Need help with Survey Research: Design and implementation?
Our narrative of dealing with survey designs and the fieldwork:
Setting the scene: diversity of Survey Research Methods
Survey research has quite diversified formats and can be conducted in a variety of manners, so that effective communication with respondents may be established with minimal chances of refusal and noncooperation.
Keeping in view the topic under discussion, and the time constraint, we try to devise a method that may have a high academic value. Synchronizing research hypotheses with the nature of the data in use is also an important consideration in our choices of methods and the plan to execute the survey design.
Structuring and designing interviews and questionnaires:
We emphasize constructing interviews that are more suited for deep probing and direct interaction with the interviewee. However, questionnaires may appear in form of semi-structured and fully structured. Depending upon the need for further analysis of the data, using qualitative or quantitative tools, the most suited method of communication with respondents is finalized.
Important stages that grab our attention include, structuring the interview or the questionnaire into different sections; phrasing of questions; deciding about the sequence and the layout of the questionnaire, using suitable scaling options, and coding each of the questions using suitable scales. Deciding about the proportion of the structured and unstructured parts of the questionnaire is a rather complex choice to make as it may cause some loss of information at the stage of the data analysis.
Pretesting questionnaires, testing reliability, and avoiding pitfalls:
Before conducting the questionnaire, we greatly suggest researchers to pretest the questionnaire for good coverage, for inclusion of the waisted information, and for the sequence of questions as any error may undermine the credibility of the quality of the data. In addition to that, a good questionnaire should try to minimize some survey errors such as the auspices bias, acquaintances bias, social desirability bias, etc.
Sample Design, and related fieldwork:
Selecting the most suited audience of the survey, how to contact respondents, if there is a need to add a counter biasing statement, what should be the suitable sample size, how the questionnaire should have been floated, how to follow up respondents for high response etc are the questions that we need to address with diligence.
Data editing and getting the data ready for analysis:
Based upon the quality of responses, and item non-response, sometimes we need to discard some of the questionnaires, and we have to make sure that the survey data is of respectable quality.
About the Supervisor
The research supervisor has diversified and multidisciplinary research interests, in the domains of social sciences and in humanities.
Has 17 years experience in academic research, including roles as thesis supervisor, senior research fellow, and research coordinator.
Has supervised theses in domains of Business administration, Economics, Political Science, Sociology, and Psychology.
An author of 13 journal articles, and participated in international conferences.
Reviews and recommendations
Ingrid
I feel lucky and happy to have learned how to make a questionnaire, how to code variables, and how to analyze the questionnaire data using tools of descriptive statistics and logistic regression.
His recommendation about adding some wasted information in the questionnaire worked as one of my hypotheses required additional information. Highly recommended!
Sandre
Superb! Passionate, enthusiastic, and above all a cool person with a natural ability to handle complex situations. His knowledge and exposure to deal with applied research seem to be deeply grounded in an understanding of alternative research designs.
His worthy guidance and comments may especially be seen as invaluable for research students, persons who are doing a thesis for the first time in their life, and for those who seek guidance in doing interviews or questionnaires.
Sasha
What a coherent and effective platform providing customized learning and knowledge for students all across, through such an extensive array of technical and conceptual areas of study! The subjects offered are highly useful for college/university students.
I got Profess services for my post-graduate research thesis, and the way I was guided and taught on both basic and advanced levels such as Applied Econometrics, Data Analysis tools, Questionnaire design, Research Methodology, and Inferential Statistics is what has built my trust in their services and faculty.
Using the same learning skills I have been able to present research papers at several International Conferences. Must say this forum is ideal for social sciences and research students…
Thanks to Profess for your thorough, easy-to-access, and exceptional services!
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