (check all that apply)

__ Blender __ Waffle Iron

__ Toaster __ Coffee Maker

__ Mixer __ Food Processor

Rating Questions

Offer a relevant rating scale.

To what extent do you think you can apply the information learned here today?

Not at all A Great Deal

1 2 3 4 5 6

Ranking Questions

Of the topics covered today, please rank their usefulness in order, with 1 being most useful and 4 being least useful.

___ Setting limits for teenagers

___ Challenging behaviors

___ Consequences

___ Listening

More about questions

  • Avoid double barreled questions
  • “Did you find the workshop helpful and interesting?”
  • Don’t use leading questions.
  • “Do you agree that funding for Extension should increase?” yes or no
  • Don’t use abbreviations and jargon

Questions… continued

  • Use ranges for choices instead of precise numbers. Put choices in logical order.
  • Be very clear
  • “How many times did your club meet last year?”
  • Avoid questions that are too demanding.
  • “Rank the following 15 items in order of importance to you.”

Yet more on questions…

  • Avoid making assumptions.
  • “How many children do you have?”
  • Avoid bias.
  • “How would you rate the workshop? a. excellent; b. good; c. satisfactory”
  • Make response categories clear.
  • “How many acres do you own?” 0-10, 10-20, 20-50, 50-100

Question Order

  • Question order does influence results.
  • Begin a questionnaire with something that isn’t too difficult to answer, but will be of interest to the participant.
  • Put easiest (demographic information) at the end – this is where people sometimes lose interest and if the questions at the end are less demanding, they are more likely to finish.

Survey Design

  • Use a simple, readable font and font size.
  • Repeat rating scale wording for each question.
  • Avoid multiple pages if possible.
  • Avoid having too many types of questions on one survey.

Pre/post Tests

  • Use an identical knowledge test, before the educational program and then after.
  • Might ask specific questions about a subject, like, “How many servings of fruits are recommended for an adult every day by the new food pyramid?”
  • Might ask them to rate their knowledge of something, “Please rank your understanding of the new food pyramid recommendations.”

Pre/post test considerations

  • Need to pair the tests (make sure you match up pre and post responses for each individual – not average scores) if you want to report on individual knowledge gained.
  • Use name, id number, birthday, etc.
  • Internal validity might be affected – testing influences.

Retrospective Survey

  • Sometimes called a post-then-pre design
  • Better way to measure self-reported behavior changes
  • Avoids the issue of a participant not knowing what they don’t know.
  • “Do you eat the appropriate number of fruits and vegetables daily?”

Example retrospective question

After today, will you Often Sometimes Never Before today, did you Often Sometimes Never
Check equipment calibration?
Use protective gloves?
Scout fields for specific pest problems?

Types of Error

  • Don’t get hung up on sampling error. (But be sure to have enough cases for statistical power.)
  • Non-sampling error is more critical.
  • Non-response
  • Question wording effects