Summary
- Questionnaires are really only appropriate for specific studies. We need to make sure that a questionnaire is the best approach for the questions we want to answer.
- There are at least 7 steps in designing a questionnaire including. Defining the aims, examining if there are existing questionnaires we can use, developing our own questions, defining how we will select our sample, piloting the questionnaire, amending the questionnaire after the pilot, sending out the questionnaire, analysis and interpretation.
- When designing the questionnaire we need to consider, how we want it completed (face to face, self-completed, telephone), how long it should be, how we will decide our questions and range of answers, how we want to analyse and who is on the team involved in writing, piloting, collecting, analysing and writing up.
- The introduction page of the questionnaire should tell participants how to fill it out and briefly what the questionnaire is about.
- The questions should not be too complex and should be directly related to the aims of the evaluation.
- The covering letter should persuade participants to participate.
- After we have received the questionnaires back we need to decide as a team how we are going to enter the data and how we will deal with issues like missing data, incomplete questionnaires etc.
- We need to interpret the findings and analysis as a team.
