Summary
This article will assist you with best practices for creating a survey and how to form questions. It has the following sections covered.
Preparing Your Survey
Guiding Questions
- What do you want to know?
- Why do you want to know it?
- What do you plan to do with the information once you collect it?
Clear Research Questions and Purpose
- The survey should collect good data - do not collect data just because it is interesting
- The survey should not burden participants
- Verify if the data is already available somewhere else
- Would a focus group or interviews be a better way of obtaining data
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Designing Your Survey
Fixed-Choice Questions
Pros:
- Easier data collection and analysis
- The best approach for large populations
- Various ways to ask questions
Cons:
- Not necessarily the participant's actual thoughts or feelings
Open-Ended Questions
Pros:
- Obtain participants' honest responses
- Complete and interesting data
Cons:
- Participants may be reluctant to take it because more effort is needed
- Analysis is more difficult because of irrelevant responses and matching each participants thoughts into a category
Good Questions
- Proper English
- Clear, short prompts
- Avoid asking two questions in one question
Visual Ease
- Use "Preview Survey" to test multiple devices
- List answers down not across
- Limit what you place on each page - too much can be distracting
- Use the "Look and Feel" to customize the survey
- Keep it simple
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Implementing Your Survey
Questions to Answer First
- What is your audience (population)?
- Do you require to send to all or just a sample of the audience?
Sending your Survey
- Use an anonymous link
- Good for sensitive topics
- Could result in duplicated data
- Survey panel
- Can easily track responses
Concerns of data security
-
Combined approach
- Use "Survey Flow" to add "End of Survey" element
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Tracking Your Response Rates
What is your expected response rate?
- Depends on the survey and the audience you targeted
- Usually 20-35% for a 10 minute survey is average
How to increase your response rate?
- Incentives increase response rates but it depends upon your audience and budget
- Be creative with your incentives - it doesn't have to be expensive
- Reminders work because participation drops off after a few days. Bring it to the front line again
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Taking Down Your Data
- Deactivate your survey
- Download data
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Reporting Your Results
Best if your data is
- Simple and straightforward
- Clean data - no tinkering with the original data
- Requires only simple reporting
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Note: You can always go to Qualtrics' centralized Support Site to meet any additional academic support needs.
Further Readings
Qualtrics - Getting Started with Qualtrics Survey Tool
Qualtrics' centralized Support Site
Need additional help?
Visit the Technology Help Desk to locate your local campus contact information or to submit an online technology support request. For password issues you must call or visit the Help Desk in person.