Now you are ready to begin, perhaps the most exciting part of your research project, the creation of your online survey. You will create your own survey and consent form which you will use to gather data on your research topic. Once I grade and approve your online survey and consent form you may begin gathering data. DO NOT START GATHERING DATA BEFORE I GRADE AND APPROVE YOUR SURVEY. Your survey and consent form will be based on the topic you selected during the Research Topic and 1st Article Summary assignment.
Your survey should explore a particular relationship between two variables. You will create survey items based on the research question you are trying to answer and the specific variables you are trying to measure in your research sample. You will need to create several questions to assess your predictor (often called an independent variable if experimentally manipulated but called a predictor variable when measured in naturally occurring situations when all extraneous variables are not controlled for) and criterion (often called the dependent variable if experimentally measured but named a criterion variable when assessed in correlational studies) variables.
You may wish to consider creating two scales out of your survey questions, one assessing your predictor variable and the other measuring your criterion variable. Researchers often use several questions to assess a single variable. For instance, if you were assessing marital satisfaction, you could use a single question, on a scale from 1 to 10 how would you rate your marriage, to assess this concept or put together several related questions (forming a scale) to assess marital satisfaction and the diverse dimensions describing it.
There are many advantages to using scales to access a variable. First, multiple-item scales typically provide a more precise measurement or your variable. Assessing a concept from several different angles may help you pin-point a participants true position on it. Second, a multiple-item scale is usually more reliable than a single item assessment. Scales in which several related questions are added to produce a scale score should be more reliable than using a single question to assess the variable. Great care must be taken to choose items which all assess the same variable, but in slightly different ways.
Scale construction can be a very complicated and involved process. There are advanced courses which cover scale construction and all its intricacies. I do not expect you to be a scale expert. You may use scales in your research simply by combining the results of several items from your questionnaire that all relate to a particular concept or variable. Once you collect the data from your questionnaire, on your spreadsheet you would include a column for the scale assessed and in that column, you would place the sum of all the items for that scale. So, if survey questions number 1, 5, and 10, all assessed marital satisfaction in some way, you might have a marital satisfaction scale which would contain the sum of those three items. You may wish to have scales to assess your independent variable and your dependent variable or you might decide to use a single question to assess one of your variables. For instance, if age was one of your variables, a single-item question would be used to assess that. You may also wish to add items which assess participant demographics. Remember however, that participant anonymity must always be assured and no questions may be asked which might identify a specific participant. Also, as stated before, all participants must be at least 18 years of age or older.
You will be using Google forms to create your online survey. Here is a link to a sample Google forms survey.
At the beginning of your survey, you will have a consent form. All participants must agree to the online consent form before completing your research questionnaire. Participants will read the consent form and click on the agree response at the bottom of the first page of your questionnaire. Once they agree to participate in your study, then they will start the section of the Google form containing your questionnaire. If they click on disagree, then they will not receive the questionnaire and will exit the form. Here is a template for your online consent form.
Sample Consent Form for a Web Survey.docxActions
Everyone must use this consent form template to create their own consent form. You should edit this word document and revise all highlighted parts to include information on your study. Once you have personalized this consent form, it will be copied and pasted into your Google forms survey. Be sure to watch my video where I show you how to construct your Google forms survey and consent form.
Your finished questionnaire should contain a minimum of 8 questions.
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