Basic reseacrh skill

1. Basic
Research
Skills
Skill Area 2.0
Locate, Retrieve and
Collect Information or Data
School of Agro-Technology and Applied Sciences Semester 1 (2021)
Part 3 of 3

2. Table of Content
• Recognise types of data
Performance Objective 2.1
• Carry out basic literature research
Performance Objective 2.2
• Recognise procedures of conducting a survey
Performance Objective 2.3

3. What will you learn in PO 2.2?
1. Define Survey
2. Identify different types of survey
2.1 Cross-sectional survey
2.2 Longitudinal survey
3. Recognise the different modes of survey administration and their advantages and
disadvantages
3.1 Observation survey
3.2 Personal interview
3.3 Telephone interview
3.4 Mail survey
3.5 Internet survey

4. What will you learn in PO 2.2?
4. Recognise the structure of common survey questionnaire
5. Recognise types of question to be used in survey questionnaire
5.1 Open-ended question
5.2 Closed-ended question

5. What is data?
It is the process of collecting
and analyzing the data, where
the questionnaire is the set of
questions used to gather the
information.
What is a Survey?

6. Why do we do survey?
Reasons for doing a survey:
1. Uniqueness – To get information not available from other
sources.
2. Measurement is standardized – Information collected
from all the respondent (or units observed) is the same, and
there are standard sampling procedure.

7. Types of
Survey
2 types of
survey
Cross-Sectional
Surveys
Used to gather data on a
population at a single point
in time
E.g. typical survey to find out
the health condition of people
who eat organic vs non-
organic
Longitudinal
Surveys
Used to gather data over a
long period of time
E.g. a survey to find out how
the health of an individual
improve after eating
organically for 3 years

8. Modes of Survey Administration
• Researcher conduct observation on a targeted group of people, and fill in
the survey based on his observation of the people behavior or traits.
Observation Survey
• Researcher conducts a face-to-face interview with the respondent.
Personal Interview

9. Modes of Survey Administration
• Researcher ask questions over the telephone.
Telephone Interview
• Questionnaire is sent to each individual, with a request that it should be
completed and returned by a given date.
Mail Survey
• Survey created using email or web-based services to collect data from the
target population.
Internet Survey

10. Group Activity
In groups of 3 students, select one of the survey mode below, and
discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the survey mode.
Observation survey
Personal interview
Telephone interview
Mail survey
Internet survey

11. Group Activity
• Type your answers in MS Teams. Click Reply on the Group
Activity post.
• State your name and other member names
• State the advantages and disadvantages of the given survey
mode.

12. Observation Survey
Advantages
• Researcher involved in
data-collection
Disadvantages
• Ethical issue
• Chance of bias
• A lot of field staff
required

13. Personal Interview
Advantages
• Highest cooperation and lowest
refusal
• High response quality
• More complex interview possible
• Presence of interviewer
advantageous
• Data collection can be done in
different ways
Disadvantages
• Expensive
• Interviewer concerns
• Potential bias

14. Telephone Interview
Advantages
• Less expensive
• Data collection period is
shorter
• Better response rate than mail
Disadvantages
• Chance of bias against
respondents without telephone
• Chance of refusal or no
response
• Prevent visual observation of
respondents

15. Mail Survey
Advantages
• Low cost
• On-the-field staff not required
as only small number of
people needed to carry out
mailing work
• Respondents have more time
to answer
Disadvantages
• Difficult to obtain information
from certain people (e.g.
illiterate individuals)
• Slower data collection process
• May not receive any response
at all

16. Advantages
• Lowest cost
• On-the-field staff not
required
• Automatic key-in data
Disadvantages
• Chance of bias
• Interviewer not involved in
data collection
• Poor response rate
Internet Survey

17. What is Questionnaire?
• A list of questions used to collect
information or opinions.
• A form for written or marked answers
to questions.
• Must be carefully planned to ensure
objectives and information required
will be collected.

18. Things to consider when preparing
your questionnaire
1. What is your research question?
2. Who are your targeted respondents?
3. Where will you take your samples from?
4. When do you need your data?
5. What information do you want to get from your respondents?
6. Do you have an existing questionnaire?

19. SAMPLING PLAN
• Before distributing your survey questionnaire, you must have a SAMPLING PLAN.
• It should tell us:
1. which sampling unit do we choose (i.e.
population),
2. what should be the sample size (i.e. number of
people from the chosen population),
3. and what sampling procedure is being used to
choose the respondents out of the population.

