Survey design

Introduction

Key terms: Quantitative research, making a survey, asking questions, response options, finding respondents, Qualtrics, introductory course, relevant for students in any PhD phase. 

ECTS: 2
Number of sessions: 3
Hours per session: 3

This course explains how you can design a survey for statistical research. A survey is one of the most important and widely used quantitative data collection tools.  

A survey helps researchers to collect data about the backgrounds, behaviours and attitudes of relatively large samples of respondents in an efficient and structured way. Collected data can be subsequently assessed through statistical methods.

This course comprises a mix of lectures, exercises, discussions and reflections. We will discuss how you can design a survey, but not how you can analyse collected data. Performing statistical analysis is addressed in various other EGSH courses.  

Entry level and relevance 

This course is designed for people who have no to little experience with survey design. No prior knowledge is required for attending the course. 

The course is not suitable for people who already did a research master with a course on survey design, or for people who already have a lot of experience with making a survey. 

The course can be useful for people in any PhD phase, from any research discipline, who are planning to conduct statistical research and need to collect their own data. 

Relations with other courses 

 
There is no overlap between this course and other EGSH courses. 

Sessions and preparations 

Session 1: The general survey framework In the first session, we will discuss the development of the general framework of a survey, which consists of the research goals that a survey should help accomplish and an analysis plan for the collected data. In addition, we will discuss the main aspects of survey methodology and the overall process of survey design. 

Session 2: Survey contents, structure and presentation 
The second session is about the main aspects of the survey itself, consisting of the questions, response options, the structure, and the layout. We will also discuss how you can pre-test a survey before administrating it within the target group. 

Session 3: Collecting respondent data
The last session focusses on issues pertaining to the collection of data. We will discuss the pros and cons of different data collection modes and how you can actually retrieve input of respondents from your research population. We will also do some exercises with the program Qualtrics, which facilitates survey design and administration. 
Preparations: participants will be asked to devise a survey, preferably for their own research.