Odum Institute: Designing web surveys

Designing web surveys

This 4-hour course will be offered via Zoom. Attendance is required as the course will not be recorded.

Please Note: At this time, registrants will be limited to Certificate of Survey Science students, UNC Chapel Hill members, Raleigh/Durham-area university members, and RTI International employees. RTI employees will receive a separate registration link for the course, upon approval. If you do not meet the above criteria, your registration will be cancelled. You will be able to re-register if there are spots available when we open this to all.

Course Summary:

This course will provide an introduction to effectively designing web surveys to avoid common pitfalls that impact data quality and introduce measurement error. The course will focus on the following elements of web survey design – overall formatting and visual layout of screens, selecting and designing questions and response options (e.g., radio buttons, check boxes, grids, and open text fields), error and validation messaging, navigation elements, and usability. Special considerations for designing web surveys to accommodate mobile response will also be covered. This course will also provide an overview of the various web survey software systems available and offer practical guidance on selecting appropriate platforms. However, this course will not provide instruction on the technical aspects of web survey programming or introduce programming languages. The course will draw from empirical literature on best practices coupled with practical considerations when designing and implementing web surveys.

This course will count as 4.0 CSS short course credit hours.

Instructor: Amanda Smith

Amanda C. Smith is a Research Survey Methodologist within the Program for Research in Survey Methodology at RTI International. Smith’s work focuses on improving data quality, reducing respondent burden, and addressing potential sources of measurement error in web surveys through the implementation of best practices in web survey design. She leads RTI’s Agile Web Surveys group, which provides methodological and technical programming expertise to support the development of quick turnaround web survey solutions. In this role she has designed and programmed countless web surveys for a diverse portfolio of government, business, and foundation clients. Smith also frequently presents and publishes work related to best practices in web survey methodology, to include developing a web survey design appraisal system presented at AAPOR in 2020, A Systematic Approach for Evaluating Web Survey Design.

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