Surveys: Creating a Basic Survey

To create a survey for this course, here's what you need:

1. Your Platform

• • For our purposes, since it’s available to us, you should create your survey in Google Forms.
  • Remember to add all of your group members as administrators.

2. A Clear Title

• • Your survey should have a clear title that expresses the focus of your report:
    • Survey on VT Future Parking Plans,
    • Pedestrian/Bicyclist Interaction on VT Sidewalks,
    • VT Parking Accessibility Survey, etc.

3. A Contextual Introduction

• • You should explain why you are sending this survey and what you will do with the results.
  • The sample survey provides you with a basic introduction you can use.

4. The Right Types of Questions for the Purpose

Generally, the worst types of questions are the “yes or no” ones, as they do not provide a lot of context or content for your report. They are closed questions.

The best types of questions to ask are those that will provide you with more concrete data. Those are open or open-ended questions. Your best bet is a blend of different types of questions, drawn from the guide below. Try not to ask too many long-answer questions, as they wear out your respondents.

 

If You Want to Gather	Create a	This is a Good Choice if You Want to
Numerical or sliding scale data	Linear Scale Question	Show how many respondents agree on a particular thing: “Ninety percent of respondents rated the safety of VT sidewalks as 1 (very unsafe).”
A single answer from among options	Multiple-Choice Question	Provide a breakdown of how often or how popular a particular thing is used or deployed: “Nearly half (48%) of respondents reported that they preferred Turner Place to other dining facilities on campus.”
Data that includes multiple answers	Checkbox Question	This is a good choice if you want to provide respondents with the ability to identify more than one thing they use, visit, or whatever, so that you can compare the various items against each other: “According to our survey, the most popular place to study on campus is Newman Library, with dining halls and outdoor spaces coming a very distant second and third.”
A short response of a few words to a sentence or two	Short Answer Question	Gather a short amount of info: a name, an email, a major or minor, etc.
A response of 1 or more paragraphs	Paragraph-Length Question	Gather longer narratives that would include specific details about your subject. Good if you want to include quotations from respondents in your report!

You are not required to include a question seeking respondents’ names and emails, but if you want to, you can. This might be useful if you’d like to interview any respondent to learn more information about their opinions or experiences. But this question should remain optional, not required.