DESIGNING DATA COLLECTION FORMS Workshop on Emergency Information Management Neuhausen, June, Christian Oxenboll, UNHCR

Questionnaires  Why do we use questionnaires?  Target large amount of people  Use to describe, compare or explain  Can cover activities and behaviour, knowledge, attitudes, preferences  Specific objectives, standardised and highly structured  Used to collect quantitative data – information that can be counted or measured

Designing a Questionnaire  It’s easy, we can all do it, right?  Take a blank piece of paper  Add the questions that come to mind  Find some people to ask the questions  Enter the data into your computer  Do the calculations and publish your report  Voila!

Importance of good design  Why is the form design important?  Bad forms can:  Bias the data collection process  Lead to misunderstanding of questions  Lead to bad interpretation of data  Generate bad data quality  Lead to wrong operational decisions  …………..  ………….

Designing Data Collection Forms  Define objectives for the data collection  Involve all relevant stakeholders  Define the dimensions  Protection  WASH  Education  Define components within each dimension  Protection of Women  Access to Territory  Decide on the unit of measurement  Define data collection methodology  Define the questions for each component

Unit of Measurement  Unit of measurement vs. unit of analysis  Individual  Household  Community  Institution  Data Volume  Do not mix questions with different units of measurement on the same form  Aggregation

Designing Data Collection Forms  Defining the questions  Clear and unambiguous questions  Avoid abbreviations and UNHCR jargon  Avoid leading questions  Open-ended/closed questions  Mutually exclusive or multiple choices  Sufficient answer categories (incl. Unknown, Other, N/A)  Avoid double questions  Operational importance/relevance  Data accessibility  Data sensitivity  Test the form and provide guidance to questions

Types of Answers  Categories/Types of Answers  Qualitative Yes/No Categorical  Quantitative Number Percentage Other rate/ratio Date  Ordinal Likert Scale

Flow Chart and Skip Pattern Q. 1-8a Yes No Q. 8b Q. 9-11a No Q. 11b-c Yes Q a <5 yrs. old Yes & No, outside Kenya Q No, in Kenya Q. 15b Yes No Q. 19a Q. 21 Yes Q. 19b No Q. 20a No Yes Q. 19c

Questionnaire Administration  Self-administered questionnaires  Questionnaires completed through interviews  Which method is better?

Self-administered questionnaires  Advantages Less expensive More reliable data for sensitive questions Can obtain longer open-ended responses from motivated respondents Respondents can consult records more readily More time to think about response  Disadvantages Respondents may not complete questionnaire in right order More missing data Often higher non-response rate Sampling problematic if unsure who completed the questionnaire Usually must ask less complicated questions Questionnaires cannot be too lengthy

Questionnaires completed through interviews  Advantages Questionnaire completed in correct order Usually less missing data Often lower non-response rate Can ask more complicated questions Face-to-face interviews can be lengthy  Disadvantages More expensive Often less reliable for sensitive questions Must train interviewers; data quality can suffer from poor interviewer performance Interviews can feel rushed, leading to less thought on part of respondent