Sanjay Kumar

RESEARCH SCHOLAR

Schedule The term “schedule” will be used. It has a clear

meaning: the instrument used to gather survey

information through personal interview.

“Questionnaire” has been used to label personal

interview instruments and attitudinal or personality

instruments. The latter are called “scales” in this book.

Schedule information includes factual information,

opinions and attitudes, and reasons for behavior,

opinions, and attitudes.

an inexpensive way to gather data from a potentially

large number of respondents

Comparatively an expensive way to gather data,

actually filled by the enumerators / researchers

responsible

How do schedules work

A rather expensive method as enumerators do

not come cheap or research scholar expenses

often run high

Schedules are filled by the enumerator /

researcher who can also interpret the question if

necessary

Needless to say, the identity of the respondents

is known

Information collection is both assured and

punctual

Questionnaires and schedules are flexible in what

they can measure although they each have

shortcomings in certain genres of collection

Definition

A questionnaire is a means of eliciting the

feelings, beliefs, experiences, perceptions, or

attitudes of some sample of individuals.

As a data collecting instrument, it could be

structured or unstructured.

An inexpensive way to gather data from a

potentially large number of respondents

Difference Between Questionnaire and Schedule

S.No Questionnaire Schedule

1. Questionnaire is generally sent through mail

to informants to be answered as specified in a

covering letter, but otherwise without further

assistance from the sender.

A schedule is generally filled by the research

worker or enumerator, who can interpret the

questions when necessary.

2. Data collection is cheap and economical as

the money is spent in preparation of

questionnaire and in mailing the same to

respondents.

Data collection is more expensive as money

is spent on enumerators and in imparting

trainings to them. Money is also spent in

preparing schedules.

3. Non response is usually high as many people

do not respond and many return the

questionnaire without answering all

questions. Bias due to non response often

remains indeterminate.

Non response is very low because this is

filled by enumerators who are able to get

answers to all questions. But even in this

their remains the danger of interviewer bias

and cheating.

Cont……..

4. It is not clear that who replies. Identity of respondent is not

known.

5. The questionnaire method is likely

to be very slow since many

respondents do not return the

questionnaire.

Information is collected well in

time as they are filled by

enumerators.

6. No personal contact is possible in

case of questionnaire as the

questionnaires are sent to

respondents by post who also in

turn returns the same by post.

Direct personal contact is

established

Cont…

7. This method can be used only when

respondents are literate and

cooperative.

The information can be gathered even

when the respondents happen to be

illiterate.

8. Wider and more representative

distribution of sample is possible.

There remains the difficulty in sending

enumerators over a relatively wider area.

9. Risk of collecting incomplete and

wrong information is relatively more

under the questionnaire method, when

people are unable to understand

questions properly.

The information collected is generally

complete and accurate as enumerators can

remove difficulties if any faced by

respondents in correctly understanding the

questions. As a result the information

collected through schedule is relatively

more accurate than that obtained through

questionnaires.

Cont….

10. The success of questionnaire methods lies

more on the quality of the questionnaire

itself.

It depends upon the

honesty and

competence of

enumerators

11. The physical appearance of questionnaire

must be quite attractive.

This may not be the

case as schedules are to

be filled in by

enumerators and not by

respondents.

12. This is not possible when collecting data

through questionnaire.

Along with schedule

observation method can

also be used.

Factors affecting

questionnaires

Length of the questionnaire.

Reputation of the sponsoring agency.

Complexity of the questions asked.

Relative importance of the study as determined

by the potential respondent.

Extent to which the respondent believes that his

responses are important.

Quality and design of the questionnaire.

Time of year the questionnaires are sent out.

Types of questionnaires

Open or unrestricted form - calls for free response

from the respondent

There is predetermined set of response

They provide true, insightful and unexpected

suggestions

Allows for greater depth of response; is difficult to

interpret, tabulate, and summarize.

An ideal questionnaire contains open ended

questions toward end of all questions

Closed or restricted form of

questionnaire

Offers respondents a number of alternative replies,

from which the subjects must choose the one that

most likely matches the appropriate answer.

Characteristic of questionnaire

Facilitates easy statistical calculation

Provides easy preliminary analysis

Can be asked to different groups at different

intervals

Facilitates efficient tracking of opinion.

Types of closed form of

questionnaire Dichotomous questions: respondent to make a

choice between two responses such as yes/ no or male/ female

Multiple choice question: respondents to make a choice between more than two response alternatives

Cafeteria questions :respondents to select a response that most closely corresponds to their view.

