Module 3, Assignment 5, Survey

For Assignment 5 I created a survey regarding the purposes of using and the reliance people have upon cell phones.  I attempted to include a variety of questions including multiple choice, short answer, open-ended, and a rating scale.  I was surprised that this short survey took so much consideration with its design and I learned how much time and effort is required to create a survey.

I administered the survey to five people ranging between the ages of 16 to 80 years old to ensure that the questions and response choices were appropriate for all cell phone users spanning those age groups. I was not able to find a participant for the 0-11 year old age group.  Observing the participants complete the survey revealed where frustrations with the length, format, and clarity of questions were for the different age groups.

My original survey is available at the following link:
Cell Phone Survey, Original

The participant feedback for this survey was extremely helpful in regard to the quality of the survey for both how I worded the questions and with ensuring each question and response choice was clear to all respondents. Piloting ensured I was asking the right questions for the information I was seeking as well as with excluding questions that would collect extra information not needed for my purpose.  I realized that if I gave this survey to 100 or 1 000 or 10 000 people which included an irrelevant question, I would have data that I did not really require but would then have to deal with the information which would amount to time and effort that I would not need to invest.

I received positive feedback from all participants about the ease in completing this survey and the brevity of it.  One participant commented that they would actually do this survey if it was given to them because it was so quick and easy to complete and another said it was fun to do. Participants were able to identify the purposes of the evaluation after completing it and felt that it included all aspects needed for the intended purposes of the survey.

One participant noted the design element of question order that I intentionally applied and how this helped transition from one purpose of the survey to the next purpose with questions that appropriately addressed the intentions of the survey.  Participants felt the survey was culturally appropriate, did not contain bias or leading questions, and the response choices were very appropriate for them.

It was an enlightening experience to hear participant feedback about the survey after they completed it.  Their comments about the survey caused me to make some changes as well as to reflect on other aspects of the survey which sparked my thoughts in making further adjustments.  When looking at the survey more closely after the feedback was collected, I noticed that my rating scale did not have numerical values!  It seemed to me that a rating scale should so I made this adjustment. The changes I made to the original survey are from both participant feedback and my own reflection and the revised survey can be viewed at the link below.  

Cell Phone Survey, REVISED

The following changes were made to the original survey:

-including the choice ‘prefer not to answer’ for the participant's age and gender to make the survey less threatening and more inclusive to all possible participants;

-removing an unnecessary question about other possible purposes for a cell phone if that feature were available;

-changing the rating scale from a vertical list with boxes to check to a horizontal scale with numbers;

-changing the order of response choices for one question;

-adjusting the wording of one response choice to make it less specific so it was an appropriate choice for more participants;

-I added a response choice to clear up confusion that was occurring for some of the participants regarding use of specific cell phone features;

-I redesigned the final question as two separate questions to ensure the data collected would clearly apply to each question; and,

-I reworded the two final questions to clarify what I was asking as the use of the word ‘other’ was confusing for one participant since I had already used the word ‘other’ in a different context on the survey.

I found that analysis of the data collected informed my purpose for the survey.  I did not have a preference for qualitative or quantitative data while compiling the data but did find that most participants utilized the open-ended questions.  These questions revealed information that I could not gather with quantitative data. "Stories are data with a soul", Brene Brown, and the open-ended responses widened my own perspective. Piloting my survey was a very valuable endeavour and I will not think twice to include the piloting of data collection tools, as appropriate, in the process of all evaluations I may do.  

I have some lingering questions about survey design that I would like to document with this assignment:

~Do all rating scales have to have numerical values?

~Should a brief description of the survey’s purpose be included with the survey?

~What should I do if a survey is incomplete when submitted?  Use the data that is filled in or eliminate that survey and its data all together?  Would I then include that I did not use that survey data in the evaluation report?

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog!  I welcome your comments, questions, and further suggestions for improvement regarding my Cell Phone Survey.