1 Collecting primary data: questionnaires Week 7 lecture 2

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Collecting primary data: questionnaires

Week 7 lecture 2

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Agenda

Questionnaire introduction When to use questionnaire Types of questionnaire Identify data to be collected by questionnaire Design individual questions in questionnaire

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Questionnaire

Used extensively in survey research Can be used in experiment and case study

research strategies Strict definition

Surveys where the person answering the question actually records their own answers.

Broad view Include all techniques of data collection in which

each person is asked to respond to the same set of questions in a predetermined order.

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Important design issues

It is far harder to produce a good questionnaire than you might think

Issues to maximize response rates, validity and reliability Careful design of individual questions (item) Clear layout of the questionnaire form Lucid explanation of the purpose of the

questionnaire Pilot testing

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When to use questionnaires

Not particularly good for exploratory study or other research that requires large number of open-ended question What would be the most suitable data collection method for

exploratory study? Is questionnaire a good way to collect user requirements?

Work best with standardized questions that you can be confident will be interpreted the same way by all respondents. Descriptive or explanatory research

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When to use questionnaire

Descriptive research Opinion, attitude and experience of something Eg. End-user satisfaction of a new system

Explanatory research Cause-and-effect relationship between variables

Eg. Would color scheme of an e-commerce website affect customers’ purchasing behavior

Multi-method Eg. A questionnaire to discover customers’ attitudes

followed by in-depth interviews to explore and understand these attitudes.

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When to use questionnaire

To collect self-reported beliefs or behaviors. Behavior Attitudes/beliefs/opinions Expectations Self-classification Knowledge

Data are usually quantified and analysed by computer program

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Types of questionnaire

Self-administered questionnaires Completed by the respondents

On-line questionnaires Postal or mail questionnaires Delivery and collection questionnaires

Interviewer-administered questionnaires Responses are recorded by the interviewer

Telephone questionnaires Structured interviews

Interviewers physically meet respondents and ask the questions face to face.

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The choice of questionnaire Characteristics of the respondents from whom you

wish to collect data Importance of reaching a particular person as

respondent Importance of respondents’ answers not being

contaminated or distorted Size of sample you require for your analysis Types of questions you need to ask to collect your

data Number of questions you need to ask to collect your

data. Available resources

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The choice of questionnaire

It is difficult to know the actual respondents from online or postal questionnaire

Possible contamination of respondents’ answers In telephone or structured interview, interviewer

might lead to some certain response In self-administered questionnaire, respondents

might discuss answers with others

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The choice of questionnaire

Telephone or structure interview usually get high response rate (50%-70%)

Postal or delivery and collection questionnaire can get moderate response rate (30%-50%)

Online questionnaire usually get lowest response Hard to measure 30% within organization; 10% or lower for public

Internet survey

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Deciding what data need to be collected

Example Problem: towards the end of your information system

project, you need to measure the satisfaction of your client Naïve solution:

Email your client a short questionnaire contains two questions 1. Are you satisfied with the system we developed? YES/NO 2. Are you going to use the system in the future? YES/NO

Declare success to course coordinator because client answer “yes” to both questions

What’s the problem?

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Deciding what data need to be collected

Theory Suggest constructs of questionnaire

How do we measure End – User “satisfaction” of computer system? Content, Accuracy, Format, Ease of Use, Timeliness

How do we measure perception of adoption? Voluntariness, Relative Advantage, Compatibility, Image, Ease of

use, Result Demonstrability, Visibility, Trialability

www.isworld.org is an excellent source for Information system survey instruments!

http://www.isworld.org/surveyinstruments/tutor.htm

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Type of data we collect through questionnaire

Attribute Respondents’ generally background or some

special characteristics Opinion

Eg. Do you think the workload of this course is too high?

Behavior What do respondents do? Eg. How often do you visit your dentist?

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Ensuring that essential data are collected What question (s) you want to answer from the questionnaire?

What might influence a consumer to purchase online? What constructs you might need to answer those questions

Online payment, Internet product choice, Internet customer relation, …

What variables you need to collect data for those constructs Customer relation Want to know consumer’s opinion on:

It is important to provide an easy return process It is important to provide quality after-sale service.

How you might measure those variables Rating or scaling

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Using the data requirements tableResearch Objective: find student bloggers’ experience of using blog

Constructs Variables required Detail in which data measured

Check included in questionnaire

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Designing the questionnaire

Designing individual questions (items) Adopt questions used in other questionnaires

See survey instruments in ISworld Lots of instruments (questions) reported in academic

paper Adapt questions used in other questionnaires Develop your own

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Individual question style Open-ended question

Respondents answer in their own words Closed-ended question

Respondents choose a response from those provided Examples

Why do you blog? (OPEN) Which one of the reason make you start your first blog

() share daily activities as well as pictures with family member

() share information on a particular hobby () it makes me look cool () other reasons

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Open vs. Closed

Open-ended question Great freedom for respondent to answer Responses may be ambiguous Coding is time-consuming and costly which usually results

in some degree of error Entail more work from respondents

Closed-ended question Require less effort and less facility with words Difficult to develop good closed questions Recommendation for designing closed-end question: use

open questions in preliminary interviews or pretests

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Closed question style

List The respondent is given a list of choices, any of which may

be selected Category

Only one response can be selected Rank

Respondent is asked to place something in order Rating or Scale (Likert style)

A rating device is used to record response Quantity

Response is a number giving the amount

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List questions

Eg. Please choose all communication tools you ever

used in campus. Internal Message Board WebCT E-mail Other ___________

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Category question

Each respondent’s answer can only fit one category

Eg. How often do you visit this shopping center

Once a week Twice a week or more Less than once a week

What’s wrong with this responses?

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Ranking question

Should not ask respondent to rank more than four levels OK to offer more responses than being ranked

In telephone questionnaire, should not ask respondent to rank more than four responses

Rank-order the three most important things you want in the job you make your life’s work? (1 indicates the most important one 4 the least important one)

______ Making a lot of money

______ Being creative

______ Being free from supervision

______ Having opportunities for advancement

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Rating or Scale question Likert-style question

Ask respondents how strongly they disagree or agree with a statement or a series of statements

Odd number or even number scales Odd number offers a neutral choice Even number force respondents to make choice

For the following statement please circle the number that matches your view most closely

I feel that employee’s views have influenced the decisions taken by management.

1 2 3 4 5

Strongly Disagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

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Quantity question

Eg. When did you start writing blog? ________