9th Week Learning Log - Research Methodologies

Coverage of this week consist of Survey Methodologies, Designing of Questionnaires & Research  Techniques.

(Source: http://www.swiftshift.com/)

First of all the definition of survey says it's a way of gathering information about a certain large scale population, by sampling some of its individuals (or a group) through a standardized set of questions. The main purpose of a survey is to extract special information that after a stage of evaluation gives results or statistical characteristics about the sample involved in the project done. Questions included may relate to the surveyed people's beliefs, attitudes, behaviors or characteristics. (fairfaxcounty, 2012)

Few of the survey objectives are: 

• Information needed in order to understand the problem, causes & solutions 
• Whom and how will the information be used 
• What population is selected to be studied & if the majority of it, is located easily 
• Statistically validation of the information & the need to be generalized to a large scale
• Analysis used to understand survey results 
• Will the resulting data statistics be appropriate for the sampling plan used 

Survey Modes & Types: (fairfaxcounty, 2012)

• Face to Face Interviews - Personal inter-meetings between a interviewer & interviewee Pros - Response rate is high / Clarification of questions can be done / Control over respondents selection / Respondent is motivated or more engaged. Cons - Take time / High cost / Training required for interviewer / interviewee may give sociably accepted answers / less privacy.
• Telephone Interviews - These are usually conducted from a main office that make telephone calls to selected house holds or individuals. Pros -  Fast & high respond rates / a bit of secrecy is received by the respondent Cons - Question length is limited / external interruptions cannot be controlled / training and quality control measures are needed / difficulty when targeting a geographic location. 
• Mail/Post Questionnaires - Written surveys that are sent through postman, to the selected set of people out from the population. Pros - Good response rate with follow up procedures / easy to obtain a list of people & locate them geographically / can avoid interviewer bias / answers are not influenced socially / easy administration / low cost. Cons - Questions may not reach the desired person / complex when designing / time consuming. 
• Internet Questionnaires -  Survey communicated through a particular website or by e-mails. Pros - Fast to operate & allocate data / Auto customization allowed / Software advantages / avoid interviewer bias and distortion / answers not externally disturbed / easy administration / low cost relatively. Cons -  less information confidentiality / follow ups are difficult to conduct / less control over interviewee / advanced when designing. 

(fairfaxcounty, 2012) describe questionnaires as yardstick used to query a population (or a selected group/individual) in order to extract information and data for analysis. It supports in gathering relevant data, convert information into a comparison format, reduce external 3rd party distractions and influence and interact with the interviewee. 

According to the (fairfaxcounty, 2012) there are 5 types of basic question formats:

1. Open ended - no specified answers for interviewee (e.g. The job tasks that I enjoyed the most are................................) 
2. Modified open ended - Can fill in certain answers but the end is specified (e.g. I was ..... old when I started my current job) 
3. Close ended with ordered response choices - (e.g. How would you rate your job satisfaction? circle one answer in each category) 
4. Close ended with non ordered response choices - (e.g. Which of the following food item that you liked the most? a / b / c) 
5. Partially Close ended -  choices are given but allow opinions too (e.g. Which of the food item that you liked the most? a/ b/ c or other-write down) 

After that lecturer explained the 3 survey models & Its advantages / disadvantages:

• Pyramid Structure - Questionnaire starts with a close ended question & ends with a very broad open ended question.  This model allows the respondent to be used with the questions gradually and then be open at the very end. But one can get tired at the end of the paper when the personal answers are needed this is a disadvantage of this model. Advantageous when using filters at the beginning. 
• Funnel Approach - start with open ended and end with close ended. Respondent feels free to answer at beginning and then slightly get specified with the questions presented. Reasonable when the survey is aligned with deductive reasoning. Disadvantageous if the respondent is not familiar with the questions, and if get blocked at the beginning the whole questionnaire become failed.  
• Fusion Approach - This is the hybrid version of both above approaches. Starts with a broad general questions with opinion based answers and then get specified can insert filters at the middle then question about more specific and subject related matters that directly needed for analysis. Disadvantage is difficult to design. 

Research Techniques 

Every research need large amounts of data and for that collection of data is a vital function. There are two categories of data collection

1. Primary Data Collection - Data that has been collected basically by the researcher who conduct the research itself. Investigated originally from the scratch. (e.g data collected through questionnaires designed by your self) 
2. Secondary Data Collection - Data collected by a earlier/former researcher and has been re-used in your research by yourself to confirm or depict a theory/statement or hypothesis. Used with reference to the base research paper & author. 

  
Scales to measure the answers - "Likert Scale" is the most common in usage 

Primary Scales of Measurements:

• Nominal - Like numbers assigned to runners 
• Ordinal - Rank order of winners (numbers contain a predefined meaning) 
• Internal (Sub set of ordinal) - Performance rating on a 1-10 scale 
• Ratio - Finishing time of a race in seconds 

Evaluation & Piloting Surveys:

Always pre-prepared the techniques that you are going to use (questionnaires / surveys), be clear with each objectives, select a group for sampling, maintain proper order, select question structures & and extract wanted data from people. Furthermore researchers can also do pilot studies with a few set of people who have the similar characteristics of the selected people for the survey, and do question them and get feedback. This allows to see future potential problems of the survey and enable you to determine if information will answer your research question or not.

Finally at the end of the week I collected lot of knowledge about research methodologies. And learn how to create questionnaires & surveys using proper designs as these are useful in business researches. furthermore I got to know about the scales used to measure the answers, survey models & question formats in questionnaires. By learning this week's topics I improved in understanding different surveys done in other researches & got more familiar with research interviews and etc.

I hope you enjoyed My 9th Week Learning Log :) Have a nice day, Thank you!!!

Topic related videos: 

Reference: 

• fairfaxcounty. (2012). Survey Questionnaire Design. Informational Brochure , 1-8.
• youtube videos