Workshop: Survey technique (course content)

This is the space in the semester where you get to design and conduct your own survey. Because your projects are so varied, the best I can do is give you a loose guide.

As a series of steps, your research should look more or less like the following:

1 Decide what population of people you are interested in surveying. Choose people whose answers to your questions can best inform your particular research project.

2 Get permission to survey — from individuals or from hosts of online communities if you plan to share a link to your survey. And if you get permission set up interview times (or agree to interview via email).

3 Write your questions. And remember that “survey fatigue” is a real thing, so try not to overdo this. If you would like my advice and/or if you want me to review your survey questions before you use them, please send them to me in a message (here or by email) titled “survey questions” and allow me 24 hours to get back to you.

4 Distribute your survey. The most obvious options are to do this live, via email, or by posting a survey link to an online community.

5 Review your findings. Look for patterns and/or anomalies. If you used open-ended questions, look for anecdotes or quotes you can use in your final paper. Etc.

Very important, often forgotten:

It is okay to try out a method and fail to find usable data via that method. If you aren’t finding anything useful, try changing the questions you are asking. Or change who you are asking. If you still cannot find anything useful, in your post to the Canvas discussion this week: describe what happened. I will reach out to you with additional ideas as they occur to me.

Good luck,

DP
May 2019