Development of research instruments:

1. Development of research instruments: Questionnaires, Checklists and Interview schedules

2. Questionnaires Definition: A questionnaire is a set of common questions laid out in a standard and logical form to record individual respondent’s attitude and behaviour. Key principles of effective questionnaire design: Questionnaire design is one of the hardest and yet one of the most important parts of the scientific research process. Given the same objectives, two researchers would probably never design the same questionnaire.

3. Steps involved Questionnaire design Step 1: Decide what information is required • Use the research proposal as a reference point to make a list of all achievable objectives. Step 2: Make a rough listing of the questions • The aim at this stage is to be as comprehensive as possible in the listing and not to worry about the phrasing of questions.

4. Steps involved Questionnaire design Step 3: Refine the question phrasing. • Develop questions close to the point where they make sense. Step 4: Develop the response format • Every question needs a response, this could be pre-coded list of answers or it could be an open–ended to collect verbal comments.

5. Steps involved Questionnaire design Step 5: Put the questions into an appropriate sequence. • The ordering of the questions is important as it brings logic and flow to the interview. • The respondent is eased into the task with relatively straightforward questions, and the more difficult or sensitive ones are left until or near the end.

6. Steps involved Questionnaire design Step 6: Finalize the layout of the questionnaire • The questionnaires now have to be fully formatted with clear instructions to the interviewer. Step 7: Pretest and Revise • The final step is to test the questionnaire. The aim is to make sure that it works. It should be tested to one or two colleagues for sense, flow and clarity of instructions.

7. The importance of questionnaires • Questionnaires are an important part in the data collection methodology. • They are the medium on to which responses are recorded to facilitate the data analysis. • The primary purpose of a questionnaire is to help extract data from respondents.

8. Things to be taken into consideration Client: Wants answers to their particular problem. Researcher : needs to uncover information and balance the needs of three groups of people. He /she want to ensure that the interviewer can manage the questionnaire easily, that the questions are interesting for the respondents, and that the questionnaire matches the client’s needs.

9. Things to be taken into consideration • Interviewer: wants a questionnaire that is easy to follow and which can be completed in the time specified by the researcher. • Respondent: Generally want to enjoy the interview experience, they need a fairly well phrased questions which could be answered truthfully. • Data processor: is for a questionnaire that will be easy to process, efficient and with minimum error.

10. Things to be taken into consideration • The best questionnaires are constantly edited and refined until finally they have clear questions and instructions, laid out in logical order. Things to watch out for, when formulating individual questions. • Ensure that questions are without bias. Questions should not lead the respondent directly into the answer.

11. Points to remember • Make the question short and simple. • Make the questions very specific • Avoid use of jargon words, not commonly used and shorthand. • Avoid ambiguous words. Words such as ‘usually’ or ‘frequently’ have no specific meaning and need qualifying. • Avoid questions with a negative in them. Questions are more difficult to understand if they are asked in a negative sense. • Avoid hypothetical questions.

12. Points to remember • Do not use words that could be miss heard, such as fifty and fifteen, over the telephone may cause trouble to differentiate. • Ensure that fixed responses do not overlap. • Allow for ‘others’ in fixed response questions. Pre-coded answers should always allow for a response other than listed.

13. Types of questionnaires Structured questionnaires • Consists of closed or prompted questions with predetermined answers. The researcher has to anticipate all possible answers with pre-coded responses. • They are used in large interview programs(anything over 30 interviews and more likely over 200 interviews in number. • May be carried over telephone, face-to-face or self completion depending on the respondent type, content of questionnaire and the budget.

14. Types of questionnaire Unstructured questionnaires • Are made up of questions that elicit free response. The are guided conversations rather than structured interviews and would often be referred to a “Topic guide”. • This type of questionnaire is used in qualitative research for depth interviewing(face-to face, depth telephone interviews

15. Types of questionnaire Semi-structured questionnaires. • Semi-structured questionnaires, comprise a mixture of closed and open questions. • The semi-structured questionnaires enables a mix of quantitative and qualitative information to be gathered. They can be administered over the telephone or face-to- face.

