Introduction to Survey Design

About

This course gives an introductory overview of the design and implementation of surveys from the initial planning phase to the data preparation as a final step. Topics will include survey mode assessment and selection, sampling frames and designs, nonresponse, questionnaire design, cognitive pretesting, assessing measurement errors, and data editing. The course will be taught from a Total Survey Error perspective weighing data quality at each step of the process against associated costs.

This class is mainly targeted at master and Ph.D. Students that plan on conducting their own surveys.
The course will be taught through in-class presentations, group exercises as well as personal tutorial meetings that give you the opportunity to discuss your own survey designs. Each day we will discuss a specific topic that each focuses on one or more aspects of survey design within the Total Survey Error framework

First, the choice of the survey mode will be discussed, and how different ways to sample respondents follow from that choice. On the second day, we will focus on the issue of survey nonresponse - how to prevent, analyze, and correct for it. On the third and fourth day, the actual survey content is discussed - how to write survey questions, make sure that they measure what they are intended to measure, test them, and finally, how to assess whether survey data are of good quality. On the final day, we will focus on data coding and maximizing quality. We will conclude with an overview perspective of all survey errors and their interaction with survey costs as well as discuss the future of surveys.

The course will be applicable to surveys of individuals, households, and organizations in different survey modes: mail, face-to-face, web, and paper-and-pencil surveys and where applicable give insights into combining novel data collection methods with surveys.
Please note that this is an introductory course (see also course prerequisites and target group).

Course leader

Bella Struminskaya and Camilla Salvatore, Utrecht University

Target group

You will find the course useful if you:
- are thinking about conducting a quantitative survey yourself,
- use survey data and wish to understand its potential errors,
- are a Master or PhD student preparing your own survey,
- are a researcher who collaborates within a survey research project.

The course is tailored to those relatively new to the area of survey methodology and who plan to conduct their own survey in the future. The course will not provide an introduction to data analysis of survey data. Rather, it will focus on the design of surveys.

Course aim

By the end of the course, you will:
- have a good grasp of the complexities of interacting survey errors,
- be able to design a survey project yourself taking the possibility of survey errors into account,
- be prepared for more specialized courses at the GESIS Summer School

Fee info

The rates include the tuition fee, course materials, the academic program, social and plenary program, and coffee/tea breaks