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.
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.
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.