Questionnaire Design
Venue: Highfield Campus, University of Southampton, UK
Presenter: Dr Pamela Campanelli
Dates of Course: Thursday 26th - Friday 27th April 2007
This course has already run. Please check the course listings for a future course.
Summary of Course:
This course focuses on the design of questionnaires used in survey research, exploring the theoretical issues that arise as well as the practical aspects of questionnaire design that are often not taught in formal courses. Topics cover the general principles of questionnaire design; special issues for factual, nonfactual and sensitive questions; assembling questions into an effective questionnaire; special guidelines for self-completion surveys versus interview surveys, 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.
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.
Course Materials:
Participants will receive copies of the powerpoint slides used in the presentations and suggested reading lists.
The Instructor:
Dr. Pamela Campanelli is an independent Survey Methods Consultant and U.K. Chartered Statistician with a background in psychology 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 University of Michigan, the Center for Survey Methods Research at the U.S. Bureau of the Census, and the UK Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex. 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. She regularly teaches short courses in these subjects at the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina, the University of Hong Kong, the University of Neuchatel and the Swiss Summer School, the University of Essex, and City University, as well as for UK local and central government, UK survey research companies and various other organisations (see www.thesurveycoach.com).
Preparatory Reading
The following is recommended as background reading that will help students to understand and get the most out of this course.
Fowler, F. J., Jr. (1995), Improving Survey Questions, London: Sage.
Course Fee:
For UK-based academic researchers the fee is: £40 per day (you must be UK academic staff or an ESRC-funded researcher.)
For UK-registered students the fee is £20 per day
For non-academic researchers or non UK-based academic researchers and students the fee is: £175 per day.
The course fee includes course materials, lunches and morning and afternoon tea, but not accommodation which is to be arranged by the participant.
Location:
The course will be held at the Social Statistics Research Centre, Building 39, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK information can be obtained from here.
Duration:
Students will be expected to attend at the University of Southampton on 26 & 27 April. The course begins at 10.00 on the 26th (with registration and coffee from 9.30) and ends at 17.00. On the 27th, the course runs from 9.30 and ends at 17.00.
Accommodation:
Participants are left to book their own accommodation according to individual needs. Information can be obtained from here.
Deadlines and Refunds:
Course places are limited and early completion of this form is recommended. Payment must be made when submitting the registration form. Refunds for cancellation are as follows. Full refund for cancellation one calendar month before the course, no refunds can be made for cancellations after this date.