The document provides an overview of surveys, including definitions, purposes, types, planning, characteristics, and challenges. It discusses defining a research question, choosing question formats, editing questions, sequencing questions, refining instruments, and sampling strategies. Common question types like open-ended, closed, and mixed questions are outlined. Tips for planning, testing, deploying, and reporting on surveys are provided. Challenges like inaccurate responses, validity issues, financial constraints, suspicion from respondents, and capacity issues are also summarized.

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2. INTRODUCTION TO SURVEYS

Definition- What is a survey

Purpose of surveys

Types of surveys

Planning surveys

Characteristics of surveys

Challenges in conducting surveys in Kenya
“Research is a craft – It takes practice and more practice”
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3. 

A survey is a series of questions asked of a group of
people in order to gain information
Information gathered can be facts, attitudes, feelings,
beliefs
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4. 
Can complete structured questions with many
stakeholders within a relatively short time frame.

Can be completed by telephone, mail, fax, or inperson.

It is quantifiable and generalizable to an entire
population if the population is sampled
appropriately.
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5. 
Standardized, structured questionnaire minimizes
interviewer bias.

Tremendous volume of information can be
collected in short period of time.

Can take less time to analyse than qualitative
data.
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6. Satisfaction survey
 Evaluations
 Applications
 Voting
 Invitations

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7. The goal is NOT to “do a survey”
 The goal is to acquire data to make proper
decisions
 A survey is only one channel of information in
support of that decision-making process

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8. 
The goal of any survey is to collect data which
can be analyzed, and used to aid decisions
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9. 


Deciding on a research question
Choosing the format of your questions
Choosing the format of your interview--if you use an
interview

Editing your questions

Sequencing your questions

Refining your survey instrument

Choosing a sampling strategy
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10. Map out questions to help you gain the information needed to meet the survey objective
Question Types:
Open :




No pre-set selections – type in text, numbers – whatever is appropriate for the question.
Open-ended questions – unstructured fill-in-the-blank types of questions.
Good for gathering general information and revealing what is on the respondents’ minds
Open-ended questions require a lot of time to analyze and are more readily open to
misinterpretation.
Closed :





Choose from pre-set selections only
Multiple choice, Yes/No, True/False (etc.)
Choices are structured; respondents must choose from a scale or a series of options.
Good for nailing down specific, numeric options, and they’re easier to analyze
They may not offer enough choices and options for people to truly express their opinions
Mixed:
 Combinations of closed and open (i.e. “Other – Please specify_________”)
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11. Plan the survey
 Design the survey
 Test the survey/ Piloting
 Deploy the survey
 Reporting

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12. I will attend the
civic education
programme?
Objectives:
What information do you need to define?
How many will attend civic education and how many
of this group will eat lunch.
What decisions will this information impact?
How much space is needed for the participants and
how many lunches are needed.
Who is the audience for the survey?
Every Woman Aspirant in Kisii County
Who is the audience for the report?
CREAW
In what format is the report needed?
Excel spreadsheet with names and numbers or head
count
How will you deliver the survey to your audience?
Email
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13. 
Decisions regarding the protocol for the surveys
are based on the type of information being sought,
the budget available for the project, timing
considerations, and the target population.

The method of administration will affect costs and
response rate, and will also influence which
questions may be asked and how they are asked.
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14. Informed consent
 Clear instructions
 Debriefing
 Confidentiality

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15. 


Survey deployment is one of the last things done in any
survey project.
Surveys cannot be deployed until the survey design has
been tested, databases and tables have been tested,
and the data has been checked to ensure that it is being
properly collected.
Once surveys have been designed and rigorously
tested, they will be ready for deployment.
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16. 
E-mail Invitation
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦

The invitation is computer generated
E-mail addresses can be imported from GroupWise or a .txt file
When a user finishes the survey, this user gets flagged in the database.
When necessary, e-mail a second invitation. Users who are flagged will not get a reminder.
Passwords, links, and instructions can be in the e-mail
E-Mail Survey
◦ The survey will be in the body of the e-mail

Print a paper copy of the survey

Handheld device, PDA
face to face interviews,
telephone interviews
Post a link to your survey on the your county/department website.



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17. Do you know what your population is?
 How can you get a representative sample of that
population?
 Will non response bias prevent you from
generalizing your results to that population?

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18. 
Export data to other software applications
◦
◦
◦
◦

Access
Excel
PowerPoint
SPSS
Loading responses into a personal database
◦
◦
◦
◦
From e-mail
From a file (TSV, Tab Separated Value)
Using entry screen for interviews or paper-based results
From handheld device
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19. Frequency Analysis
 Time Series Analysis
 Gap Analysis
 Banner Report
 Frequency Mean Pair
 360 Degree Report
 Open Ended Analysis

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21. Answers May Be Inaccurate Because:
 People don’t know the causes of their own behavior
 People’s memories are inaccurate
 People are not good at predicting their future behavior
 People are not telling you what they know because of
◦ Social desirability bias
◦ Demand characteristics
◦ Response sets
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22. Information collected;
◦ May not have internal validity
◦ May not have construct validity because of self-report
problems
◦ May not have external validity because of poor
sampling or because of non response bias
◦ May not answer research question because survey
questions weren’t focused on hypotheses
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23. 
Financial Constraints-surveys are usually
expensive and requires heavy finances to
execute.

This is due to larger coverage in terms of the
populations under survey.
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24. 
Suspicion and resistance- There is usually a
height of suspicion which translates into
resistance and reluctance in giving information by
respondents.

This can be managed by clarity of purpose.
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25. Requires High Human Resource Input to execute
 In-depth training in the system and ongoing
development for all personnel may seem
excessive;
 A knowledgeable group of people is much more
efficient to work with

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26. Capacity issues are often glaringly obvious
 But they can also be somewhat discreet and
difficult to detect.
 It is much more difficult to mitigate capacity issues
mid-way through a project,
 especially one that is working to a tight budget,
than at the beginning

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27. More difficult to collect a comprehensive
understanding of respondents’ perspective (indepth information) compared to in-depth
interviews
 or focus groups.

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28. Survey research is the most used research
method
 Survey research is the most misused research
method
 You know how to use rather than abuse survey
research

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29. Vollmer, WM., Osborne, ML., et.al. Recruiting
hard-to-reach subjects: Is it worth the effort?
Controlled Clinical Trials. 15(2):154-9 1994.
 Nutbeam, D., Smith, C. et.al. Maintaining
evaluation designs in long term community based
health promotion programmes: Heartbeat Wales
Case Study.
 Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
47(2):127-33, 1993.

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30. Anker, M. Guidotti, R.J. et.al. Rapid evaluation
methods (REM) of health services performance:
Methodological observations. Bulletin of the World
Health Organization. 71(1):15-21, 1993.
 Harlow, B.L., Crea, E.C., et.al. Telephone
answering machines: The influence of leaving
messages on telephone interviewing response
rates. Epidemiology. 4(4):380-3 1993.

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31. THE END
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
Questions are Welcome
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