Participation level:
- Low (Information only)
Innovation level:
- Low (Traditional)
Facilitator skill level, and other support required:
- Low (No special skills)
Can be used for:
- Engage community
- Discover community issues
Questionnaires and response sheets are a measure of community opinion and/or issues at a certain time or in a certain area.
Questionnaires and response sheets provide information on which to base decisions about planning and management of community and/or natural resources.
Questionnaires offer the following advantages:
- Less personal than interviewing, their anonymity can encourage more honest answers.
- Works well to reach respondents who are widely scattered, or live considerable distances away.
- Provides information from those unlikely to attend meetings and workshops.
- Permits expansion of the mail list.
- Can be used for statistical validation.
- Allows results to be extrapolated by subgroups.
- Allows the respondent to fill out at a convenient time.
- More economical and less labour intensive than interviews and telephone surveys as they provide larger samples for lower total costs.
- Generally only useful for qualitative data.
- Low response rates can bias the results. Can involve follow up telephone calls and letters to encourage returns.
- Needs a return envelope/freepost address to encourage participation.
- Depends on a high degree of literacy.
- Wording of questions needs to be unambiguous to avoid bias, and should be pre-tested on a sample audience to ensure that you receive the information you desire.
Organizing Questionnaire
How many people to organize?
- Medium (2-12 people)
- Individual
Time required:
- Short (< 6 weeks)
Cost:
- Low (< AUD$1,000)
- Draft questions. Keep as short as possible.
- Trial questions with a small sample (pilot group) to determine whether they are unbiased, straightforward and not open to misinterpretation.
- Indicate the purpose of the questionnaire at outset
- Include qualitative data such as age, sex, address, education etc. to allow for further extrapolation of the results.
- Include any new names/addresses in the mailing list.
- Send out with printed information materials.
- If the budget allows, provide free mail reply (stamped addressed envelope; freepost mailbox, etcetera) to improve responses.
- Document responses as part of the public involvement process.
