SURVEY & QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN: COLLECTING PRIMARY DATA TO ANSWER RESEARCH QUESTIONS presents practice-oriented guidance on survey and questionnaire design, as well as exercises and video presentations, to assist you in your research. It is based on lecture notes and hand-outs used by the authors in the various classes they have taught over the past number of years.
Within the research process, you may wish to collect primary data using a survey. Surveys have a number of different steps that need to be addressed. Designing surveys requires you to:
- Set objectives for information collection;
- Design your research around those objectives;
- Prepare a reliable survey instrument;
- Manage and code the instrument;
- Analyse data;
- Report results.
Sections 1 and 2 of this ebook are devoted primarily to the construction of the research question and its importance in influencing the design of the survey. Sections 3, 4, 5 and 6 concentrate on the development of the questionnaire or survey instrument. Section 7 ensures that the survey instrument is valid and reliable. Finally, Section 8 considers the layout of your survey questionnaire.
