Surveys and statistical data seem to be very exploited in the education and business world. It is interesting that some folks say that they can sway any results based on intended outcome. Some surveys I have seen merely ask the "feel good" questions and then the statistical data supports whatever outcome you would like to see happen. What was that movie quote: "70% of all statistics are made up right on the spot" I think sometimes our surveys do not always measure what we NEED them to measure. We may be measuring what we want to measure, but I think we really should take some time to write a clear objective and be able to look at a situation and figure out exaclty what information do we NEED for improvement. We cannot afford to wear our feelings on our sleeves and only gather data that makes us look good. We should be more interested in program and product improvement. Why not make the best of a situation? How do we know what or whom to ask? I am glad you brought that up... I have a couple of links here available to help anyone who is interested in creating a survey (or may be required to do one for a research project / work project).
I hope Dr. Seibert doesn't mind (since this is posted on the web, we can assume that she is ok with educating the masses on how to create a better survey product), but here is the link to a PDF document on how to write better surveys.
http://www.keene.edu/crc/forms/designingsurveysthatcount.pdf
And a second link on collecting survey data:
http://masscommtheory.com/2011/11/22/how-to-write-a-good-survey-questionnaire/
I hope you will find these links useful should you ever be tasked with writing a survey. Good Luck!!
I think your links are very helpful. The hardest part about writing a survey is wording the questions in a way that won't lead the respondent. I think you are right when you say that some surveys ask the feel good question. They are designed to get a desired response. That alone would cause the survey to be useless really.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest concern with surveys come from doing them myself. I'm thinking of surveys they make us do at the end of a course or at the end of professional development offered at the co-op. The surveys are explicit and more than just 5,4,3,2,1, but many times I see people marking down solidly on one number and remarking that is what they give every instructor. I think surveys are great and serve a purpose, but I would want other forms of data used in conjunction with surveys. Thanks for the resources they definitely make creating a survey more clear and useful. :)
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