Mail and telephone surveys are expensive methods in conducting surveys. The most viable and cost-effective method now is to have an online questionnaire sent to your target respondents. However, the downside of the online questionnaire is that the older generation is still uncomfortable in using the internet to fill out their answers compared to the younger ones.
Nevertheless, an online questionnaire is an effective method of getting the answers from your respondents at a fast and cheap manner considering that a lot of people have their own internet connection at their offices or school and even at home.
When designing an online questionnaire, there should be well defined goals to guide you in achieving what you want to have. So, clarify your study goals to decide how you intend to use the information. You need to do this before you begin designing the study, otherwise, why do research if the results will not be used.
With the goals clearly stated, you can start drafting your online questionnaire. Bear in mind that you should only ask questions that directly address the study goals. Avoid the temptation to ask questions because it would be "interesting to know".
As a general rule, with only a few exceptions, long questionnaires get less response than short questionnaires. Keep your questionnaire short. In fact, the shorter the better. Response rate is the single most important indicator of how much confidence you can place in the results. A low response rate can be devastating to a study. Therefore, you must do everything possible to maximize the response rate. One of the most effective methods of maximizing response is to shorten the questionnaire.
If your survey is over a few pages, try to eliminate questions. Many people have difficulty knowing which questions could be eliminated. For the elimination round, read each question and ask, "How am I going to use this information?" If the information will be used in a decision-making process, then keep the question as it is important. If not, do not hesitate to delete it.
One important way to assure a successful online questionnaire is to include other experts and relevant decision-makers in the questionnaire design process. Their suggestions will improve the questionnaire and they will subsequently have more confidence in the results.
Formulate a plan for doing the statistical analysis during the design stage of the project. Know how every question will be analyzed and be prepared to handle missing data. If you cannot specify how you intend to analyze a question or use the information, do not use it in the survey.
Another important thing to bear in mind is the title. Give your questionnaire a title that is short and meaningful to the respondent. A questionnaire with a title is generally perceived to be more credible than one without.
Include clear and concise instructions on how to complete the questionnaire. These must be very easy to understand, so use short sentences and basic vocabulary. Begin with a few non-threatening and interesting items and use simple and direct language.
Leave adequate space for respondents to make comments. One criticism of questionnaires is their inability to retain the "flavor" of a response. Leaving space for comments will provide valuable information not captured by the response categories. Leaving white space also makes the questionnaire look easier and this increases response.
Place the most important items in the first half of the questionnaire. Respondents often send back partially completed questionnaires. By putting the most important items near the beginning, the partially completed questionnaires will still contain important information.
The final test of a questionnaire is to try it on 20 or more representatives of the target audience. If there are problems with the questionnaire, they almost always show up here.
Ensure also that your online questionnaire would take less than five minutes or about 15 questions. After the pre-test, revise the questionnaire based on the comments given and observations that you have made before finally emailing or posting the online questionnaire.
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