Dan Borg The online or hard copy survey is one of the go-to data collection tools in the evaluator's tool box. Easy to use online software is making these kinds of surveys more accessible than ever before with hundreds of questions for the budding survey designer to choose from. But what makes a quality survey? How do you know that your survey is well constructed and has the right kinds of questions designed to elicit high quality and reliable responses?
In this skill-building session, aimed at those new to survey questionnaire design, we will explore the art of designing a good survey questionnaire.
We will work through the fundamentals of survey design, including overall structure; common question types and good practice in their use. We will also work through some common ways in which the design of surveys can influence responses (either increasing or decreasing reliability). By understanding how we can commonly go wrong in the design of surveys, we will highlight strategies for avoiding these problems.
Participants will leave the session with an increased understanding of:
- The role of the survey designer in influencing the reliability of survey results
- Common survey problems (and strategies for how to avoid these problems)
- Foundational principles for good survey design
