Survey Best Practices and general guidelines

• Establish specific goals for the survey.

  • Why do you want to collect the data? 

  • How will the results be used?

• Locate a professional resources such as “Internet, Phone, Mail, and Mixed-Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method 4th Edition. By Don A. Dillman, Jolene D. Smyth, and Leah Melani Christian”.

• Define your audience.

  • Will you be surveying a sample of the population e.g., all students enrolled at VU, or a specific population e.g. Advisory Committee members?

  • Many surveys conducted at VU are conducted to collect information from a specific population, e.g. students enrolled in a specific class.

• Verify data is not already available elsewhere.

• The design of the survey should be simple and visually appealing.

  • Make sure the survey is easy to navigate on various platforms, i.e., PC, laptop, or smartphone.

  • Don’t make the survey too long unless the questions and/or format used are required for administrative, accreditation or assessment purposes.

  • Questions should be clear and concise. Avoid using negative words, e.g. won’t, don’t, can’t.

  • Language should be objective, neutral, and unbiased.

• Provide clear instructions.

  • Include an introductory narrative explaining the purpose of the survey.

  • Inform the respondent how long the survey will take to complete.

  • If personal data is being requested, disclose how the information will be used, i.e. confidentiality statement.

  • Provide an opt out option allowing the respondent the opportunity to not complete the survey.

• Design your survey so that more challenging questions or open-ended questions are asked toward the end of the survey. See Suggestions for Writing Your Own Questions.

  • Ask an easy question first. This helps to encourage the respondent to complete the survey.

  • Group similar questions together. Funnel questions from more general to more specific.

  • Address a single issue per item. Avoid introducing more than one topic in a question, e.g. do not use “and/or” in the question.

• Use routing (also referred to as branching or skip patterns) in the survey so respondents only see questions that pertain to them specifically.

• Test and preview the survey for flow and accuracy before sending it to the identified recipients. This is usually done in conjunction with the Survey Administrator.

• Once the survey is active and ready to receive responses, plan to keep it open for about two weeks. It is recommended to send at least two reminders to survey recipients asking them to complete the survey. The Survey Administrator will also communicate responses received during this time.