Surveys are a popular primary data collection method and can be used in various types of research. A researcher formulates a survey that includes questions relevant to the research topic. The participants are selected, and the questionnaire is distributed among them, either online or offline. It consists of either open or close-ended questions.
Before conducting a survey, you should follow these steps:
Following are the steps while conducting the surveys.
Before conducting research, you need to form a clear picture of the outcomes of your study. Create a research question and devise the goals of your research. Based on the requirements of your research, you need to select the participants. It would help if you decided whether your survey would be online or offline.
You need to select a specific group of participants for your research. The participants can be:
Sometimes it’s impossible to survey the entire population individually if it’s a large population. It requires a lot of time and effort. In such cases, you can select a group of people from the selected community, and it’s called the sample.
Example:
You can also use an online survey if your target population is large. It helps in getting the maximum number of responses within a short time.
Useful reading: What is correlational research, a comprehensive guide for researchers.
If not, we can help. Our panel of experts makes sure to keep the 3 pillars of Research Methodology strong.
enjoy reading paper books more than reading e-books
How do you feel about your ability to find a career option according to your goals?
You can use various types of questions in your survey, such as open-ended, closed-ended, and multiple-choice questions. Most of the participants like short multiple-choice questions. Use simple and clear language to avoid misunderstanding. Avoid offensive language.
If you are using checklists in your survey to get feedback on a specific feature, service, or product, then write the statements based on your evaluation aims.
Open-ended questions require the participants’ individual answers according to their opinion, experience, and choice. The answers can be either one word or in sentences.
Examples:
You can try out many ways to invite the participants to your survey. You can inform them through emails, texts. You can post your survey on social media or design a banner to display on websites to grab the respondents’ attention.
One of the essential steps is to gather responses from the participants. In most cases, people don’t pay attention to the survey questions or leave them incomplete. You can offer some rewards to increase the response rates of your participants. You can also promise to share the outcomes with your participants to improve their response rate.
You need to decide the sample size (number of participants and responses required) according to your research requirements. It will help if you determine whether you are going to conduct an online survey or offline.
You can store the data in tabulated forms, charts, graphs, or you can take out a print of the data in the form of a spreadsheet. You can use text analysis to analyse the findings of your questionnaire survey. You can perform a thematic analysis for the interview surveys. However, the information on the online surveys is stored automatically, and you can analyse it directly.
The final step is to write a report for your survey. You need to ensure that you have met the objectives of your research or not.
In the introduction, you need to explain your survey’s whole procedure by mentioning the time and place of the survey conducted. Mention the methods of analysis you used in your survey.
A successful survey represents reliable feedback to the survey questions as evidence of your research. If you have online surveys, the responses will help you measure the participant’s satisfaction and positive or negative opinions.
In the section of discussion and conclusion, you can explain your findings by using supporting evidence and concluding the results by answering your research questions.
