4. Coordinating Modules & Layout

1. 4. Coordinating Modules & Layout

2. 4. Coordinating Modules & Layout • A good introduction • Choosing the order of modules • Streamlining your instrument • Question layout and formatting

3. 4. Coordinating Modules & Layout • A good introduction • Decide whether you need to state the purpose of the study to the respondent • think about the trade-off – ethical issues, influence • medical (drug) trials require full disclosure • Confidentiality • important to explain that there is no link between participating in the survey and access to services • Other information to include • does your IRB require a signed consent form? Ex. surveys involving invasive health tests (age groups – consent differs) • provide information on how long the interview will take. if you will compensate them for their time – state this at the start • explain they are free to not answer a question or stop at any point • provide contact person information in case they have questions later

4. 4. Coordinating Modules & Layout B. Choosing the Order of Modules • Ordering the sections • It is important for the surveyors to try and build a relationship in the short time. Start them off with easier questions (household characteristics, roster), move on to more personal ones (income, savings, reproductive behavior etc.) • Could introduce informative games (risk-seeking behavior; time discounting) in between • Would responses differ? Especially for knowledge and behavior • What if you ask about willingness to pay for health insurance after asking questions on health events and expenditures? • What if you ask a question about political preferences after asking about socio-economic status? • Reference period for sections/questions • Common: 7 days/30 days/6 months/1 year • Normal year (high variance – agricultural output?)

5. 4. Coordinating Modules & Layout B. Choosing the Order of Modules Metadata (date, time, location, whether interview completed) should come at the very front) Next: statement getting informed consent of the household (more on this later). In some studies, signature may be required.

6. 4. Coordinating Modules & Layout B. Choosing the Order of Modules Any modules on sensitive topics should be placed at end • Interviewer can develop rapport, increasing likelihood of honest response • If respondent breaks off interview, only data from that last modules lost • Any interested onlookers have wandered off… • Start with roster to identify respondents for later sections • Education, health, are less sensitive. • Savings, credit, transfers, fertility are among the most sensitive.

7. 4. Coordinating Modules & Layout C. Streamlining your Instrument • A survey should be as streamlined as possible to meet the research objectives • A shorter survey will decrease refusal, decrease respondent and interviewer fatigue, and save money • Once modules are arranged begin editing out questions that do not meet research objectives • Introduce explicit skip codes between modules, and between questions, that ensure inapplicable questions are not asked

8. 4. Coordinating Modules & Layout C. Streamlining your Instrument • A survey should be as streamlined as possible to meet the research objectives (but no shorter). • A shorter survey will decrease refusal, decrease respondent and interviewer fatigue, and save money • General rule: urban households will have higher refusal rates, be more difficult to interview, and sit for less time than rural households.

9. 4. Coordinating Modules & Layout D. Questionnaire Layout and Formatting • Structured, organized questionnaire formatting can improve the speed of your instrument and quality of data collection • Ex: Grid Design to collect data on your units of observation • See “5. Formatting Your Survey” for more details • CMF also has many examples to guide you in layout design (See Survey Samples online)