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Detailed work
Developing a Survey / Questionaire. Describe a step by step approach how to plan to develop a Survey / Questionaire. format case study
make a longer work on the following assignment, Of the same topic
The survey planning begins with the Defining of Goals. The main objective of the survey must be decided in this phase. With the help of determining the different types of goals, a researcher can develop the correct questions for the correct participants. This will also help the person to decide the correct selection of nature of the survey and the nature of survey administration. This will also facilitate the inputs about the sample size and the inclusion and exclusion parameters
Participant Selection is the next step. Once the goal is decided, now the next step will be to select the participants who will have the involvement or participation in the survey and will be representing the common population This step must include the determination of inclusion and exclusion parameters in order to include only the correct types of people in the survey.
Selecting Schedule is an integral part of this planning. In order to conclude the survey in a given period of time, it is important to have a well-drafted survey schedule. First of all, it is important to decide the date of developing a question, establishing the time frame for the revision of the survey. The time has to be decided to conduct the survey and tallying and summarizing the survey results and finally deducing the results.
Budget Planning provides the insight about the expected money required for the survey. this is the most important aspect of survey planning. The survey must be planned as per the available budget. By having the estimation of the number of people to be involved in the survey, one can estimate the expected money to be required
Survey is the foundation of data-driven research and study. In order to create a successful survey, it's important to form a relevant and effective questionnaire which derives important information to attain the required information. While we can outline that there are no laid rules for drafting questions, there are methods to make the questionnaire more effective and in line with the aim of the survey. It is also of utmost importance to be able to spend enough time planning the execution of a survey as it would be responsible to create a lasting impression of your organization or yourself with your target audience. Good data equals good results and leads to a better understanding of your target market. Please note that there shouldn't be multiple surveys released for the same topic/goal as it might deter the audience from indulging in such activities. Instead, let's understand the best way of planning the survey to be able to derive the most amount of information with less effort from our audience.
Qualities of a good questionnaire
The design of a questionnaire will depend on the primary objective of the researcher - whether he/she wishes to collect exploratory information or quantitative information.
Exploratory questionnaires: If the data collection is needed to be qualitative or that it doesn't require statistical evaluation, there might not be any need of making a formal questionnaire. For example, in order to understand how decisions are made in a team in your organization, interviewing the team leaders will provide a better understanding while creating a formal survey in this scenario might restrict the discussion and prevent a full exploration of the views of the individuals.
Formal standardized questionnaires: If the researcher's
main objective is to test and quantify hypotheses where the data
needs to be analyzed statistically, a formal questionnaire makes
more sense. The general characteristics of such questionnaires
include:
Each person has their own style of portraying situations or asking questions. If a standardized format of the questionnaire is not created for a survey, there might be several versions to the same question which might corrupt the data collection process. A well-designed survey should meet the following prerequisites:
Steps to developing an effective survey/questionnaire
The following ten steps can be followed while developing an effective survey:
Define a clear goal/objective for the survey: In order to design a successful survey, the firsts step is to clearly define the purpose/objective of the survey in unambiguous terms and with as much clarity as is possible. Revisiting this goal often will allow the researcher to stay on the pre-determined path for creating an effective survey to derive the desired results.
Convert the goals to research questions: The objectives of the study can be easily transformed into research questions. Research questions are not the same as the questionnaire for the survey, instead, they allow the researcher to determine the decision-making criteria to determine the hypothesis for the questionnaire. Primarily, there are two kinds of research questions: testable and non-testable. Both play an equally important role in determining the hypothesis of the questions needed to be asked to the respondents.
Define the target respondents: Firstly, the researcher must be able to define and identify the exact population from whom the sample data needs to be collected. For example, in marketing research, researchers often need to decide whether to use the database of existing users or whether to also include the non-users. Secondly, the researches also have to draw up a sampling frame. Thirdly, there are multiple other factors that need to be taken into account, like the demography, education level, income level, etc. of the target respondents.
Choose the method(s) of reaching your respondents: In order to form the ideal survey and questionnaire, it's important to identify the mode of engaging the respondents. It may seem strange of including this step as a part of determining the questionnaire, however, deriving the medium of conducting the survey allows the researcher to focus on building suitable phrases for the questions. The main methods available in survey research are:
Structure the survey: Segregating the questionnaire into different categories provides for an intuitive structure which is easier for the respondents to navigate. The researcher can improve the quality of the structure by defining each category allowing for the respondents to be aware of the tone of the questions or the end objective of each section. Categorizing the survey even before conceptualizing the questions allows the researcher to stay focused on the various research objectives and ensures a balanced output.
Choose the right format for the questionnaire: Questions are the primary tools for the survey to be successful. In order to determine the right questions, it's important to identify the format of the questionnaire before jotting down the questions. A suggested structure is as follows.
Formulate the questions: Certain words have the ability to be interpreted by different people in different ways. It's important to be mindful of the words being used and finer nuances involved in formulating an effective question. Maintaining no ambiguity and complete clarity in the questions is important - if possible, it is recommended to include externals to proofread the survey in order to conduct a rain check if the survey is representing the objective in an ideal way. It is also important to be mindful to define the time you would want a participant to be spending on the questions overall - this helps in determining the number of questions to be included and also allows to define the type of certain questions in order to maintain the most effective length of the questionnaire.
Budget analysis: It is important and crucial to conduct a budget analysis to be able to determine the appropriate resources for the success of the survey. It allows the researcher to narrow down on the various media that can be used to promote the survey, the time duration for the survey to be available, the number of surveyors that can be appointed and others. In all forms, defining a monetary investment in the survey not only allows to appoint resources but also helps the researcher to make further plans and keep a record of how much amount is needed to make a survey receive more and effective responses.
Pre-test the questionnaire: The purpose of pretesting the questionnaire is to determine:
Usually, only a small number of respondents are selected for the pre-test. The selected respondents should be broadly representative of the type of respondent to be interviewed in the main survey.
Launch the survey: After conducting a thorough pre-testing, the questionnaire should be close to having evolved into its final form. All that remains is the mechanical process of laying out and setting up the questions in the desired platform. This involves grouping and sequencing the questionnaire in an appropriate order, numbering questions and inserting interviewer instructions. Once the survey is sent out and the responses start to roll in, depending on the rate of engagement in the community, there might be a need to provide a certain push to the respondents to fill out the questionnaire as it's needed for the responses to be of a sufficient volume for data analysis to be effective. If the survey deadline is approaching, and the researcher needs more response, it's always helpful to send out gentle reminders.
A well-designed questionnaire is crucial to the success of a survey, however, it's up to the researcher to develop his/her own intuition as there are no hard and fast rules for designing the most effective survey. In most experience, the aforementioned steps have been able to provide the required insight and guidance to researchers!