Survey Methods So you want to do a Community Survey?

Overview (I)  Recognizing a need  Willingness to commit people, time and money  Appointing a planning commission  Actions  Community needs survey  Gather general information  Form planning advisory committee

Overview (II)  Public Participation  Form citizen ’ s advisory committee  Statement of goals and objectives from planning commission  Modification of goals by governing body  Planning commission prepares work schedule

Phases of Participation  Technical  Data gathering  Forecasting  Analysis of facts and predictions  General  Generating public interest  Eliciting public participation  Creating public “ ownership ”

Preparing the Survey  Survey should elicit the goals and objectives for community  Not the other way around

Preparing the Survey  Four simple rules to survey my community  Guarantee anonymity  Don ’ t force privacy issues  Avoid ambiguous questions  Consult with partners

Preparing the survey  Scoping the project  Establish goals  Determine sample  Choose interview methodology  Create questionnaire  Pretest survey  Conduct interviews / data entry  Analyze data

Establishing Goals  Clear goals = useful survey results  General survey instrument leads to weak findings  Don ’ t be afraid to be specific

Determining Sample Size  Sampling  Creating a representative sub-population  We sample due to limitations of time, money and labor  Considerations:  Target population (varies with project)  Sample size  error

Determining Sample Size  Sample Size Calculator Sample Size Calculator  Bias Issues  Quotas  Ensuring representation

Sampling  Random  Systematic  Stratified Random  Clustered

Interview Methods  Personal Interviews  Advantages  Personal connection  Targeted sampling  Disadvantages  Costly  Environment influences effectiveness, bias

Interview Methods  Telephone  Advantages  Fast  Randomness  Data Entry  Disadvantages  Bad reputation  Calling window limited (6-9)

Interview Methods  Mail  Advantages  Cheap  Doesn ’ t require phone numbers  Can include illustrative material  Can be done at respondent ’ s convenience  Disadvantages  Time intensive  Requires literate sample

Interview Methods  Computer-Direct  Advantages  Respondents do the data entry  Privacy  No interviewer bias  Skip patterning possible  High response rate

Interview Methods  Computer-Direct  Disadvantages  Computer literacy required  General literacy required

Designing the Survey  Introductory message  KISS  Length and complexity hinders response rate & accuracy  Allow respondents to “ opt out ” of a question  But don ’ t allow a neutral response

Survey Questions  Multiple Choice  Open Ended  Numeric  Text

Survey Questions  Multiple Choice  Simple  Allows you to control the response  Requires to be as inclusive as possible  Try not to steer respondent into neutral responses

Survey Questions  Numeric Open Ended  Good for responses that require too many possibilities  Income  Text Open Ended  Same as numeric  Leaves open problems for data entry

Survey Questions  Rating and Agreement Scales  Likert Scales  Good for ordinal variables  Good for preferences

Survey Questions  Order of questions  Goal: get respondent to answer survey  Goal: try not to bias responses  Start with easy questions, end with more difficult/sensitive questions  Try to vary questions with likely responses (habituation)

Survey Questions  Always keep in mind issues of data entry