In this assignment we will each design a survey to gather information about MGA classes. This will allow us to practice creating good survey questions and determining effective response systems. 

Instructions:

There are a lot of details in the following instructions and each of those details is important for getting a good grade on this assignment. Please read the following carefully and attentively. 

1. Create a survey with 5 *structured* questions to be answered.
   • You can create your own format or you can use an existing service, such as Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, etc. Just make sure that your survey can be shared with the instructor and your classmates. If you create a document file then submit it via this Assignments folder. If you’re using a web service, or you have a link to your survey, provide the link via email to the instructor ([email protected]) or put the link on a document and submit via the Assignments folder.
   • The survey audience is students at MGA. All student levels are appropriate.
   • Develop the questions that you think should be on the end of course evaluation that all students can take at the end of each semester at MGA. So, what questions would you like to answer on those surveys? What questions do you think it’s important that administrators hear feedback from students about? 
   • For reference, here are the currently used course evaluation questions. Our goal is to do better than those.
2. Create a response system to allow responses to your 5 survey questions.
   • Use a fixed response format only – no short answer, fill in the blank, etc. Do not use True/False. Instead, use a scale of at least 4 options to capture responses. You can decide the appropriate number of response options based on your goals for your instrument. There should be no reason to go above 7 response options in your scale.
     • When considering response options, be sure to carefully consider whether offering a neutral response option will add additional information value if your respondent chooses it. The best way to do this is to ask yourself, “What will it tell me about the respondent if they choose this answer?” If the answer to that question is “little to nothing,” then you don’t need that answer option.
   • Make sure the response options are appropriate for each question, both in their content and in their grammar and syntax. 
   • Label each response option. Every option a respondent could choose should have a label/name.
   • Face validity is very important for surveys, and it matters for your grade, too. Grammar, spelling, and other editing conventions matter here because people will take your survey less seriously if it contains such errors.
   • Make sure your questions are relevant to MGA courses and student experiences of those courses. We aren’t surveying students about the cafeteria, campus resources, or college in general. We are asking questions about courses.
   • Be sure your questions and response options can be used in any course at MGA. This is not only for psychology classes.
   • TIP: You may find it easier to use the same set of response options for all 5 of your questions.

Common Mistakes to Avoid:

• Double-barreled questions – ask only one question per item – if you use the word “and” or the word “or” then you may be creating a double-barreled question.
• Irrelevant questions – our population is all MGA students and we’re building a tool to measure all MGA courses, so keep your questions on topic.
• Irrelevant response options – be sure that your response options are aligned with the questions you’re asking so that each response option is logically appropriate for its question.
• Grammar – grammar is critically important for making sure you’re saying only what you intend to say with your questions and answers. Poor grammar and spelling errors can result in more cognitive load on respondents, as well as a reduction in face validity.

Grading:

• Grading on this assignment is based on 3 things:
  • Your questions (0 to 5 points)
  • Your response options (0 to 5 points)
  • Your face validity (0 to 5 points)
• There are 5 questions to be evaluated in grading, as well as 5 sets of response options. So, there are 10 objects for grading directly, as well as 5 more points to be awarded for face validity. For example, if you have 4/5 good questions and 3/5 good response options then you’d get 7/10 for those sections, plus whatever points are awarded for face validity.
• Here’s a link to the grading rubric for this assignment.