This course will cover the basic elements of questionnaire design and evaluation. We will look at the question answering process, challenges and options for asking behavioral frequency questions, practical methods for evaluating questions, mode-specific questionnaire characteristics, and consider standardized and conversational interviewing techniques.
Syllabus
Week 1 – Introduction and Unit 1: Overview of the standardized interview
Introduction;
Different types of questions, measurement error in questions: bias and variance;
Standardized and conversational interviews;
From conceptualization to questioning
Week 2 – Unit 2: Understanding the response process;
Searching;
Judgment;
Responding
Week 3 – Unit 3: Asking factual questions
Facts and quasi-facts;
Memory and recall;
Asking sensitive questions;
Regime, privacy and confidentiality
Week 4 – Unit 4: Measuring attitudes
Context effects in attitude questions;
Using different scales;
Offering don’t know options;
Effects of response order
Week 5 – Unit 5: Testing questionnaires
Expert reviews and focus groups;
Exploratory interviews;
Behavioral coding;
Quantitative techniques
Week 6 – Unit 6: Putting it all together
Questionnaire from start to finish;
What to put at the end;
Choosing a mode: implementations for the layout; Self-completion questionnaires