How to create an effective survey?
A survey is a data gathering method that is utilized to collect, analyze and interpret the views of a group of people from a target population. Survey data gathering is a commonly used method of collecting information about a population of interest. There are many different types of surveys, several ways to administer them, and many methods of sampling.
Purpose
BENCHMARK DATA: Surveys results provide a snapshot of the attitudes and behaviours – including thoughts, opinions, and comments – about your target survey population. This valuable feedback is your baseline to measure and establish a benchmark from which to compare results over time. For those projects that are looking to take action through ADVOCACY (altering opinions and developing an awareness in others), it is essential that you understand the thoughts, opinions, and comments of your target audience at the start of your project and then gather data again after you have taken action in order to determine the impact that you have had.
DECISION MAKING: Conducting surveys is an unbiased approach to decision-making. Don’t rely on “gut feelings” to make important decisions. You can collect unbiased survey data and develop sensible decisions based on analyzed results. By analyzing results, you can immediately address topics of importance, rather than waste time and valuable resources on areas of little or no concern.
EVOKE DISCUSSION: Give your survey respondents an opportunity to discuss important key topics by communicating with your respondents about your survey topic. This is particularly important if you are using a survey as a way to collect qualitative feedback that will form part of your Cross Cultural Research. This allows you to dig deeper into your survey, and can incite topics related to your survey within a broader perspective.
AudienceConsider the objective of the survey and be very clear in what you are expecting to gain out of the survey. Establish what you want to achieve with the information you obtain with your survey so you can determine who you need to get the information from. Review the example below to in order to understand this further.
So you have decided to investigate food waste at Island School and you are trying to understand not only the amount of food that is wasted each day but why are students wasting food. So how many people should I ask in order to obtain a fair reflection of the Island School community? Think of it this way–the closer your sample is in size to your population (Island School community), the more representative your results are likely to be. And that’s why you’ll notice that the recommended sample size in the table opposite gets smaller as your tolerance for inaccuracy–or error–gets larger.
So we have roughly 1000 students at Island School and you’re willing to accept an error of plus or minus 5%. You sample 285 people, as the table recommends, and find that 70% of those surveyed waste food because the the portion sizes are too big. Given your 5% acceptable error rate, you can assume that if you’d asked every person in the school to take your survey, the actual proportion stating that portion size was the reason would range from 65% to 75%. If you felt that this was not accurate enough then you would need to obtain additional people to reply to your survey. |
You can use this Survey Sample Size Calculator to help you determine how many people need to take the survey.
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How many people should you invite to take your survey?
The table recommends the sample size you’ll need, not how many people you should invite to take your survey. So if you need 100 respondents and you expect that 25% of the people invited to take your survey will actually respond, then you need to invite 400 people (100 respondents ÷ .25 response rate = 400 invitations). If you don’t know how many people are likely to respond to your survey invitation, it’s best to assume a fairly high response rate, like 25%, because it’s usually better to invite too few people than too many at first. You can usually invite more.
The table recommends the sample size you’ll need, not how many people you should invite to take your survey. So if you need 100 respondents and you expect that 25% of the people invited to take your survey will actually respond, then you need to invite 400 people (100 respondents ÷ .25 response rate = 400 invitations). If you don’t know how many people are likely to respond to your survey invitation, it’s best to assume a fairly high response rate, like 25%, because it’s usually better to invite too few people than too many at first. You can usually invite more.
Bias within Surveys
TASK: Now you have looked at the number of respondents you need in order for your survey to be reliable, in groups read through the description of the various surveys below. Discuss as a group whether they would give you fair or bias results. Ensure that you are able to justify your answers.