16. Different question types Questions are designed to collect three different types of information from populations: • Information about behaviour, about attitudes, and information used for classification purposes. Behavioral questions address: • Have you ever……? • Do you ever……….? • In the future will you……? • When did you last…….?

17. Different question types Attitudinal questions: Researchers explore attitudes using questions which especially begin with the word: • Why do you……….? • What do you think of…..? • How do you rate……..? Scales are commonly used to measure attitudes. There are five types of rating scales which researchers mostly use.

18. Scaling 1.Verbal scales • They normally range across four or five possibilities, such as: Very likely Quite likely Neither likely or not likely Not very likely Not likely at all.

19. Rating 2. Numerical rating scales: In this type of rating the respondent is asked to give a numerical ‘score’ rather than a semantic response. The scores are often out of a number with 5,7 and 10 being popular choices(The large # is best and lower # is worst, e.g. 1.)

20. Positioning 3. Use of positioning statements: The respondent is asked to agree or disagree with a number of statements. Positioning statements are a variation of the verbal rating scale and are often known as agree/disagree scales or Likert scales after the person who popularized them. The statement is read and the respondent is presented with five choices such as:

21. Scaling, rating, positioning • Agree strongly • Agree slightly • Neither agree nor disagree • Disagree slightly • Disagree strongly. 4.Classification questions. A number of standard classification questions crop up constantly in market research surveys. These are:

22. Gender: male/female • Marital status. This is usually asked by simply saying .”Are you….” • Single • Married • Widowed • Divorced • Separated

23. Classification of questions • Classification questions are some of the most important questions in the questionnaire as they are used to cross-analyze the data and pick up different patterns of response across different groups of people. Then, • A good questionnaire will be successful in collecting accurate facts and opinions and will be an enjoyable event for the respondent.

24. CHECKLISTS • Checklists can be used to systematically observe human behavior or the condition of specific equipment. e.g. fridge, expiring dates of medicines, or completeness of records. • Observations can be relatively open or can be predetermined comparisons of reality against fixed standards. • Sometimes the aim is systematic content analysis. (e.g. newspaper articles, health information system) • The objectives of the study determine the content of the checklist.

25. Checklist……. • Sometimes the aim is systematic content analysis. (e.g. newspaper article, health information system) • A checklist includes all the items or points that must be considered during an observation in the field, or when extracting data from existing records.

26. Interview schedule • The interview schedule is usually comprised of three main parts: • The Opening This should always make the respondent/interviewee feel welcomed and relaxed, establish a rapport(shake hands) with the respondent. Then introduce the purpose, e.g. I would like to ask you some questions about your background, your education, some experiences

27. Interview schedule…… • You have had, and some of your hobbies and interests in order to learn more about you and share this information with the respective authority. • The opening should further clearly indicate the objectives of the interview and make it clear what topic areas will be addressed. • The interviewer should also provide some information to answer the questions.

28. Interview schedule….. • The opening should indicate the expected length of time interview, e.g., • I hope to use this information to help the health organization become more comfortable speaking to you and by knowing you better. • The interview should take about 10 minutes. I hope you are ready to respond to some questions at this time.

29. Interview schedule…. • The body of the interview schedule should always: • List the topics to be covered and potential questions. • The number of questions and the exact wording of the questions depends on the type of the scheduled used. • The interview may be non-schedule with only the topics and subtopics listed.

30. Interview schedule…. • A non-schedule interview generally leaves out potential probing questions to allow the interviewer to adapt to the interaction that unfolds. • A non-scheduled interview however, needs highly skilled interviewer, provides no means of recording answers and presents problems in controlling the time-factor.

31. Interview schedule….. • The closing interview schedule. • Should maintain the tone set through the interview and should be brief but not abrupt. • Interviewers should summarize the main issues discussed during the interview, discuss the next course to be taken, and thank the respondent for his/her time.

32. Assignment • Assemble in your respective working groups, and revise the key principles of effective questionnaire design. • Construct at least10 close-ended questions, and10 open-ended questions based on a chosen group topic for the research. • Prepare your group presentation.

33. THE END THANK YOU!