This lecture provides an overview introduction to survey methodology. It discusses establishing trust, providing rewards, reducing costs and errors to improve response rates. Specific tips are given such as small gestures, monetary incentives or appealing to interests. Methods to reduce pain points for respondents are suggested like making surveys fun or less time-consuming. Careful consideration of privacy, sampling methods and question construction are also emphasized to minimize errors and get meaningful results.

1. This lecture is an overview introduction to the survey methodology
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2. The survey method is by far the most popular approach for quantitative researchers in
many different professions
This slide is otherwise self explanatory
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3. The next set of slides will address each of these topics:
1. Establishing trust
2. Providing rewards
3. Reducing costs
4. Reducing error
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4. More tips on getting people on board with your study
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5. Small but positive gestures go a long way. Asking people to fill out a survey is no exception
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6. Monetary incentives may be the most obvious, but people often participate for a good
cause, or other self interests – for example, they may be interested in the survey findings
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7. There are too many surveys out there to compete for limited human attention
Put yourself in a potential survey respondent’s shoes and see if you’d be willing to put up
with the process of filling out the survey
Make the experience as less painful as possible. If you could make it fun, that’s even better!
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8. Again thoughtful and considerate approaches can go a long way in survey studies
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9. We need to be very careful about personal privacy issues. IRB has very strict rules and
policies
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10. Sampling error – homeless people may not have email access at all. Therefore conducting a
survey about homeless issues by email is just not the best way to access your participants
Non‐response errors are one type of sampling errors
Students who are taking a semester off may not receive the survey and may not respond!
Another example is to survey an evening MBA program about offering classes on Saturday
Students who chose an evening program probably did so because they didn’t want a
Saturday program
People who wanted a Saturday program would not have been part of an evening MBA
program
We will spend more time next week to discuss sampling issues
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11. The most serious problems often come from poorly constructed survey questions
The example give here illustrates one of the many potential problems:
The option “decreased” includes the option “decreased somewhat”
If the business decreased by 10% last year, which option should the business owner select?
We will also explore measurement issues in the next lecture.
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12. This is the proper procedure for mail survey
You can implement comparable procedures if the survey is administered online
Basic principles are –
1. Follow up
2. You can never thank people enough for volunteering their precious time to help you
with your research!
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