Designing a Focused Survey | Academic Papers Help

Develop six questions for your survey, to be used in an electronic survey generator.

Required Resources

The following resources are required to complete the assessment.

Capella Resources

Click the links provided to view the following resources:

• Data Collection Template.

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Suggested Resources

The following optional resources are provided to support you in completing the assessment or to provide a helpful context. For additional resources, refer to the Research Resources and Supplemental Resources in the left navigation menu of your courseroom.

Library Resources

The following e-books from the Capella University Library are linked directly in this course:

• Naghshpour, S. (2012). Statistics for economics. New York, NY: Business Expert Press.
  • Chapter 1, “Descriptive Statistics,” pages 1–28.
• Urdan, T. C. (2005). Statistics in plain English (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  • Chapter 1, “Introduction to Social Science Research and Terminology,” pages 1–6.

Course Library Guide

A Capella University library guide has been created specifically for your use in this course. You are encouraged to refer to the resources in the MAT-FP2001 – Statistical Reasoning Library Guide to help direct your research.

Internet Resources

Access the following resources by clicking the links provided. Please note that URLs change frequently. Permissions for the following links have been either granted or deemed appropriate for educational use at the time of course publication.

• Easton, V. J., & McColl, J. H. (n.d.). Statistics glossary. Retrieved from http://www.stats.gla.ac.uk/steps/glossary/index.html
  • Basic Definitions.
  • Presenting Data.
  • Sampling.
• Lane, D. M. (n.d.). Online statistics education: A multimedia course of study. Retrieved from http://onlinestatbook.com/2/index.html
  • Introduction.
• StatTrek.com. (2014). Statistics tutorial. Retrieved from http://stattrek.com/tutorials/statistics-tutorial.aspx
  • What Are Variables?
  • Probability Distributions: Discrete vs. Continuous.
  • Survey Sampling Methods.
  • Introduction to Survey Sampling.
  • Stratified Random Sampling.
  • What Is Cluster Sampling?
• StatSoft, Inc. (2013). Electronic statistics textbook. Tulsa, OK: Author. Retrieved from http://www.statsoft.com/Textbook 
  • Getting Started With Statistics Concepts.

Bookstore Resources

The resource listed below is relevant to the topics and assessments in this course and is not required. Unless noted otherwise, this resource is available for purchase from the Capella University Bookstore. When searching the bookstore, be sure to look for the Course ID with the specific –FP (FlexPath) course designation.

• Bennett, J. O., Briggs, W. L., & Triola, M. F. (2014). Statistical reasoning for everyday life (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Assessment Instructions

Note: Do not complete this assessment until you have received faculty feedback on Assessment 1.

Define your data collection strategy, which includes developing survey questions. To allow you to focus your time and effort on the actual survey tool and analysis, this course uses a software program to provide the data. Using technology to generate survey data causes hypothetical restrictions in your survey design. As a result, the number and type of questions you write for your survey must follow the Data Collection Template (linked in the Resources under the Required Resources heading) for this assessment.

Note: After you submit your survey questions, your instructor will provide feedback on them. When you receive feedback, you can proceed with data collection using the Survey Data Generator in Assessment 3.

Directions

Develop six questions for your survey. Keep in mind that you will not be conducting the survey by mailing or e-mailing questionnaires. Your survey responses will be determined by an electronic survey generator, which accepts only certain types of questions; therefore, the types of questions you can ask for this assessment are very specific and must adhere to the guidelines listed below. In the future, as you design surveys to solve problems or answer key questions in your professional life, you will likely draw from a broader range of question types.

Guidelines for the Questions

• All six survey questions should be stated in question form. They should be written like they are being asked directly to a survey participant. For example, you would ask “How many cats do you own?” rather than stating “The number of cats owned.”
• The first four questions (1–4) must be binary—that is, they have only two possible responses. Examples of this are yes/no, true/false, and male/female (to name a few).
• The last two questions (5 and 6) must be quantitative. These questions have to elicit a single numeric response. Survey participants can respond with only one number.
• There are certain types of questions that are not within the parameters of the project. The following types of questions cannot be asked:
  • Do not ask questions where survey participants have to explain something. This includes short answer and fill-in-the-blank questions.
  • Do not use a Likert scale. That is where a participant would choose from responses such as strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree.
  • Avoid questions where a participant chooses a number on a scale, such as 1 to 10 or 1 to 5.
  • Do not ask any questions that are contingent on another question. Each question must have a stand-alone response.
  • Do not ask questions that have already been answered by how you have defined your population. For example, if your population includes only males, do not ask “Are you male or female?”

Guidelines for the Minimum and the Maximum of the Questions

The minimum is the lowest number that you think a participant can or will respond with. The maximum value is the largest value that you think a participant can or will respond with. To determine these values, make an educated estimate based on your population and the research you have conducted on the issue. For example, if we are surveying Capella students, we might ask “What is your age?” In this situation, a minimum age might be 16, and a maximum age might be 85. Note that it is possible to be outside these ranges. The minimum and the maximum are approximations, or likely ranges, of what you expect.

• Your binary questions will not have a minimum or a maximum.
• Your will need to set a minimum and a maximum for each of the quantitative questions.
• The minimum and the maximum are each one single number.

Guidelines for the Expected Values for Typical Responses to the Questions

The typical responses will help the program that generates your hypothetical data produce more realistic participant responses based on your knowledge of the issue you are studying. The typical response will fall between the minimum and the maximum. It is the value you think will be the most common response from a survey participant. Base the typical response on your knowledge of what you are surveying and the research you have conducted on the issue.

• You will not need to fill in a typical response for questions 1 through 4.
• The typical responses for the quantitative questions should be what you think the mean (average) of all the responses will be.
• The typical response is one single number.

Defining Your Data Collection Strategy

• Use the Data Collection Template (linked in the Resources under the Required Resources heading) to define your strategy.
• Include the following items in your strategy:
  • Your target population for the survey.
  • Your sampling strategy and how you would attempt to conduct your survey. Be sure to include some rationale for your strategy and any potential issues that might affect your survey results.
  • Your six survey questions following the guidelines presented above. Be sure to document the expected value along with a reasonable minimum value and maximum value in the table, as you will use these pre-survey values in later project components.
• In Table 1 of the Data Collection Template, fill in every box that says “you fill in” and then remove that message once you have done this. Your final product should have a response in every box; there should be no empty boxes in the table.

Designing a Focused Survey Scoring Guide

CRITERIA NON-PERFORMANCE BASIC PROFICIENT DISTINGUISHED Explain why a specified sampling strategy for a survey is appropriate.Does not describe a sampling strategy. Describes a sampling strategy. Explains why a specified sampling strategy for a survey is appropriate. Explains why a specified sampling strategy for a survey is appropriate and provides examples of what could occur if the strategy is not used correctly. Develop survey questions for a study.Does not develop survey questions. Develops survey questions, but not all are clearly related to the goals of the study. Develops survey questions for a study. Develops survey questions for a study and provides an analysis of why these are the best questions to use. Estimate potential response values for survey questions.Does not estimate response values for survey questions. Estimates response values for survey questions, but the estimated values are not those that one would potentially receive given the nature of the questions. Estimates potential response values for survey questions. Estimates potential response values for survey questions and justifies the estimates.