Questionnaires

• Questionnaires allow you distribute your survey to many people.

• Simply adding more people to your sample does not make it better, good sampling techniques still must be used.

• The questions must be less complex to avoid confusion and bad data.

• Clear instructions for the questionnaire itself and the individual questions are important.

• Links for further reading:
  • http://www.css.edu/users/dswenson/web/question.htm
  • http://www.ericae.net/ft/tamu/vpiques3.htm
    

Mailed:

Advantages:

• You can obtain a more diverse sample
• Respondents can research answers
• Anonymity can be maintained
• Representative sample without travel

Disadvantages:

• Mail is expensive
• You do not know who is filling out the survey
• Lowest response rate
• Bad questionnaire design can confuse respondents, causing bad data

Handed out:

Advantages:

• You are present for immediate questions
• Greater response rate
• Much cheaper to administer because of less travel.

Disadvantages:

• Respondents may not understand the question
• Limited to simpler question design
• Only representative samples in small, compact populations.