This 2-credit full-semester class provides an applied (hands-on) introduction to designing survey questionnaires. Students will learn:
路How to design a questionnaire in a team
路Best practices for survey and question design.
路Basic pitfalls of survey design - names, definitions,examples.
路How to use Google Sheets to track questions, coded responses, and prompts for interviewers
路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, student teams will design a questionnaire for a client. 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 2022 the client will be the Humphrey School, which needs an exit survey for graduating masters students.
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 2020 syllabus (final) is attached, but note that readings related to understanding respondents will be lighter in 2022.
The class will spend two weeks on each module, actively engaging in class about draft questions and through that practice learning how to improve them. Students will not conduct the survey, apart from test interviews.
Grade break-down (approximate, to be revised slightly):
60% Teams: ten items by @ 6% each - first drafts; second drafts with tracked changes. (#1-10)
5% Teams: turn in final questionnaire in Excel (#11)
5% Individual: cognitive interviewing memo re: pilot test of survey questions
15% Individual: posts & mini-quizzes
15% Class participation, including group members grading each other