Cook Your Own Survey: The Basics of Survey Methodology and Evaluation

About

Surveys and questionnaires are ubiquitous in many areas of both basic and applied research. While a
psychologist may be interested in how participants in her research score on different personality traits, a
marketing manager wants to know what defines a target group of his company’s product campaign, and a
group of teachers may need a clear and comprehensive way of assessing their students’ attitudes to the
new teaching method.
However, creating a reliable and valid survey is like cooking. Not following a recipe may result in a disaster.
The course is divided into two weeks. During the first week, we will discuss theoretical questions concerning
survey methodology – advantages and disadvantages of different item formats, selection of the right
sample, and wording of your questions, so they’re comprehensible both to you and your respondents.
Towards the end of the first week, the students will create and administer their own survey in groups. In the
second week, we will discuss how to analyse the data you have gathered. Can the questions in your survey
be reduced onto one underlying dimension, or summarized in one comprehensible index? How do the
answers relate to one another? And what can you draw from the text responses you’ve been given?
The course aims to educate students with a background of social sciences who are likely to use surveys as
one of tools of their research or work. It is highly interactive and the students are to try out the
demonstrated techniques with the guidance of the lecturers and in cooperation with fellow students.

Week 1:
• Questionnaire as a means for data collection, comparison with other methods, its advantages and
disadvantages
• Validity and reliability – definition and importance in the questionnaire context, measurement and
the so-called "psychometric paradox"
• Modes of administration, item and answer forms
• Purpose of a survey, cognitive interview and piloting
• Sampling and data collection strategies.
Week 2.
• Response rate, drop-out, answer variability, data inspection
• Reliability analysis, correlation analysis, frequency and central tendency indices
• The basics of confirmatory factor and principal component analysis
• Text answer analysis, word cloud building, basics of thematic qualitative analysis
• Group project presentation, feedback and reflection

Course leader

Mgr. Hynek Cígler, Ph.D.

Target group

Background in social sciences, humanities, or economics at the BA or MA level who wish to learn more about surveys, questionnaires, respondents, evaluations, etc

Fee info