Sam wanted to find out opinions on the school canteen. He asked 20 students from each year making sure to include girls and boys and a selection of 20 staff. |
Mr. Wang wanted to find out if the road through Wan Chai was dangerous. He counted the number of cars driving up Johnston Road for two hours on a Sunday afternoon. |
Paul wanted to find out if a skate park should be built in his neighbourhood. He went to the town centre at midday on a Thursday and asked 100 people. |
The manager of a chain of restaurants wants to know how staff feel about the company. He sends out 500 surveys to workers at several restaurants and with a variety of jobs. They can return their surveys anonymously. |
Ben and Ali want to know if there is enough entertainment for pensioners in their town. They survey 100 people over the age of 65. They ask 50 people they meet in the street, 30 at a pensioners club and the rest in a nursing home. |
Mr. Burrough wanted to know whether students should be allowed wear trainers. He asked 10 people in the staffroom. |
A company wants to find out how much people are prepared to spend on a new TV. They survey 5000 people on the internet via social media. |
Asha wanted to find out about peoples taste in music. She asked a sample of 200 people of mixed ages and sexes in a shopping centre on a Saturday. |
Donna wants to know if people think that girls these days wear too much make up. She conducted her survey outside Watson's on a Saturday afternoon. |
Survey Design
Complete the below survey. As you do so, see whether you can identify any of the common mistakes in the survey design.
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The two most common types of survey questions are closed-ended questions and open-ended questions.
Closed-Ended Questions
These types of questions are often important if you are trying to gather some benchmark quantitative data.
These types of questions are often important if you are trying to gather some benchmark quantitative data.
- The respondents are given a list of predetermined responses from which to choose their answer.
- The list of responses should include every possible response and the meaning of the responses should not overlap
- An example of a close-ended survey question would be, "Please rate how strongly you agree or disagree with the following statement: 'I feel that I am good at recycling my rubbish.' Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, neutral, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree?"
- A Likert scale, which is used in the example above, is a commonly used set of responses for closed-ended questions. For example 1= Strongly Disagree, 2=Somewhat disagree, 3=Neutral, 4=Somewhat agree, 5=Strongly Agree
- Closed-ended questions are usually preferred in survey research because of the ease of counting the frequency of each response.
Open-Ended Questions
These types of questions are useful in gathering qualitative data in particular for gathering thoughts, opinions, and comments that could form part of your cross-cultural research.
These types of questions are useful in gathering qualitative data in particular for gathering thoughts, opinions, and comments that could form part of your cross-cultural research.
- Survey respondents are asked to answer each question in their own words
- Responses are usually categorized into a smaller list of responses that can be counted by the study team for statistical analysis
Ethics of Survey Research
Informed Consent
Respondents should give informed consent before participating in a survey. In order for respondents to give informed consent,
Confidentiality and Anonymity
It is absolutely imperative that researchers keep respondents' identities confidential. To ensure confidentiality, researchers should not link respondents' identifiers to their survey responses when using data. Common identifiers include names, HKID numbers, addresses, and telephone numbers.
Respondents should give informed consent before participating in a survey. In order for respondents to give informed consent,
- The researcher must inform the respondents of the study's purpose, content, duration, and potential risks and benefits
- The researcher must inform the respondents that they do not have to answer all the survey questions
- The researcher must inform the respondents that they can stop participating in the study at any point
Confidentiality and Anonymity
It is absolutely imperative that researchers keep respondents' identities confidential. To ensure confidentiality, researchers should not link respondents' identifiers to their survey responses when using data. Common identifiers include names, HKID numbers, addresses, and telephone numbers.
Mode of Delivery
There are many different modes of delivery or means of administering a survey. They can be done by personal interview, by telephone, by mail, web-based or through a combination of these methods. When deciding on the mode of delivery, researchers need to consider many factors including the type of target population, characteristics of the potential respondents, the types of questions, the topic of the questions, the desired response rate, cost and the time needed to collect the data. For the purpose of our team project we are going to focus on personal interview and web-based, of which advantages and disadvantages for each are highlighted below.
Survey Mode |
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
Personal face to face interviews |
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Web-based |
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Some suggested online survey creating platforms can be found below.