1. Surveys
Assuming experimental methods will be addressed on another occasion, looking at surveys, questionnaires, and pre-existing datasets.

2. Survey Components What do you want to know? The research question
What/who/where do you want to survey? The sample
What type (or mode) of survey? How much energy and time will it take (to administer and to analyse) and how much will it cost? Survey Planning

3. Type or Mode of survey Observational Surveys
eg traffic patterns, public transport use, gender difference in mall behaviour
Surveys
Interviews (structured, unstructured) Individual, group
Questionnaires Individual, group, mailed, household dropoff, computerized ...
Systematic sampling, convenience sampling, snowball sampling, selected respondents
One of the quandries in working out what to present is that the students you will be supporting have such a wide variety of skills and interests. Some of you will have students who, if they don’t already know how to use Survey Monkey, would learn it in no time and be able to use it skilfully. Using their Facebook network they will access 10,000 young people who are willing to go to a webaddress and fill in a survey on learner responses to different pedagogical approaches within high-schools internationally. This presentation is not aimed at them, but to assist you with those that have an idea but need some help to systematically think it through.

4. Questionnaire Design
Only ask questions that you really want the answer to
Start with dot points about the broad question areas then compose your specific questions. Make them flow in a logical order
Pilot (trial) the survey with a few people of the group(s) your survey will be aimed at
Your response rate (how many people complete the survey) will probably be less than the number of surveys you distribute

5. Questionnaire Design
All questions must be checked for bias (you need someone else to check this for you) – don’t ask questions in a way that forces an answer or creates an opinion
All questions must meet ethical requirements (refer to SACE Code of Conduct for Ethical research)
It is usual for a written questionnaire to be accompanied by a letter explaining the purpose of the survey; an authorization letter should be obtained from the school or research coordinator

6. Questionnaire Design Open ended questions
Do you have any comments you would like to make about the new shopping centre?
Closed questions – visual analogue scale
How do you rate the impact of the new shopping centre overall? Please place a mark on the line
Extremely negative Extremely positive

7. Questionnaire Design Closed questions – Likert Scale
How do you rate the impact of the new shopping centre overall? Please circle one answer only
Excellent Good Average Poor Very Poor

8. Questionnaire Design Multiple response questions
What are the best features of the new shopping centre? Tick all that apply
Location
Parking availability
Range of stores
Decor
Girls that hangout there

9. Questionnaire Design Ranking questions
What are the best features of the new shopping centre? Number in order. 1 = best
Location
Parking availability
Range of stores
Decor
Girls that hangout there

10. Questionnaire Analysis
Open ended questions
coding categories, shaping (patterns and themes)
Explaining
Too time consuming if you want to survey a lot of people
Multiple response questions (or ranking questions), Likert scale questions
frequency distributions

11. Questionnaire Analysis
Visual analogue scale
Easiest to treat by deciding how many sections you want to divide the line into eg quintiles 5
Do this “grouping” for other types of continuous statistics (eg lead levels in blood)
Frequency distributions: histograms (continuous variables, no gaps between columns), bar diagrams (discrete variables – gaps between bars)

12. Questionnaire Analysis
A good report will include
Total sample size
Response rate
Mode of sampling or selection

13. Questionnaires Self completed questionnaires Cheap
Usually quick and convenient for respondents
Anonymous
Stable, consistent and uniform measure
Wide coverage
But unless filled in on the spot, response rate will be low

14. Questionnaires
For online survey and analysis Use with intelligence – it can make a monkey out of you

16. Existing data sets
The obvious one. All kinds of statistics about all kinds of things Australian. And from the ABS site, links to many other relevant sites via the “Links” in the header (for example, the website of Australian archival statistics), or “International statistics” in the left hand column.

18. Existing data sets
Health (my area) Social health atlas 2010 This on-line publication looks at social determinants of health in Australia. Do you want to know the pattern of respiratory disease in the suburbs of Adelaide? This is the appropriate source. Wonderful interactive website with WHO statistics. Great for comparing countries on various measures of health over time. As with all websites, you need to know where to look, but you can find things like Disease Surveillance statistics, immunization statistics etc.

23. Articles on quantitative health research
– and click on the banner heading that says Research  
Resources on surveys
A Google search will find you plenty. Here are some I like:
SACE resources
identifying a RESEARCH QUESTION, guiding question, focus question, or HYPOTHESIS
EVALUATING RESEARCH SOURCES
HOW TO CONDUCT A CASE STUDY
Free