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Image of a researcher AEE 578--Scientific Inquiry in Agricultural and Extension Education
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Survey Research
Introduction:

Image of a magnifying glass 		salt shakerWhat one ingredient in a kitchen is used the most in cooking? If I were to speculate my guess would be salt.  Just about every recipe calls for salt. So if I ran a cooking school we would spend a good bit of time discussing salt, the various types of salt and some guidelines for using salt.

survey cartoonIn planning this course it was decided to spend an entire lesson on survey research. In the field of agricultural and extension education survey research is a lot like salt -- we use surveys a lot in our research. My guess would be that at least 75% of the research in the field is survey research. Eventhough some of the previous lessons have touched on various aspects of survey research, in this lesson we are going to look at survey research from A to Z.
Learning Objectives:

Icon of a signpost 		image of a ball Explain what a survey is.
image of a ball Name three types of surveys conducted by educational researchers.
image of a ball Explain the purpose of surveys.
image of a ball Differentiate between a cross-sectional and a longitudinal survey.
image of a ball Describe briefly how mail surveys, telephone surveys, and face-to-face interviews differ and state two advantagages and disadvantages of each type.
image of a ball Explain the difference between a closed-ended and open-ended question.
image of a ball Describe three ways to improve the response rate in survey research.
image of a ball Describe possible threats to internal validity in survey research.
Instructional
Activities:

Icon of a computer 		image of a ball Read Chapter 17 "Survey Research" in How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education (Fraenkel & Wallen).

image of a ball Read about Survey Research in the Research Methods Knowledge Base (we used this as the course text one year). Also read the sub-sections under survey research. This is fairly short and reinforces and supplements the text.

image of a ball Dr. Donald Dillman is the author of a book " Mail and Telephone Surveys: The Total Design Method". Many researchers consider this to be the Bible for conducting survey research and is required reading in many agricultural and extension education graduate programs. The book promises a 80% response rate on survey research if you follow the steps. Read this article about two researchers in Canada who put Dillman's process to the test.

image of a ball  View this PowerPoint presentation that explains Dillman's Total Design Method. Pay special attention to the 5 steps in the process.

image of a ball  When you conduct personal interviews, you need a standard set of questions to ask. To see an example of an interview protocol view this document used to interview staff and faculty who have left the University of Wisconsin. It is only 2 pages long.

image of a ball  Here is an example of a highly structured interview protocol. Just scan over it to get an idea of how to structure such a document.

image of a ball The PowerPoint Presentation on Survey Research used in class is available for downloading.

Review:

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 Image of a blue ball The publisher of the textbook has some excellent information to support the text; you should check it out:
 Image of a blue ball Visit the text site and complete the multiple choice questions for Chapter 17.

Additional Resources:
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 		Image of a blue ball IF you want to see more (NOT required):
Assignments:               
Icon of note pad 		Image of a blue ballThere is no weekly assignments this week (but be and sure to read the next paragraph). You should be hard at work on your survey instrument which is due next week. That assignment relates to this class and the class on instrumentation.

Some people have asked if there is something that could do to improve a grade they made on a weekly assignment. So I have created a worksheet on survey research. You can complete the worksheet and use the grade you receive to replace the lowest grade you have made on a weekly assignment. If you don't have a low grade to replace and complete the survey research worksheet, I will add that grade into your weekly worksheet totals and then divide by the total number of weekly worksheets minus one (N-1) to get your average worksheet grade. So this could pull up the weekly average by a point or two. Remember that the weekly worksheet average grade counts for 40% of your final grade. On the worksheet you will be asked to check which option you want. And remember you don't have to do this worksheet if you don't want to. However, it is pretty straight forward. You are asked to answer a series of questions that are based on information contained in a journal article.

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