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What should the end product of the project be?  From whom, and why do you plan to collect data?

  • At the beginning, decide exactly what data you wish to collect. You should seek this, and no more.
  • Clear (piloted) questions help avoid ambiguity, and are essential for getting good data.
  • Consider a few demographics - age, academic class, etc - to get a sense of how different groups respond.  This provides social context for your data.
  • But avoid too many questions - ask only what’s useful to your purposes.
  • Learn to use conditional logic to avoid asking irrelevant questions.
  • Multiple choice questions supply the best data for math calculations.  But be careful that your answer choices encompass all that's appropriate and not redundant.
  • How motivated will respondents be to fill out your form? Do you have an incentive plan?

 How will form reach respondents?

  • How will respondents get to or receive access to your form?

  • How strict are your anonymity requirements?

  • Do you want to send follow-up communication, or at least track participation?

  • How many respondents do you seek or anticipate?  What distribution regime can you realistically manage?

 Budget time to learn tools for all stages/steps.  Learn them before making survey form available to respondents.

  • Learn all features of your survey tool that you’ll need.

  • Learn to use software (and math functions) outside the survey application, which you need for calculations and reporting.

 Pilot!

  • Have sample similar to respondents provide feedback on form experience: accessing form, form UX, question clarity and appropriateness.

  • Use dummy data to work through all calculations and reporting. 

  • Generate a mock product before the real product.  

  • Then you know what to do with the real data and more importantly, that you’re collecting the correct data for your purposes.   

 Responsibilities

  • What full-time employee(s) will be employed on the project?
  • Keep a journal or documentation for the project.

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