Questionnaire Design and Testing

Aims of the course

The goal of the course is to introduce students to approaches to questionnaire design and testing emphasising those aspects which are relevant for successful practical application of survey research.

Course syllabus

1. Survey design:
 Wording of items and response scales.
 Formatting and layout.
 Multilingual translations.
 Multilevel surveys.
 Sampling plan.
 Timing of survey assessments.
 Respondent and staff burden.
 Errors in survey design.

2. Survey testing:
 Traditional pretesting methods.
 Expert review.
 Cognitive forms appraisal / systematic questionnaire review.
 Cognitive interviewing.
 Focus groups.
 Experiments.

3. Survey implementation from the viewpoint of survey design and testing:
 Methods of administration (with special focus on computer-based survey administration)
 Interviewer training.
 Participant recruitment.
 Errors in survey implementation.

4. Survey analysis from the viewpoint of survey design and testing:
 Psychometric measurement properties (dimensionality, scoring, reliability, validity).
 Cross-sectional and longitudinal analytical models and techniques.
 Missing data and empirical significance.
 Non-representative samples and empirical significance.
 Errors in survey analysis.


5. Survey interpretation from the viewpoint of survey design and testing:
 Internal and external validity of survey results.
 Guidelines for use of survey results in scientific reports.
 Errors in survey interpretation.

Course director(s)