Numeracy & Quantitative Methods Laura Lake

Postal surveys or questionnaires are a form of self- completion or self-administered questionnaire. Self-completion: the researcher is not present as the questionnaire is being answered by the respondent. These can be delivered to respondents in a number of ways, usually: postal electronically e.g. via Postal Surveys

How to design the delivery of a questionnaire – use self- completion or structured interview? Both are valid methods of collecting data from respondents with their own distinct advantages and disadvantages. Self-Completion as a Method of Collecting Survey Data

Resources in survey administration: cost and time Particularly with geographically dispersed respondents / accessing geographically remote respondents Implications for sample size. Respondent resources: time Able to complete at a time that is convenient for them. Advantages: Resources

Bias: mitigating some sources Interviewer effect – none. Interview variability – none. Implications for reliability and internal validity. Survey Topics & Anonymity Lack of interviewer – potential advantage with respondents who want to remain anonymous in order to give information about a sensitive subject. Advantages: Impact of Interviewers

Closed-questions: accuracy and ease of processing the data Standardisation of questions – impact for reliability Pre-coding and use of coding frames – impact on sources of error and intra-coder variability. Advantages: Question Formats

Access: meeting the needs of the sample of people responding to the survey appropriateness for people with reading difficulties / visual impairments formats for languages other than English Completion of Survey Little control over who completes the survey. What implications does this have for bias? Disadvantages: Access & Completion

Prompts: with self-completion no interviewer to help when respondents have difficulties answering questions wording of questions is particularly important – clear, unambiguous questions that are easy to understand and answer clear completion instructions Probes: with self-completion no interviewer to probe respondents to elaborate on their answers Implications for including an open-ended questions Disadvantages: Absence of an Interviewer

Closed-questions: limited chance for using open-ended questions No interviews for probes. Postal questionnaire: unlikely respondents will spend time writing lengthy responses. Ordering of questions: Self-completion means questionnaires can be read as a whole. Influence over respondent answers? Disadvantages: Question Formats

Questionnaire length Lengthy questionnaire generally not recommended. Respondent fatigue. Missing data No interviewer: greater potential for partial or non- answering of questions. Potential for not answering questions that are deemed no relevant by respondents. Disadvantages: Question Formats

Low response rate Postal surveys generally have a low rate of response when compared to interview-based surveys. Those who respond verses those who do not. Are those who respond those who have the most to say and what does this do in terms of bias for the data collected? Low response rate increases this risk. Disadvantages: Response Rate

Covering letter: purpose and importance of research, research funding, confidentiality and ethical considerations. Means of return: stamped address envelope Clarity of questionnaire instructions Attractive easy to follow design and layout Questionnaire length: keeping it short Question ordering: placement of interesting and sensitive questions Improving Response Rates?

Incentives? Follow-up strategy – may involve tracking. Tracking: determining whether each potential participant has responded or not. Used to: reduce time and cost expenditures of surveys by identifying and sending reminders to non-responders only. help differentiate the demographic characteristics of responders from non-responders identifying any duplication of responses. But, ethics? When surveying sensitive topic tracking may lower the response rates. Improving Response Rates?

Bryman, A. (2008) Social Research Methods. 3 rd Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. David, M. and Sutton, C. (2004) Social Research :The Basics. London: Sage. ESRC Survey Measurement Programme. Online: available from Survey Resource Network Oppenheim, A. (2000) Questionnaire Design, Interviewing and Attitude Measurement. London: Continuum References

This resource was created by the University of Plymouth, Learning from WOeRk project. This project is funded by HEFCE as part of the HEA/JISC OER release programme.Learning from WOeRk This resource is licensed under the terms of the Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales license ( The resource, where specified below, contains other 3 rd party materials under their own licenses. The licenses and attributions are outlined below: 1.The name of the University of Plymouth and its logos are unregistered trade marks of the University. The University reserves all rights to these items beyond their inclusion in these CC resources. 2.The JISC logo, the and the logo of the Higher Education Academy are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution -non-commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK England & Wales license. All reproductions must comply with the terms of that license. Author Laura Lake InstituteUniversity of Plymouth Title Numeracy & Quantitative Methods Management & Data Collection: Structured Interview – telephone Description Key issues in developing structured interviewing for surveys using telephone survey administration methods. Date Created March Educational Level Level 5 Keywords UKOER LFWOERK UOPCPDRM Learning from Woerk WBL Work Based Learning CPD Continuous Professional Development Self-completion, self-administered surveys, interviewer effect, interview variability, reliability, internal validity, closed questions, probes, prompts, Creative Commons License Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales license Back page originally developed by the OER phase 1 C-Change project ©University of Plymouth, 2010, some rights reserved