Creating a survey to help answer your research questions when aggregating individual answers to questions into numbers can help to paint a picture of community needs. Complete these worksheet to prepare for survey creation.
Complete Worksheet 9 (Wambeam pages 113-114) & Worksheet 10 (Wambeam page 118)
Worksheet 9. Choosing a Survey Sample
Sample Population
Describe the population of your community that you would like to make generalizations about.
Approximately how many individuals are in the population?
Sampling Frame Do you have access to every individual in the population?
Do you have a list of your sample population from which to draw a sample? If yes, describe this list.
If you do not have access to everyone, and you do not have a sampling frame list, what is a convenient way to reach members of the sample population?
Type of Sample Based upon your answers to the sampling frame questions above, what type of sample will you use for your survey (census, random, or convenience)?
Sample Size
How many completed surveys would you like to have when your survey is done?
What percentage of those you ask to take a survey do you think will actually complete the survey (your completion rate)?
Divide the number of completed surveys you would like by your completion rate (as a decimal) to find out how large your sample should be.
completed surveys/completion rate as a decimal = sample size
For example
200/.25 = 800
What sample size should you plan for?
Draw Your Random Sample
If you are using a random sample, then briefly describe how you drew an appropriate random sample here.
Worksheet 10. Quantitative Survey Plan
Question 1a Considering your research questions and your community, describe what you hope to learn from your survey.
Question 1b Describe the sample population, sampling frame, and sample you plan to use for your survey.
Question 1c Describe the methods you will use to collect completed surveys from your survey population.
