Developing Surveys

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Developing Surveys

• John C. Ory
• Chris Migotsky
• Center for Teaching Excellence
• 249 Armory
• 3-3370 ory_at_uiuc.edu

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• Know your.
• Topic
• Respondents
• Costs
• Time
• Purpose

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• Survey Examples
• Annual Campus Senior Survey
• Proposed General Education Survey

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• From 40 Suggestions ..
• About questions
• Is this question worth asking?
• Keep items short as possible
• Avoid double-barreled wording
• Rate the quality and value of the capstone
  course
• Focus response choices
• Rate the quality of Use P-F-G-VG-EX
• rather than
• The capstone was excellent. SD-D-A-SA

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• Balance your scales
• m m m m m
• Poor Fair Good VG
  Excellent
• Decide on number of scale points
• 4 or 5 or 6?
• Should you use Neutral category or Dont
  know
• Place positive responses to right
• Poor1, Fair2, etc

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• About survey
• Make the questionnaire eye-appealing
• professional with plenty of white space
• Group items into logically coherent sections
• Avoid putting important items at the end
• Do you need demographics?

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• GETTING RESPONSES
• Phase I Getting their attention
• If your survey arrives in style, it may not get
  tossed in trash
• If your survey appears seductive, the respondent
  may be attracted
• If your survey appeals to a basic value,, it may
  get read.
• If your survey arrives at the right time, it has
  a chance of being completed

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• Phase II Keeping their attention
• If the students know what it is for and why it is
  important, they may want to respond
• If you give them something for their effort, they
  may expend the effort to respond
• If it is easy to complete, it might get completed
• If you ask questions that grab students, you
  might get responses

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• Phase III Getting their feedback
• If you keep it confidential, they may feel safe
  to respond
• If you make it easy to return, you might get it
  back
• If you follow-up, you even can get a better
  return rate

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• E-mails and Cover Letters
• Date letter or e-mail of the day it actually goes
  out
• Use letterhead when possible
• Personalize salutation
• Explain purpose
• Describe who is sponsoring
• Provide name and phone for further info
• Consider sending advance e-mail or letter
• Consider other methods to publicize survey

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• Explain how respondents were chosen
• Explain how and when to return survey
• Describe incentives
• Provide a realistic time required to complete
  survey
• Explain how the confidentiality of the respondent
  and data will be protected
• Identify deadline for returning

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• How to get 75 Return
• 4 mailings 2 weeks apart 4020105
• Send complete package on 1st and 3rd mailings
• (cover letter, questionnaire, envelope with
  stamp)
• Send reminder cards on 2nd and 4th mailings
• E-mails or Cover letters are different
• 1st thorough content
• 2nd gentle and friendly reminder
• 3rd emphasize confidentiality and stress
  importance
• 4th set a final deadline

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• A handy campus tool for developing electronic
  surveys -
• Public Affairs Web Services Toolbox
• Presented by Chris Migotsky

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Web Surveys in the Toolboxhttp//www.webservices.
uiuc.edu
Info
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Main Toolbox Page
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Lets Create a Survey!

• Web Services Toolbox
• http//www.webservices.uiuc.edu/
• Other web survey tools
• Survey Monkey
• Snap Surveys
• Zoomerang