This repository contains the materials for D-Lab Survey Fundamentals.
Check D-Lab's Learning Pathways to figure out which of our workshops to take!
This two-hour workshop offers a comprehensive introduction to designing and conducting survey studies. Tailored for beginners, it provides clear, step-by-step guidance complemented by concise examples, practical considerations, and useful support materials. Participants will learn the entire process, from formulating a research question to creating, administering, and analyzing surveys, as well as interpreting results and communicating their findings. Special emphasis will be placed on crafting survey instruments that are succinct, unbiased, and effectively aligned with your research objectives. Additionally, instructors will share a curated list of recommended resources.
After this workshop, you will be able to:
- Outline the steps to design a survey study.
- Describe special considerations in each steps of the survey study process.
- Design concise, unbiased survey instruments that accurately address your research questions.
This workshop does not cover the following:
- How to use Qualtrics for survey data collection. These are covered in the Qualtrics Fundamentals workshop.
Check out the following resources to learn more about Surveys:
Books:
- Designing Quality Survey Questions. by Sheila B. Robinson and Kimberly Firth Leonard. This book shows readers how to craft high quality, precisely-worded survey questions that will elicit rich, nuanced, and ultimately useful data to help answer their research or evaluation questions
- The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers by Johnny Saldana. This book highlights the steps to achieving qualitative coding and provides clear, insightful guidance for qualitative researchers at different stages in their research journey.
- Measurement Theory and Applications for the Social Sciences by Deborah L. Bandalos. This book equips students and researchers to make accurate decisions on the selection, administration, scoring, interpretation, and development of measurement tools
Additional free downloadable resources:
- Sampling, Coverage, and Nonresponse Tip Sheet: help you understand how to think the population that a survey represents
- Managing and Manipulating Survey Data: A Beginners Guide: provides an overview of basic steps to transform survey questions into data that can be analyzed
D-Lab works with Berkeley faculty, research staff, and students to advance data-intensive social science and humanities research. Our goal at D-Lab is to provide practical training, staff support, resources, and space to enable you to use R for your own research applications. Our services cater to all skill levels and no programming, statistical, or computer science backgrounds are necessary. We offer these services in the form of workshops, one-to-one consulting, and working groups that cover a variety of research topics, digital tools, and programming languages.
Visit the D-Lab homepage to learn more about us. You can view our calendar for upcoming events, learn about how to utilize our consulting and data services, and check out upcoming workshops.
Provide a list of workshops here.
- Severin Saenz
- Elaine Luo
- Vanessa Navarro Rodriguez