Surveying the Public - It's Not That Simple!

For this week's project in my Instructional Technologies class I did a Digital Native Survey. I feel that I not only conducted a successful survey but I also learned a lot about surveying the public. Most importantly I learned that it is not as easy as it seems to conduct a survey, therefore I thought I would share some tips for future surveyors.

1. Keep it simple.
2. Do not assume the results.
3. Cover all demographics.
4. The shorter the better.
5. Do not use open ended questions.
6. Make it anonymous
7. Do Pre-Research
8. Ask specific questions.

I ran into a few glitches while conducting my survey including not having access to survey an important age group demographic that I believe was vital to my survey.  I also messed up by having an open ended question that opened to the door to rude and inappropriate responses that led to me having to remove that data from the analysis.

All in all I found my survey to be successful and I really enjoyed the analysis portion of the results. It's really important to think of all angles and cover all bases when creating the survey, you can't ever expect the outcome and a successful survey should reveal data that will surprise you.

Have fun surveying and here is a great survey tips webpage for more information.

Here is a link to my Digital Native Survey: How Much Does Technology Run our Daily Lives?