CPAL Research Toolkit:

Transcription

1 CPAL Toolkit: Quantitative Questionnaire Checklist

2 CPAL Toolkit: Quantitative Questionnaire Checklist This guidance sheet will help you to: Prepare and plan your quantitative Ensure your is designed as well as possible This document can be used alongside the CPAL Quantitative guide to provide a full understanding of the processes involved in planning and designing a quantitative. Planning the objectives Develop a list of research objectives, setting out the information that the is going to obtain Decide what is essential to find out about, and what is just nice to know Method Decide how you will administer the. This could be for example: - Self-completion - Self-completion, by post - Face-to-face structured interview Designing the topics Decide on up to 6 research topics that will enable all of your research objectives to be met Then split the topics down into that you can ask to get the information you want Prepare no more than about 5-8 for each topic

3 The need to be set out in a logical order Closed The instructions for the need to be clear, e.g. Please tick ONE of the following. Please tick ALL that apply Don t use leading Where scales are going to be used, make sure they are appropriate e.g. don t use words that aren t clear, such as frequently, often, regularly. Be specific with options Open Don t use leading There should be enough space for the respondent to write a sufficiently detailed reply to each open question Question wording Questions should be easy to read and understand. If you have some doubt about the question, then the respondent will Designing the layout Layout The layout should be simple, easy to follow and be designed on a computer Style The same style should be used throughout the, e.g. same font, same size text, same colour text etc First page: title The title is the first thing that the respondent will read. It should state clearly what the is about First page: introduction The introduction should outline why the research is being carried out

4 State roughly how long the will take to fill in Outline the procedures that are in place for maintaining confidentiality and anonymity, i.e. that data will be stored securely and individual answers won t be revealed to anyone State that a person doesn t have to answer all of the if they don t want to Provide contact details for (i) someone whom the respondent can contact if they have any or problems, and (ii) the person to whom the should be returned If applicable, include a date when s are to be returned by. This particularly applies if you are offering an incentive for people to fill in the If an incentive is being offered, give details (e.g. what it is, how the draw will be made and when the draw will be made) End of the State at the end of the that the has been completed Thank the respondent for filling in the Give details of how to return the completed. If it is a postal, include a return address (as the respondent may lose the return envelope which shows the address) Piloting the Piloting the Ask a few people to try completing your. Ask for feedback on: - How easy the instructions were to follow - How easy the were to understand - How long it took to complete the - If there are any ways the design, layout or could be improved

5 If applicable, make any changes to your re-designed and pilot the new design Documents to include If the is a postal, adding a stamped, self-addressed envelope will increase your chances of getting a good number of responses Include a covering letter stating what the research is for and why it is being carried out. This may help increase the number of responses you get, especially with a postal When you are happy that all of the necessary documents are included and the s have been printed out, you are ready to begin your research.