20. 1. SAMPLING UNIT
• The first decision in sampling plan is choosing the Sampling unit i.e.
choosing the category of the population to be surveyed is the first and
the foremost decision in a sampling plan that initiates the research.
• e.g. In the case of IBTE, should the sampling unit consist of all of the 7
schools? Or just ATC? Should it include teachers or students or both? If
students, should it be from NTec or HNTec or both?

21. 2. SAMPLE SIZE
• The second decision in sampling plan is determining the size of the
sample i.e. how many objects in the sample is to be surveyed.
• Generally, “the larger the sample size, the more is the reliability” and
therefore, researchers try to cover as many samples as possible.

22. 3. SAMPLING PROCEDURE
• The final decision that completes the sampling plan is selecting the
sampling procedure i.e. which method can be used such that every
object in the population has an equal chance of being selected.
a) Generally, the researchers use the probability sampling to determine the objects to be
chosen as these represents the sample more accurately.
b) In case the researcher finds probability samples to be costly and time-consuming then the
researcher can use the non-probability sampling which means by choice.

23. 3. SAMPLING PROCEDURE
PROBABILITY SAMPLING NON-PROBABILITY SAMPLING
• Simple Random Sample – where every
item of the sample has an equal chance of
getting selected.
• Stratified Sample – In this, the
population is divided into mutually
exclusive groups namely age group and
then the choice is made randomly from
each group.
• Cluster Sample – It is also called area
sampling, here the population is divided
on the basis of location namely city and
then selected randomly.
• Convenience Sample – Here, the
researcher selects the easiest and
accessible population member.
• Judgment Sample – Here, the
researcher select those members of the
population whom he thinks to contribute
the accurate information.
• Quota sample – Here, the researcher
interviews the fixed number of
members of each category.

24. What is the common survey
questionnaire format?
1. Title
• Describe briefly the title of survey. E.g. Survey Questionnaire on
Healthy Food
2. Introduction
• This section is where you explain what is your objectives for doing the
survey to the respondents.
• You can also write in this section how the data you collect will be used.
• You should also include appreciation to the respondents for taking part
in your survey

25. What is the common survey
questionnaire format?
3. Background / Warm up questions
• This section is where you ask simple questions to obtain background information
of the respondents e.g. gender, age, employment.
4. Main survey questions
• This is where you give the main questions to the respondents.
• Your questions can be open-ended or close-ended questions.
• You need to make sure that your questions is clear and straight-forward.
• Professional looking questionnaires will increase respondents answering quality.
• At the end of your question, make sure to write “Thank you for your response”.

26. Title
Introduction
Background
questions
Main
questions

27. What kind of questions should I use?
• Questions that allow respondents to give a free form
answer.
• Good to obtain answers that you did not expect.
• Can help you understand the respondents
reasonings for their choice of answers.
Open-
ended
Questions
• Questions that can be answered with “Yes” or “No”, or
have a limited set of possible answers (e.g. A,B,C, D)
• Good for surveys – can get high response rate as
respondents do not have to type much.
• Easier to analyzed statistically.
Closed-
ended
Questions

28. Open-ended vs Closed-ended questions
Open-ended Closed-ended
How might this change the way you
do that today?
Do you think you would use
this?
What happened when you did this
before?
Have you done this before?
Can you provide a reason why you
choose to do this?
What is the main reason for
you to do this?
What would you expect to happen
when you ..?
Did it act as you expected?

29. Common Types of Closed-ended questions
Closed-
ended
Questions
Dichotomous
(True / False
Questions)
Questions with only TWO answer
options
Multiple Choice
Questions
Questions with multiple answer
options
Rating Scale
Choice
Questions
Questions that allow survey
respondents to assign a value to a
product or service
Can be
numerical scale
or likert scale
Rank Order
Choice
Questions
Questions that allow respondents to
evaluate multiple row items in
relation to one column item

30. Dichotomous (True/False) Questions

31. Multiple Choice Questions

32. Rating Scale Choice Questions (Numerical)

33. Rating Scale Choice Questions (Likert)

34. Rank Order Choice Questions

35. Tips for writing a question in survey
1. KISS – Keep It Short and Simple
2. Avoid abbreviations, jargons (special words) and technical terms.
3. Questions must be as specific as possible.
4. Avoid double-barrelled questions (e.g. Is the product tasty and cheap?
Should cars be faster and safer).
5. Avoid suggestive questions that can cause bias responses (i.e questions
that you want the respondents to give the expected answers).

36. Practice Exercise
1. In groups of 3 – 4 students, find a topic for survey.
List problems which you would like to explore or study.
2. Conceptually design your questionnaire. Decide on the
objectives of the survey. Come up with ten (10) questions
which includes eight (8) close-ended questions, and two (2)
open-ended questions; refer to other questionnaires for
guidance.

37. Questions?