Level: Foundation (F)

Surveys are a key component of quantitative research whether this is for academia, research institutes, government, or other organisations. Learn the art and science of creating an effective survey from initial planning to report writing.
 
This course looks at each of the main steps in having a successful quantitative survey. Drawing on both the instructor’s 40 years of survey research experience and research findings from survey experiments, this course is full of practical and insightful advice.

Course Outline

The course covers:

• An overview of survey design (including steps in a survey (with DISCUSSION), project management, timetabling and budgeting, and quality/best practice)
• Key principles of questionnaire design (including getting started with a new questionnaire, trade-offs between short and simple versus clear, four cognitive stages a respondent goes through in answering a survey question, solutions to ambiguous terms, understanding recall error, understanding question sensitivity, differences between factual and subjective questions, pro and cons of open versus closed questions and a thorough list of question wording guidelines) (with WORKSHOPS both in critiquing and in improving survey questions)
• Highlights from appendix on why demographic questions are always the most difficult to write (including basic facts for surveys of businesses)
• Problematic question formats to beware of or avoid - avoid agree/disagree questions (appendix on other problematic question formats)
• Mode (method) of data collection (a little history of face-to-face, telephone, postal and web survey differences)
• A detailed exploration of the questionnaire as a whole (mainly focusing on web surveys)
• Appendix on the importance of visual layout for web surveys and issues for web surveys on mobile phones
• Highlights from appendix on testing your survey questions (this looks at 10 of 21 ways to test your survey questions)
• A focus on the testing method, “cognitive interviewing” (with WORKSHOP)
• What to look for in a good sample design (including types of probability and nonprobability samples, where are your respondents coming from, i.e. creating a sampling frame for surveys of households/individuals, appendix on creating a sampling frame for surveys of businesses)
• Appendix on probability sampling (including types of probability samples, confidence intervals, determining sample size for a desired confidence interval width)
• Understanding response rates and nonresponse bias and ways to minimise nonresponse/nonresponse bias during fieldwork
• Coding open-ended questions (with WORKSHOP) and other data processing steps
• Appendix on an introduction to weighting probability samples and what has been tried to weight nonprobability samples
• Appendix on imputation of item missing data (note imputation can be used for any type of sample or census)
• Duties and responsibilities of survey researchers, survey ethics and GDPR (with WORKSHOP)
• Writing survey reports

The course does not cover:

• Analysis of survey data as this is covered by other RSS courses 

Learning Outcomes

Participants will:

• Have a better awareness of the key aspects involved in the creation and implementation of a quantitative survey

• Be able to critique aspects of existing surveys

• Have knowledge to conduct or improve the quality of their own surveys

 

Knowledge Assumed

Some familiarity with surveys is helpful.

Dr. Pamela Campanelli

Dr. Campanelli is a survey methods specialist, chartered statistician, fellow of the academy of social sciences and an international trainer, researcher and consultant who runs her own business, ‘The Survey Coach’. Her background is in social statistics, survey methodology, and psychology. Prior to becoming an independent consultant, she worked at the University of Michigan, US Census Bureau, ISER at the University of Essex, and was a Research Director at NatCen Social Research. She has taught courses around the world for government departments, universities, and other organisations. She believes in delivering courses that are lively and engaging.

Fees		Registration before  14 June 2026	Registration on/after 14 June 2026
Non Member  RSS Fellow  RSS CStat/Gradstat/Data Analyst  also MIS & FIS		£795.00 +VAT  £675.00 +VAT £635.00 +VAT	£835.00 +VAT £710.00 +VAT £665.00 +VAT
Group discounts are also available*: 3-5 people 6-8 people 9+ people *Discount only applies to non-member price		10% discount 15% discount 20% discount