Questionnaire Design
Venue: Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Presenter: Dr Pamela Campanelli
Dates of Course: Thursday 10th - Friday 11th November 2011
This course has already run. Please check the course listings for a future course.
Summary of Course:
Have you ever discovered too late that your questions did not deliver useful or useable data? Learn how to write effective survey questions and combine them into a meaningful questionnaire. This course focuses on the design of questionnaires used in survey research, combining suggestions from the research literature on questionnaire design with a very practical approach. It covers the general principles of questionnaire design, special issues faced in writing factual, non-factual and sensitive questions, for both interview and self-completion modes, and an introduction to the various methods to test questionnaires. NB Constructing multi-item scales based on psychometric principles is not covered by this course.
Course Objectives:
- To raise participants' awareness of the pitfalls, issues, and tradeoffs involved in writing a good question and questionnaire
- To enable participants to critique existing survey questions and questionnaires
- To provide participants with the knowledge to be able to create their own high quality survey questions and questionnaires
Course Content:
This course focuses on the design of questionnaires used in survey research, exploring the theoretical issues that arise in their development, application and interpretation as well as the practical aspects of questionnaire design that are often not taught in formal courses. It involves lectures as well as a variety of hands on workshops.
The emphasis is on the selection of appropriate measurement techniques for assessing both factual and non-factual material using survey questions. Topics include
- cognitive guidelines for question construction to ensure respondent understanding,
- techniques for measuring the occurrence of past behaviours and events,
- the effects of question wording, response formats, and question sequence on responses,
- combining individual questions into a meaningful questionnaire,
- special guidelines for self-completion surveys versus interview surveys,
- strategies for obtaining sensitive or personal information, and
- an introduction to the various methods to test questionnaires.
- a one-on-one session where participants can get feedback on their own questionnaires
Please note that this course does not cover the design of multi-item scales based on psychometric principles.
Target Audience:
The course is aimed at anyone wishing to improve their survey questionnaires. The course is suitable for both those new to questionnaire design as well as for those with knowledge and experience of questionnaire design who would like to polish their skills and find out what the questionnaire design literature has to say.
Course Materials:
Participants will receive a hardcopy of the course material.
The Instructor:
Dr. Pamela Campanelli is an independent Survey Methods Consultant, Chartered Statistician and Chartered Scientist with a background in psychology, survey methodology and statistics. Previously, she was a Research Director at the Survey Methods Centre of the National Centre for Social Research. Prior to joining the National Centre, she was involved with surveys and survey methods projects at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, the Center for Survey Methods Research at the U.S. Bureau of the Census, and at the University of Michigan. Her main interests and publications are in the study of survey error and data quality issues, with a special emphasis on questionnaire design, question testing strategies, interviewing techniques, sampling and survey nonresponse. In addition to her consultancy work, she regularly teaches short courses for a variety of UK organisations, universities, central government departments, and survey research companies as well as the Universities of Michigan, Hong Kong, Wollongong and Monash and the bureau of statistics in Switzerland, Ireland and South Africa. (see also http://www.thesurveycoach.com/).
Preparatory Reading:
The following is recommended as background reading that will help course participants to understand and get the most out of this course.
Fowler, F. J., Jr. (1995), Improving Survey Questions, London: Sage.
Course Fee:
£30 per day for UK and Ireland-registered students. £60 per day for staff from UK and Ireland academic institutions (including research centres), ESRC funded researchers and UK or Ireland registered charitable organisations. £220 per day for all other participants. The course fee includes course materials, lunches and morning and afternoon refreshments. Travel and accommodation are to be arranged and paid for by the participant.Course participants are advised that, in case of cancellation of the course, we do not take on any responsibility for travel and accommodation arrangements that have been made by course participants.
Location and Accommodation:
The course will be held at the 'Auditorium' room, ground floor, McClay Library, 10 College Park, Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, BT7 1LP. Further information on venue and accommodation can be obtained from here.
Duration:
This is a two day course. On the first day the course begins with registration and coffee from 9.30am and formal teaching begins at 10.00am and ends at 5.00pm. On the second day, the course runs from 9.30am and ends at 4.30pm.
Deadlines and Refunds:
Course places are limited and early registration is recommended. Please be aware that we will only hold a place without payment for a limited time. Online registration and payment is strongly encouraged.
A Purchase Order is required for Invoice payments. A copy of the Purchase Order must be emailed, faxed or posted to the CASS Administration Assistant. If you have registered online please ensure that the Purchase Order number is included at the time of registration and that you email, fax or post a copy of the Purchase Order. We are unable to process an Invoice payment without a Purchase Order.
A refund is available for cancellations made up to one calendar month before the course, but no refunds are available for cancellations after this date. Please note, in case of a cancellation, an administration charge of £30 will apply.