Chapter 7: Appendix - 1

Questionnaire Surveys: Typology, Design and Coding

Introduction

• Definitions and terminology• Roles• Merits of questionnaire surveys• Limitations• Interviewer-completion or respondent-completion?• Types of questionnaire survey

Definitions

• Questionnaire or ‘interview schedule’:– A printed or on-line list of questions

• Survey– Whole process of conducting an investigation which

involves a number of ‘subjects’

• Questionnaire survey– A survey involving the use of a questionnaire

• i.e. a ‘survey is not a ‘questionnaire’

Roles of questionnaire surveys

• Used when a specified range of information required

• Typically involve just a sample of the population being studied – For implications see - Sampling

• But, the aim is to make statements about the population as a whole

Merits of questionnaire surveys

• An ideal method of providing policy-related data

• Transparent methodology

• Quantification easily communicated/understood

• Repeat surveys can study change over time

• Can cover a wide range of (leisure/tourism) activities

• Can study attitudes, meanings, perceptions of population as a whole

Limitations of questionnaire surveys

• Samples

• Self-reported data

– Exaggeration/under-reporting

– Accuracy of recall

– Sensitivity to some questions

Interviewer-completion Respondent-completion

Advantages • More accuracy• Higher response rates• Fuller & more

complete answers• Design can be less

‘user-friendly’

• Cheaper• Quicker• Relatively anonymous

Disadvantages • Higher cost• Less anonymity

• Patchy response• Incomplete response• Risk of frivolous responses

• More care needed in design

Figure - Interviewer-completion or respondent-completion?

Type Int. or resp.completion

Cost Sample drawn from:

Response rate

Household

StandardEither Expensive Whole popn* High

Time-useRespondent Expensive Whole popn* High

OmnibusEither Medium Whole popn* High

* refers to population of subjects to be studied

Figure - Types of questionnaire survey

Type Int. or resp.completion

Cost Sample drawn from

Response rate

Street Interviewer Medium Most of population

Medium

Telephone Interviewer Medium People withland-line phone

High but falling

Mail Respondent Cheap General or Special

Low

Figure - Types of questionnaire survey (Continued)

E-survey Respondent Cheap People access-ible via email/ internet

Medium

On-site Either Medium Site users only High

Captive Respondent Cheap Captive group only

High

Household survey

• Nature – Can cover all adult age-groups– Representative of whole community – Common for government, market research, etc.

• Conduct– Typically interviewer-completed, but also ‘drop-off and collect’ with

respondent-completion sometimes used – or combination– Sampling

• Omnibus surveys– One questionnaire includes questions on a number of topics for

multiple clients• Time-budget studies

– Respondents complete a 1 or 2-day diary of activities• National surveys

– Often seen as secondary data sources

Street surveys

• Nature– Conducted in:

• Shopping street/mall• Tourism areas (but may be seen as ‘site survey’)• Transport nodes (bus-stations, airports) - tourism

• Conduct– Interviewers typically given quotas related to known

demographics of the community

– Still a problems of representativeness re people who• are housebound • do not visit shopping streets • do not visit particular tourist locations (e.g. VFR, business

tourists)

Telephone survey

• Nature– Common for political polling– Growing response and representativeness problem

because of • excluding those without land-line telephones• growing resistance/non-response in some countries

• Conduct– Fast, using computer-aided telephone interviewing(CATI)

• Numbers selected/dialled automatically• Data keyed directly into computer

– Not possible to show lists to respondents– Anonymity may help honesty of response

Mail/postal survey

• Nature– Ideal for surveying widely dispersed lists

• E.g. Members of organisations

• Conduct– Low response rates – e.g. 30 % often quoted as

‘acceptable’ …. but is it?

