By:
Christopher Prewitt
&
Deirdre Huston
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When doing any project it is important to know
as much information about the project and the
views of everyone involved with it so that the
best direction for the project can be made.
Two ways of gathering important information
is through questionnaires and interviews.
They both have positive and negatives but
overall get the job done in different ways.
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Define goals and Objectives
Determine Sampling group
Create the Questionnaire or setup interview format
Administer the questionnaire or perform interview
Analyze the data
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The first step to doing research is to define
your goals and objectives.
What Type of Data are you gathering?
What Do You plan to do with the data?
What are the areas that your willing to explore?
Are there any arrangements you must make to
carry out your research?
What Methods will you use in your research?
Are your research process feasible?
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Random – Everyone has a equal chance of being
selected.
Systematic – Subjects are chosen in a specific order
from a population
Stratified – Selecting the subjects based categories
Cluster – Samples are found from natural groups in
a population
Multi-Stage - Combining multiple sampling
methods
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Convenience – no structure, surveying based on
opportunity
Quota - selecting participants based on a specific
proportioned mutually-exclusive sub-groups of a
population.
Purposive - A specific sample of the population is
targeted
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When selecting participants its important to
select from groups that are involved with the
project and are interested in it.
It is also important to try to select from a
variety of different groups within the
organization.
Incentives – Gifts for participants to entice
them the complete the survey or participate in
interview.
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The use of questionnaires is an indirect method of
research used to gather a wide-range of information
from a large population.
Questionnaires are designed so that the participant
must read the questions that they are being asked
and must then answer them based on the response
style.
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Contingency – A question that only applies to
people who responded in a certain way to another
question
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If yes complete this section if no, move to next section
Matrix - A series of questions that’s share answer
choices
Scaled - Responses are graded on a continuum
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How important do you think standardized test scores are
to a fifth grader’s
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Open Ended – Questions that the respondent can
write their own answer.
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Unstructured – Randomly Generated Questions
 What do you like to do on your spare time?
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Word Association – Participant chooses the first word that
comes to mind based on the list of words presented.
Completion – Finish a story, sentence or picture that has
already been started.
 One of the hardest task to do on my job is _________.
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Closed Ended – Questions with a list of options to
choose from.
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Dichotomous – Questions with two possible responses
(Yes or No) or (True or False)
 Do you know your weight ?
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Multiple Choice – Questions with several options to
choose from
 Why don’t you use the school ‘s cafeteria services?
 It’s too expensive
 Severing times conflict with my class schedule
 The location is inconvenient
 The food quality is poor
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Objective data are questions that are not
influenced by personal preferences and beliefs.
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Are you an MIS major?
Subjective data are questions that are heavily
influenced on personal preferences and beliefs.
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Do you like BA 3810?
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Quantitative data is numerical based data that is
counted then analyzed
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Qualitative data is more precise data that contains
words, pictures or objects.
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In the majority of research, qualitative data is
preferred and has shown to provide more accurate
answers than quantitative data.
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Clarity – Try to make the questions as clear as
possible and not heavily based upon interpretation
Wording of Questions – It is important to create
questions that will give you the most precise answer
that you want
Avoid similar responses choices
Do not include questions that will provide data that
isn’t related to your goals & objective
Add Open-Ended questions so that interested
participants can further express their opinions
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Personal Handout
Email
Mail
Web survey
Scanning – Fills in their selected choice based
on multiple options.
Text Response – The participant creates their
own personal answer
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It is a cost and time efficient way of collecting a
variety of data from large populations
Less pressure on the respondent to respond quickly
or in a certain way
They are easy to analyze and record the data
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Sampling Error – The margin of error
Response Bias – The respondents answer’s are not
their true beliefs
Non-response Bias – Those who participate in a
survey answer differently that those who don’t.
Wording of Question – Sometimes the question is
misunderstood because of wording.
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An interview is a direct method of research used to
gather information for a specific purpose.
In interviews, the interviewer has the capability to
learn more about how participants feel about the
questions based on their body movements.
The interviewer can also clarify any
misinterpretations of certain questions so that the
answers will be more accurate.
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Structured – An organized interview with a specific
list of questions and no interruptions from the
interviewer.
• Cognitive – Involves a series of methods used to
figure out the process the participant goes
through in a specific situation.
Unstructured – A free-flowing interview with little
organization and fewer questions.
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Personal – Interviewer and Interviewee are
going through interview face-to-face
Telephone – Conducting an interview via
telephone
Web Interview – Interviewing with e-mail, chat
room or other form of communication over the
web.
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Clarity – Speak clearly and properly so that the
participant can understand you.
Have a set list of questions that you would like
to ask the participant and interact with them if
necessary.
Try to clock how long the interview will take so
you don’t go overboard and run out of time.
Try not to offend or throw off the participant
with your questions and body motions.
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Responses are typically more detailed
Interviewer can explain questions that are
unclear
Interviewer can observe the participants body
language
The Interviewer can add additional questions if
they feel that the information will help their
research.
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It can be difficult to get all the samples that you
would like to because of high cost and amount
of time needed.
Courtesy Bias – the tendency for respondents
to give answer that they think the interview
wants to hear, rather than what they really feel
Faulty memory – some respondents may
answer a question incorrectly simply because
of a poor memory
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When analyzing data it is important to note
that your data will typically never be precise
especially in large populations.
There are statistical methods that can be use to
get a more accurate measure of the data.
Analyzing based on percentages of answers is
often a common choice.
Use the data to improve what is feasible in
your project.