Rank order questions – Respondents to rank their responses from most favorable to least favorable

Contingency questions: A question that is asked further only if the respondent gives a particular response to previous question.

Rating questions: Respondent is asked to rate a

particular issue on a scale that ranges from poor to

good

Likert questions: helps know how strongly the

respondent agrees with a particular statement.

Bipolar questions: These questions have two

extreme answers his/ her response between two

opposite ends of the scale.

Matrix questions: it includes multiple questions and

identical categories are assigned .questions are

placed along the top and list of questions down the

side

Characteristics of a good

questionnaire

Deals with a significant topic

Seeks only that information which cannot be obtained

from other sources such as census data

As short as possible, only long enough to get the

essential data.

Attractive in appearance, neatly arranged, and clearly

duplicated or printed.

Directions are clear and complete. Questions are

objective, with no leading suggestions to the desired

response

Questions are presented in good psychological order,

proceeding from general to more specific responses.

To easy tabulate and interpret.

Guidelines for preparing

questionnaireo Prepared according with study objective

o Concise, precise and brief

o Criticism from faculty and class members

o Trailing the questionnaire with friends

o Respondents selected carefully

o As par as possible open ended questions should be avoided

o Controversial and ambiguous questions should be avoided

o Getting permission in organization before administering questionnaire

o Try to get the aid of sponsorship

o Mailed questionnaire should have introduction, purpose and directions to fill the questions

o Abrupt ending of the questions and questionnaire should be avoided.

Sequence of questions

Arranged in logical sequence

Answer to questions not influenced by previous

questions

Questions should flow from general to more

specific

Questions should flow least to more sensitive

Question construction

The sample -- who are you going to ask

The method--- how are you going to ask them

The questionnaire– what are you going to ask

them

The result – what will you do with information

The cost – how much do you want to pay for

answer

The time scale– By them do you need information

Construction of questionnaire

Problem definition

Search for relevant secondary data for problem

Exploratory interviews with subject expertise

and review personal experience with

colleques

Writing of specific research objectives

Listing of hypothesis to be tested

Development of questions for

questionnaire

Method of administration of

questionnaire

POSTAL

Low cost

Not in labourintensive

PHONE

High speed

Rapport with respondent

High respondent rate

ELECTRONIC

low cost, high speed, not labourintensive PERSONALLY

ADMINISTERED

detailed questions ,

high response rate

• Cost effective

• Easy to analyse

• Less time and energy need to administer

• Reduce bias as interviewer is not present

• Used for large sample size

• Less instructive\ than face to face interview

Advantages of

questionnaire

• Not suitable for all

• Low response rate

• Mailed questions may filled by some one

• Provides superficial information

• Chances of misinterpretation

• People can lie and answer the questions vaguely.

Disadvantages of

questionnaire

Validity of Research tool

Validity of an instrument refers to the degree to

which an instrument measures what it is

supposed to be measuring

Types of validity

1.Face validity: overlook of instrument regarding

its appropriateness to measure a particular

attribute or phenomenon

2.Content validity: Scope of coverage of the

content are to be measured

3.Criterion validity: Relationship between

measurements of the instruments with some

other external criteria

Predictive validity: degree of fore casting judgment

Concurrent validity: it is the degree of the

measures at present.

4.construct validity: Gives more importance to

testing relationship predicted on theoretical

measurement.

• Degree of consistency and accuracy with which an instrument measures the attribute for which it is designed to measure

Reliability of the tool

Test –Retest method Administration of a research instrument to a sample of subjects

on two different occasions

Scores of the tool administered at two different occasions is compared and calculated by using following formula of correlation coefficient

The correlation coefficient reveals the magnitude and directions of relationships between scores generated by research instrument at two separate occasions.

Interpretation of results– the results of the correlation coefficient ranges between -1.00 through 0.0 and +1.00, and the results are interrelated as follows

+1,00 score---- perfect reliability

0.00 score ---- no reliability

Above 7 indicates --- acceptable reliability

Split of method

Divide items of a research instrument in two equal

parts through grouping either in odd number

question and even number question /first half and

second half item groups

Administer two subparts of the tool

simultaneously, score them independently and

compute the correlation co-effcient on the two

separate scores

References

Barbara H. Forsy et.al; Methods for Translating

Survey Questionnaires Paper presented to

American Association for Public Opinion

research, Montreal, Canada, May, 2006.

Kothari C.K; Research Methodology‐ Methods

and Techniques , New Age International, New

Delhi;2004