– Factors affecting response rates (next slide…)

• Mail and user/site survey combos– In some on-site user/visitor surveys a brief face-to-face

interview is combined with a hand-out questionnaire which respondents complete and mail back after their visit

1. Interest of the respondent in the survey topic

2. Length of the questionnaire

3. Questionnaire design/presentation/complexity

4. Style, content, authorship of accompanying letter

5. Provision of a postage-paid reply envelope

6. Rewards for responding

7. Number and timing of reminders/follow-ups

Factors affecting mail survey response rates

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50Days

ReminderCard sent Follow-up

Letter sent

Start

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Daily returns

Cumulative%

Mail survey response pattern

E-surveys

• Nature– Conducted via email/Internet– Dependent on availability of e-mail list or other

means of inviting sample to participate• Conduct

– Partially or Fully electronic – Commercial organisations offer online service,

including on-line questionnaire design, and analysis

– Problem of response rate due to growth of ‘junk mail’

TypeRequest Questionnaire Completion Return

Hybrid email/mailEmail Attached text file Manual on hard

copyMail

Hybrid emailEmail Attached text file Word-process-

or/spreadsheetEmail + text file

Fully electronic:ad

hoc

Email On-line, interactive Online On-line submission

Fully electronic: panel

Panel email

On-line, interactive Online On-line submission

Types of e-survey

User/on-site/visitor surveys• Nature

– Survey conducted at a leisure facility/site– Alternative terms:

• On-site survey, site survey, user survey, visitor survey, audience survey

– Commonly used by facility/site managers

• Conduct– Interviewer completion preferred for quality/ response rate– Respondent-completion, if not very closely supervised, can result

in:• Low response rates• Unrepresentative sample• Poor quality responses (incomplete etc.)

• On-site/mail combo (mix)– face-to-face interview can be followed by handout of a mail-back

questionnaire – particularly in long-stay sites, such as a nationalpark or theme park

Uses of User/on-site/visitor surveys

• Establish catchment area (place of residence)• User profile (age, gender, socio-economic

group)• User opinions• Non-users :

– Use census data to assess non-users within the catchment area

Captive (ready) group surveys

• Nature– Respondents in organised group– May have little choice but to participate– Ethically, must be given the option

• Conduct– Typically respondent-completed under supervision– Quick and cheap

Example questionnaires:Case study

A. Questionnaire for a site/street survey:respondent-completed: Campus Life Survey

B. Questionnaire for a household survey: interviewer-completed: Short-stay Holiday Survey

C. Questionnaire for a site survey: interviewer-completed: Ramsey Street Park Survey

Principle Bad example Improved version

Use simple language

What is your frequency of utilisation of retail travel outlets?

How often do you use travel agents?

Avoid ambiguity Do you play sport very often?

Have played any of the following sports within the last four weeks? (show list)

Avoid leading questions

Are you against the extension of the airport?

What is your opinion on the extension of the airport? Are you for it, against it or not concerned?

Ask just one question at a time

Do you use the local arts centre, and if so what do you think of its facilities?

1. Do you use the local arts centre? Yes/No2. What do you think of the facilities in the local arts centre?

General design issues: wording of questions

• Open-ended:– What is the main constraint on your ability to study?

________________________________________

• Pre-coded/closed:– A. My job ☐1

– B. Timetabling ☐2

– C. Child care ☐3

– D. Spouse/partner ☐4

– E. Money ☐5

– F. Energy ☐6

– G. Other __________ ☐7

• In interview situation card shown to interviewee

Pre-coded vs open-ended questions

Open-ended questions produce large numbers of answers

• Question: Do you have any complaints about this (beach/picnic) area? (Site survey in a beachside National Park with boating and camping. Number of responses in brackets)– Sand bars (22) - Uncontrolled boats (23)– Parking (5) - Jet skis (39)– Wild car driving (1) - Surveys (1)– Lack of beach area (1) - Should be kept for locals (1)– Too few shops (1) - Seaweed (3)– Too few picnic tables (4) - Need showers (1)– No timber for barbecue (2) - Administration of National Park (1)– Need more picnic space (3) - Maintenance & policing of Park (1)– Need boat hire facilities (1) - Trucks on beach (2)– Need active recn facilities (1) - Anglers (1)– Litter/pollution (74) - Crowds/tourists (26)– Urban sprawl (1) - Having to pay entry fee (6)– Need wharf fishing access (1) - Houses along waterfront (2)– Lack of info. on walking trails (1) - Unpleasant smell (drain) (2)– Not enough facilities (3) - Sales people (1)– Slow barbecues (2) - Need electric barbecues (1)– Etc. - Etc.

Example of range of replies resulting from an open-ended question

Types of information

1.Activities/events/places What?

2.Respondent characteristics Who?

3.Attitudes/motivations Why?

