The Boggs e-Learning Chronicle

Groups Rising Up to Fight AOL on Recent e-Mail Sender Charging Policy

The troops are mounting for the fight over charging for email delivery......Protest Over AOL's Pay-to-Send E-mail Plan 

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

Ability to Make Numbers More Important Than Creativity...

Business Week had an interesting article about a survey that looks at what leadership characteristics  non-HR managers and HR Managers respect the most.  The ability to bring in the numbers out scored all other characteristics surveyed.  Not much of a surprise....

Innovation: Why the Short Shift?

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

 

New SyberWorks Media Center Article: 14 Tips for Writing an Effective Online Survey

Check out our latest news & article.  Here is the press release:

SyberWorks announces a new article available in its Media Center: “14 Tips for Writing an Effective Online Survey”

The article is located at 14 Tips for Writing an Effective Online Survey 

I have also included it in the post:

 

14 Tips for Writing an Effective Online Survey

By Dana Fine, Senior Instructional Designer, SyberWorks, Inc.

Developing a useful, well-written online survey that extracts the information you need from your users can be a challenge. In this article, I will review 14 tips for creating a useful online survey.

1) Write a brief, concise survey. Start with a mental framework that focuses on only what is essential to know. Ask questions only if the answers will give you the data you need and can use. If a question is not important enough to include in your report on the survey’s findings, then remove the question. Try to envision each question as its own specific theory that you are testing.

In addition, research has shown that people skim and skip on the web because it is difficult to read lots of heavily condensed text on a computer screen. Most users do not want to scroll through a long page of text, so your online survey completion rate will be higher if the survey is short and succinct.

2) Try to begin the survey with interesting questions. Interesting questions will inspire the respondent to keep reading and complete the survey.

3) Develop questions with answers in the proper format for your purposes. For example, if you believe your students need more time to complete the questions in your lesson, ask, “How long did it take you to complete the unit and accompanying questions?” with various time intervals as possible answers. This is better than asking, “Do you need more time to finish the unit and accompanying questions?” with yes or no as possible responses.

4) Plan ahead of time how you and your company will analyze the information before you send out the final version of the survey. This may affect your questions and format when you realize that the statistical analysis you need to perform cannot be done with these particular question results.

5) Use the simplest language possible and respect the respondent’s dignity when constructing questions. Your survey respondents will undoubtedly come from many different groups, and more often than not, are less expert in the field than you are.

6) Use neutral language. The online survey is being developed to find out what your audience thinks and is not a forum for you to air your perceptions or opinions.

7) Relax your grammar a bit so your questions do not sound too formal. For instance, the word “who” is often acceptable when “whom” is technically correct.

8) Be sure to ask only one question at a time and put them in a logical order. Questions like “If you scored less than 70% on the test and you have taken the test another time previous to this, what do you think would help you receive an 80% or above the next time you take the test?” will be difficult for respondents to answer and even more challenging for you to interpret.

9) Avoid double negatives, difficult concepts, and specific recall questions. Respondents are easily perplexed when trying to interpret the meaning of a question that uses double negatives. Respondents can also become quickly overwhelmed and lose detail of events or circumstances that are farther back in time. Most importantly, if the survey is too complex and/or difficult to fill out, respondents won’t complete it!

10) Try to use more closed-ended questions, with no more than one or two open-ended questions. Respondents usually have a better understanding of closed-ended questions because they are more straightforward and offer responses they can choose from.

Open-ended questions require a written response. An excessive number of open-ended questions can wear down the respondent and reduce the quality of the answers they provide.

11) Scaled response questions should have answers that are at balanced, comparable intervals. For example, offering choices of excellent, very good, good, and terrible would cause you to miss important information in between the values of good and terrible.

12) Whenever possible, responses should be developed as discrete amounts instead of general statements of quantities, with specific options from which to choose. It’s better to ask, “How many times a month do you go to the movies?” “0”, “1 to 3 times a month”, “3 to 5 times a month or more”, instead of “How often do you go to movies?” “almost never”, “one and a while”, “I am there at least once a week”, etc.

13) Name your survey and write a brief introduction. Providing a survey name and a brief introduction are good ways to give your respondents some background and a frame of reference. It also prepares them for what is to come.

14) Craft a well-written subject line for the email you send with the survey to capture your respondents’ attention.

While not exhaustive, the points listed above are enough to get you started in the right direction. In summary, a well-written online survey has higher completion rates and is an effective method for gathering information.

About the Author:

Dana Fine is a Senior Instructional Designer at SyberWorks, Inc http://www.syberworks.com. SyberWorks is a custom e-Learning solutions company that specializes in Learning Management Systems, e-Learning solutions, and custom online course development. Dana is also a frequent contributor to the Online Training Content Journal.

e-Learning's Impact: You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it.......

Heather Kanuka has a post about the impact of e-Learning.... Has eLearning Revolutionized Education?

The post is written from the perspective of the educator in academia.  She identifies teachers resistence as a major stumbling block for the successful integration of e-Learning / learning management systems  into an academic setting.

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

Evolution, Extinction, or Something in Between.....

Here's some food for thought:

How Do Successful Executives Evolve?

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

Survey about Learning in UK Organizations

Here is an interesting article in Human Resources Magazine about Learning in UK Organizations...

Major Survey: Learning by numbers

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

More Thoughts on e-Learning Accessibility.....

The Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology has an article about e-Learning accessibility....

Developing a Holistic Approach for e-Learning Accessibility

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

e-Learning's Version of Back to the Future..????

As always, Godfrey Parkin has plenty opinions, and has a pretty interesting post about the buzz around the concept of Learning 2.0,

Paleolithic Learning 2.0

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

Another Cool e-Learning Book, Focused on Millennials & How They Learn While Gaming....

Don't Bother Me Mom-I'm Learning

by Marc Prensky

Book Description:"The POSITIVE Guide for Parents Concerned About Their Kids' Video and Computer Game Playing "Marc knows it all depends on how we use our games. He knows that if parents place good video games into a learning system in their homes they can reap major benefits for their children and themselves. They can accelerate their children's language and cognitive growth." -James Paul Gee, Tashia Mogridge Professor of Reading, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Marc Prensky presents the case-profoundly counter-cultural but true nevertheless-that video and computer game playing, within limits, is actually very beneficial to today's "Digital Native" kids, who are using them to prepare themselves for life in the 21st century. The reason kids are so attracted to these games, Prensky says, is that they are learning about important "future" things, from collaboration, to prudent risk taking, to strategy formulation and execution, to complex moral and ethical decisions. Prensky's arguments are backed up by university PhD's studying not just violence, but games in their totality., as well as studies of gamers who have become successful corporate workers, entrepreneurs, leaders, doctors, lawyers, scientists and other professionals. Because most adults (including the critics) can't play the modern complex games themselves (and discount the opinions of the kids who do play them) they rely on secondhand sources of information, most of whom are sadly misinformed about both the putative harm and the true benefits of game-playing. This book is the antidote to those misinformed, bombastic sources, in the press and elsewhere. Full of common sense and practical information, it provides parents with a large number of techniques approaches they can use-both over time and right away-to improve both their understanding of games and their relationships with their kids.

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

Developing Learning Objects in Collaborative Settings

Here a is a brief primer on learning objects in e-Learning environments / learning management systems ...

Creating Learning Objects in Collaborative e-Learning Settings

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks