DATA COLLECTION THROUGH

QUESTIONNAIRES & SCHEDULES

-Dr Nivedita Roy
-School of Management
-NIT, Rourkela
Questionnaire Form Design
A questionnaire, whether it is called a schedule,
interview form, or measuring instrument, is a
formalized set of questions for obtaining
information from respondents.
Objectives of a Questionnaire
Any questionnaire has three specific objectives.

First, it must translate the information

needed into a set of specific questions
that the respondents can and will answer.
Developing questions that respondents can
and will answer and that will yield the desired
information is difficult.
Objectives of a Questionnaire
Second, a questionnaire must uplift, motivate,
and encourage the respondent to become
involved in the interview, to cooperate, and to
complete the interview. Incomplete
questionnaires/interviews have limited usefulness
at best.

In designing a questionnaire, the researcher

should strive to minimize respondent fatigue,
boredom, incompleteness, and nonresponse. A
well-designed questionnaire can motivate the
respondents and increase the response rate.
Objectives of a Questionnaire
Third, a questionnaire should minimize
response error. The potential sources of
error in research designs have been
discussed. Response error is defined as the
error that arises when respondents give
inaccurate answers or their answers are mis-
recorded or mis-analyzed. A questionnaire
can be a major source of response error.
Minimizing this error is an important
objective of questionnaire design.
 Questionnaire Design Process
Fig. 10.1 Specify the Information Needed

Specify the Type of Interviewing Method

Source: Malhotra
& Dash (2014)
Determine the Content of Individual
Questions
Design the Question to Overcome the Respondent’s
Inability and Unwillingness to Answer

Decide the Question Structure

Determine the Question Wording

Arrange the Questions in Proper Order

Identify the Form and Layout

Reproduce the Questionnaire

Eliminate Bugs by Pre-testing

 Guidelines for Questionnaire
The researcher must keep in view the problem he is
to study, for it provides the starting point for
developing the Questionnaire/Schedule. He must be
clear about the various aspects of his research
problem to be dealt with in the course of his research
project.
Questionnaire must contain simple but straight
forward directions for the respondents so that they
may not feel any difficulty in answering the questions.
Pilot study should be undertaken for pre-testing the
questionnaire. The questionnaire may be edited in the
light of the results of the pilot study.
 Guidelines for successful Interviewing
Interviewing is an art and one learns it by
experience.
Interviewer must plan in advance and should fully
know the problem under consideration.
He must choose a suitable time and place so that
the interviewee may be at ease during the
interview period.
Interviewer’s approach must be friendly and
informal. Initially friendly greetings in accordance
with the cultural pattern of the interviewee should
be exchanged and then the purpose of the
interview should be explained.
 Guidelines for successful Interviewing
 All possible effort should be made to establish proper
rapport with the interviewee; people are motivated to
communicate when the atmosphere is favourable.
 Interviewer must know that ability to listen with
understanding, respect and curiosity is the gateway to
communication, and hence must act accordingly during the
interview.
 To the extent possible there should be a free-flowing
interview and the questions must be well phrased in order
to have full cooperation of the interviewee.
 The interviewer must control the course of the interview in
accordance with the objective of the study.
Guidelines for successful Interviewing
In case of big enquiries, where the task of
collecting information is to be accomplished by
several interviewers, there should be interview
guidelines to be observed by all so as to ensure
reasonable uniformity in respect of all salient
points in the study.
COLLECTION OF DATA
THROUGH SCHEDULES
 Schedules
This method of data collection is very much like
the collection of data through questionnaire, with
little difference which lies in the fact that
schedules (proforma containing a set of questions)
are being filled in by the enumerators who are
specially appointed for the purpose.

These enumerators along with schedules, go to

respondents, put to them the questions from the
proforma in the order the questions are listed and
record the replies in the space meant for the same
in the proforma.
 Schedules
In certain situations, schedules may be
handed over to respondents and enumerators
may help them in recording their answers to
various questions in the said schedules.

Enumerators explain the aims and objects of

the investigation and also remove the
difficulties which any respondent may feel in
understanding the implications of a particular
question or the definition or concept of
difficult terms.
 Schedules
 This method requires the selection of enumerators for filling
up schedules or assisting respondents to fill up schedules
and as such enumerators should be very carefully selected.

 The enumerators should be trained to perform their job well

and the nature and scope of the investigation should be
explained to them thoroughly so that they may well
understand the implications of different questions put in the
schedule.

 Enumerators should be intelligent and must possess the

capacity of cross-examination in order to find out the truth.
Above all, they should be honest, sincere, hardworking and
should have patience and perseverance.
 Schedules
This method of data collection is very useful
in extensive enquiries and can lead to fairly
reliable results.

It is, however, very expensive and is usually

adopted in investigations conducted by
governmental agencies or by some big
organisations.

Population census all over the world is

conducted through this method.
 Difference between
Questionnaire & Schedule
 The questionnaire is generally sent through mail to
informants to be answered as specified in a covering letter,
but otherwise without further assistance from the sender.
The schedule is generally filled out by the research worker or
the enumerator, who can interpret questions when necessary.

 To collect data through questionnaire is relatively cheap and

economical since we have to spend money only in preparing
the questionnaire and in mailing the same to respondents.
Here no field staff required. To collect data through
schedules is relatively more expensive since considerable
amount of money has to be spent in appointing enumerators
and in imparting training to them. Money is also spent in
preparing schedules.
Non-response is usually high in case of questionnaire
as many people do not respond and many return the
questionnaire without answering all questions. Bias
due to non-response often remains indeterminate. As
against this, non-response is generally very low in
case of schedules because these are filled by
enumerators who are able to get answers to all
questions. But there remains the danger of
interviewer bias and cheating.

In case of questionnaire, it is not always clear as to

who replies, but in case of schedule the identity of
respondent is known.
The questionnaire method is likely to be very slow
since many respondents do not return the
questionnaire in time despite several reminders, but
in case of schedules the information is collected well
in time as they are filled in by enumerators.

Personal contact is generally not possible in case of

the questionnaire method as questionnaires are sent
to respondents by post who also in turn return the
same by post. But in case of schedules direct personal
contact is established with respondents.
Questionnaire method can be used only when
respondents are literate and cooperative, but
in case of schedules the information can be
gathered even when the respondents happen
to be illiterate.

Wider and more representative distribution

of sample is possible under the questionnaire
method, but in respect of schedules there
usually remains the difficulty in sending
enumerators over a relatively wider area.
 Risk of collecting incomplete and wrong information is
relatively more under the questionnaire method, particularly
when people are unable to understand questions properly. But
in case of schedules, the information collected is generally
complete and accurate as enumerators can remove the
difficulties, if any, faced by respondents in correctly
understanding the questions. As a result, the information
collected through schedules is relatively more accurate than
that obtained through questionnaires.

 The success of questionnaire method lies more on the quality

of the questionnaire itself, but in the case of schedules much
depends upon the honesty and competence of enumerators.
In order to attract the attention of
respondents, the physical appearance of
questionnaire must be quite attractive, but
this may not be so in case of schedules as
they are to be filled in by enumerators and
not by respondents.

Along with schedules, observation method

can also be used but such a thing is not
possible while collecting data through
questionnaires.
Thank you