% of persons aged 16+ attending in last:

12 months 4 weeks

Film: cinema/other venue 59 22

Play or drama 25 4

Carnival, street arts, circus 26 4

Art/photography /sculpture exhib. 22 6

Craft exhibition 19 4

Attendance at arts events, England, 2003

Respondent characteristics: range of data

• Gender• Age• Economic status• Occupation/social class

(own or ‘head of household’)

• Previous job history• Income (own or household)

• Education/qualifications

• Marital/family status • Household type/family size• Life-cycle• Ethnic group/country of

birth• Residential location• Mobility - driving licence,

access to private transport• Party/group size/type

(site/visitor surveys)

Attitude/opinion questions

• Formatsa.Open-ended or direct questions

b.Checklist

c.Ranking

d.Likert scales

e.Attitude statements

f. Semantic differential

g.Repertory grid

a. Open-ended/direct: What attracted you to apply for this course?

____________________________________

b. Checklist: Of the items on the card, which was the most important to you in applying for this course?A. Good reputation

B. Easy access

C. Curriculum

D. Level of fees

E. Easy parking

Attitude/opinion questions

c. Ranking: Please rank the items on the card in terms of their importance to you in choosing a course. Please rank them 1 for the most important to 5 for the least important.

RankA. Good reputation ___B. Easy access ___C. Curriculum ___D. Level of fees ___E. Easy parking ___

Attitude/opinion questions (Continued)

d. Likert scales: Looking at the items on the card, please say how important each was to you in choosing this course; was it: Very important, Quite important, Not very important or Not at all important?

Very Quite Not very Not at allimportant important important important

Good reputation □1 □2 □3 □4

Easy access □1 □2 □3 □4

Curriculum □1 □2 □3 □4

Level of fees □1 □2 □3 □4

Easy parking □1 □2 □3 □4

Attitude/opinion questions (Continued)

e. Attitude Statements: Please read the statements below and indicate your level of agreement or disagreement with them by ticking the appropriate box.

Agree Agree No Disagree Disagree

Strongly opinion stronglyThe learning experience is more important than the

qualification in education □1 □2 □3 □4 □5

Graduate course fees are

too high □1 □2 □3 □4 □5

Attitude/opinion questions (Continued)

f. Semantic differential: Please look at the list below and tick the line to indicate where you think this course falls in relation to each factor listed.

Difficult |_______|________|________|________| Easy

Irrelevant |_______|________|________|________| Relevant

Professional |_______|________|________|________| Unprofessional

Dull |_______|________|________|________| Interesting

Attitude/opinion questions (Continued)

Introductory remarks, Ordering of questions

• Consider content/length of opening/introductory remarks

• Question order:– Start with easy questions– Start with 'relevant' questions– Leave sensitive questions until later

• Layout:• Be aware of the needs of the reader/user – interviewer or

respondent?• Special care with mail survey questionnaires• Compactness (e.g. single page) = ease of handling• Two-column layout often helps

• General:• Non-response• Questionnaire design: lack of clarity• Accuracy of recall• Desire to impress• Privacy concerns/sensitivity• Language/accent• Interviewee patience/fatigue• Physical context• Interviewer-administered• Interviewer-respondent rapport• Interviewer consistency• Respondent-completed• Literacy• Non-completion

Validity/reliability of questionnaire-based data

Checking validity

• Dummy questions or answer categories• Semi-disguised(hidden) duplication of

questions• Comparing participation time periods• Use of/comparing alternative data sources

Planning fieldwork: tasksa. Seek permissions – to visit sites, obtain records, etc.

b. Obtain lists for sampling – e.g. voters lists

c. Arrange printing – of questionnaires etc.

d. Check insurance issues

e. Prepare written instructions for interviewers

f. Prepare identity badges/letters for interviewers

g. Recruit interviewers and supervisors

h. Train interviewers and supervisors

i. Obtain quotations for any fieldwork to be conducted by other organisations

j. Appoint and train data coders/processor

Conducting questionnaire surveys

Pilot survey purposesa. Test questionnaire wording

b. Test question sequencing

c. Test questionnaire layout

d. Code open-ended questions

e. Gain familiarity with respondents

f. Test fieldwork arrangements

g. Train and test fieldworkers

h. Estimate response rate

i. Estimate interview etc. time

j. Test analysis procedures

Conducting a pilot survey

End of Appx 1