This 2-credit full-semester class provides an applied (hands-on) introduction to designing survey questionnaires. Students will learn:
·How to design a questionnaire in a team
·Best practices for survey and question design.
·Basic pitfalls of survey design - names, definitions,examples.
·How to use Google Sheets to track questions, coded responses, and prompts for interviewers
·Some of us may learn to program survey software Qualtrics
This class is not the equivalent of a comprehensive survey research class (e.g. EPSY 5244 or PubH 6810) or a statistical course on sampling and weighting (e.g. STAT 5201). Instead, it takes a learning-by-doing approach to one part of the survey process: designing questions for a questionnaire.
Each time it is taught, students will design a questionnaire for a client. Part of the work will be in teams. In 2020 the client was a UMN doctoral student studying Black women who obtained PhDs in the US while raising biological, adoptive or foster children. In Spring 2022 the client was the Humphrey School: we designed an exit survey for graduating masters students. The client for Fall 2022 will again be the Humphrey School, this time with a survey focused on the economics of being a grad student. The need to work -- loans -- debt -- food insecurity -- housing insecurity -- these are all likely topics.
The syllabus will evolve depending in part on the needs of the client. A full syllabus will not be available at the beginning of class for this reason. The Spring 2022 syllabus (almost final) is attached.
Students will not conduct the survey, apart from test interviews.