Kwun Tong Government Secondary School
Project Learning Course
How to design surveys and
questionnaires
Lau Kwok Chi
Survey design involve the
followings steps :
• Define the objectives of the
survey – What you want to know
• Determine the target population
– From whom you will collect
opinions
Sampling
–sampling methods – How to find out
some people from your target
population so that their views are
representative of the population
–sample size - How many people in
your target population you will
collect their views
Choose appropriate method of
reaching the people
1.
2.
3.
4.
personal interview
telephone interview
Internet
mail
• Write the questionnaire – What
you will ask
• Try out the questionnaire – Is the
questionnaire good enough ?
• Send out and collect
questionnaires
• Analyze and present the
data
• Interpret the Results
Tips in designing questionnaires
• Keep the questionnaire brief and
concise
• Start with an introduction or
welcome message
• Avoid embarrassing questions on
private matters
Tips in designing questionnaires
• Reassure your respondent that his or
her responses will be kept
confidential
• List answers in order :
1) Strongly disagree 2)Disagree
3) agree 4)strongly agree
Tips in designing questionnaires
• Write questions in both positive and
negative directions, and then
separate them apart
• Examples :
–I like doing project.
–I dislike doing project.
Tips in designing questionnaires
•
Avoid leading question/answers
– Excellent
– Great
– Good
– Fair
– Not so Great
Is KTGSS the best school you have
ever studied in ? yes/no
Tips in designing questionnaires
• Avoid hypothetical question,
for example :
If you were governor, what
would you do to stop crime?
Tips in designing questionnaires
Give more precise answers :
1) Strongly agree 2) Agree 3) Disagree 4)
Strongly Disagree
1) Agree 2) Disagree
• Every Day or More
• 2-6 Times a Week
• About Once a
Week
• About Once a
Month
• Very Often
• Often
•
Sometimes
• Rarely
• Never
Tips in designing questionnaires
• Avoid open-ended questions
• Avoid the answer "others"
• Avoid the too much answers :
Never 2) Rarely 3) Occasionally 4)
Fairly often 5) Often 6) Very often 7)
Almost always 8) Always
Tips in designing questionnaires
• Do not put two questions into one.
"Do you buy frozen meat and frozen
fish?"
"Have you ever bought Product X and,
if so, did you like it?"
• Avoid technical terms which most
people don’t understand
Tips in designing questionnaires
• Include neutral answers only when it is
necessary
1) Agree
4) Tend to disagree
2) Tend to agree 5) Disagree
3) Undecided / Don’t know / not
applicable (neutral answers)
Sampling methods
• Convenience Sampling
- "man on the street"
• Simple random sampling
– use computer to randomly select
some people from the population.
Sampling methods
• Stratified Random Sampling
- dividing your population into
subgroups and then taking a simple
random sample in each subgroup
• Purposive sampling
- sample with a purpose in mind
• Sample questionnaires
• http://leolee.uhome.net/epa/main.htm (good
example of errors by students)
• http://www.finet.com.hk/book/questions.htm
• http://www.hkptu.org.hk/bl23/
• Presentation of results of questionnaire
• http://www.dphk.org/survey/medi000223.htm
• http://www.dphk.org/survey/recreation010323.ht
m
• Web questionnaire production
• http://www.my3q.com/index.phtml?intID=28