Schedule and QuestionnaireDifference between Schedule and QuestionnaireTechniques involved in designing a questionnaire

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
questionnaire
o 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 labour
intensive
PHONE
High speed
Rapport with
respondent
High respondent
rate
ELECTRONIC
low cost, high
speed, not labour
intensive 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

Schedule and QuestionnaireDifference between Schedule and QuestionnaireTechniques involved in designing a questionnaire

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