Disscussion Journal #8

        This week (Oct 28- Nov 1) in our classes we learned about how to create effective and to the point questionnaires using closed and open ended questions. Prior to this week’s classes I had never really put any thought into the types of questions that go into surveys. Or why an organization may or may not use the questions they do. We learned how open ended questions can help a person express their experiences more clearly but often take more time to fill out and are also more difficult to log their answers into a mass data type format. While closed ended questions don’t allow much room for self-expression but can be coded easily for data analysis. All the info we received made me thing back to the many questionnaire I have filled out in the past few years and it helped me understand better why they were worded the way they were.
        So to help us understand how to create a questionnaire we all had to make one this week. On Thursday’s class we were asked to look at the data we had compiled for our projects that we are putting together, and create a questionnaire that could be used to evaluate how the program went. We were told to look at what our goals were, and to figure out how to ask questions in a way that would allow us to determine if our goals were met. The instructor told us to also try to make most of our questions be closed ended so the survey we created could be filled out and the data read off of it with ease. Starting the work on this questionnaire was at first difficult the questions were hard to think of and word properly and then once I had thought of one I would realize the data retrieved from its answers didn’t actually help me to know if any of my goals were met, so I would have to delete it and start over again. The longer I worked at it the better I became at wording the questions to fit the data I needed to know. I also made sure to ask our instructor Jeremy many questions as I worked my way through creating the questionnaire.
        I am grateful for all I have learned this week in class, as now I can create more effective surveys in the future to get feedback on programs I may be part of or running. Now that I have the knowledge of effective survey techniques I can gather info prior to and after putting on programs. Understanding the importance of running a test group to get the most effective survey also will help me develop the best possible surveys in the future. I am grateful for all I am learning in this class and continue to look forward to the information I will learn in weeks to come that will assist me in my future career.