Test all the components of your survey. Your survey is more than just the questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Constructing a survey instrument is an art in itself. There are numerous small decisions that must be made — about content, wording, format, placement — that can have important consequences for your results. While there’s no one perfect way to accomplish this, OIRE is available ([email]data@hmc.edu[\/email]) to offer advice and guidance to help develop your survey. Additionally, the Social Research Methods<\/a> site is a good resource.<\/p>\n\n\n\n OIRE maintains a survey calendar<\/a>, which shows what surveys are active on campus at what times for students, faculty and staff. Please contact us ([email]data@hmc.edu[\/email]) and let us know about your survey and we will add it to the calendar. This helps OIRE coordinate survey administration, make sure that HMC is not overburdening students, faculty and\/or staff with survey requests and helps ensure that your survey has a better chance of getting a good response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think about it again. Every additional question reduces the likelihood respondents will complete the survey. Don\u2019t ask items you don\u2019t know how you will use. It is good practice to provide survey respondents with an estimate of how many items are on the survey and\/or how long it takes on average to complete the survey in the survey invitation\/instructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Basic demographic information (gender, race\/ethnicity, class year, major, etc.) is available through OIRE. When appropriate, suppress these questions and OIRE can provide that data for you. OIRE uses HMC ID as the link between demographic data and survey responses in creating a datafile. HMC also participates in many standard surveys<\/a>. If the results of these surveys can answer the questions you have, consider using these results rather than running your own independent survey. Not only will you get results faster and avoid asking HMC students questions they have already answered, you will know that the items have been independently tested and validated and you will be assured of a good response rate. A list of surveys that HMC participates in and the types of information available can be found at Institutional Results by Instrument<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By doing this, you may annoy the respondent, causing them to abandon the entire survey, or encourage them to speak out in ways that negatively impact your survey. More importantly, voluntary participation refers to the exercise of free will in deciding whether to participate in any research activity, including answering a question on a survey. International law, national law, and the codes of conduct of scientific communities protect this right. Sample language from CGU\u2019s Institutional Review Board to include in your instructions: \u201cThis survey is entirely voluntary, and individuals may answer as few or as many questions as they wish.\u201d OIRE does not force or request a response to any survey or question. Allow the respondents to decide how much information they want to share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a good idea to pilot test your survey with a few volunteers in advance of sending it out. Sample language to invite pilot-testers: \u201cIn advance of this survey going out to a wider audience, we are asking a select group of students\/faculty\/staff to respond to the survey early in order to get feedback on the questions, and to understand how long the survey takes to answer.\u201d If you make no changes from pilot test to launching the full version, this allows you to retain and use pilot test data. Many of us are concerned with getting as many respondents as possible. While there is no single method that will increase response rates for your survey, research (Dillman, 2007) does indicate several factors that contribute to higher response rates:<\/p>\n\n\n\n With these in mind, here are some practical considerations that may serve to help you get the best response to your survey:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who will your intended audience respond to? It may be a department chair, a Dean, or OIRE. \u201cOffice of the Dean of Students\u201d is less effective than \u201cDean Leslie\u201d. Framing who the survey is from can help you acquire more participation and better data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think of your subject line as a headline. It should be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDear Alex\u201d is better than \u201cDear member of the Class of 2021\u201d is better than \u201cDear HMC student\u201d. \u201cDear Professor Xu\u201d is better than \u201cDear Faculty\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Any incentive program may require IRB approval. We recommend that you check with the CGU IRB<\/a> as soon as you have made a decision regarding incentives. Other helpful hints around the use of incentives are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n You want the best survey possible. In order to obtain quality results, that means doing some work upfront.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more helpful information, please consult:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Test all the components of your survey. Your survey is more than just the questions. Take the time to design […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1202,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1204","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/institutional-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/institutional-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/institutional-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/institutional-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/institutional-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/institutional-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1204\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/institutional-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/institutional-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Check the HMC Survey Calendar<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Think about the length of your survey instrument<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t ask if you know the answer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Do not \u201cforce\u201d a response to a question<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Get feedback on your survey<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Who the survey is \u201cfrom\u201d matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cSubject\u201d line of your invitation email matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The proper \u201cGreeting\u201d in the invitation will increase the likelihood of response<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
If you are offering incentives, prizes or gifts for participation, check the rules<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Set up your reporting before you launch the survey<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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