The tool
The aim of surveylength is to provide an estimation
of the median length of an online questionnaire.
Lower and Upper
estimates
As it is very unlikely to get an estimate precise to
the second, the lower and upper estimates around the estimated length
indicate that in all probability, the length of your survey should
range between these two estimates.
Section «YOUR
RESPONDENTS»
In this section you have to describe the structure,
age and language of the respondents who will answer the
survey.
Age of the
respondents
By default, the percentage of respondents in each
age category is fixed to 12.5%. You can modify this repartition
according to the age structure of the respondents you need for your
study.
Number of
respondents
The number of respondents who are going to take part
in your survey has an influence not on the average estimated length of
your survey, but on the lower and upper estimates of this duration. The
more respondents, the smaller the time interval around the estimated
length
Section «YOUR
QUESTIONNAIRE»
Percent of respondents by
path
Many surveys contain « filter questions », which
means than some respondents will have to answer more or less questions
than others to reach the end of the survey. For example, only
respondents who gave a low answer to a satisfaction question may be
asked to explain why they are unsatisfied. In order to deal why such «
filter questions », you have the possibility to indicate up to 3
different paths that respondents may have to follow. A path corresponds
to a defined number of questions respondents will have to answer.
For example, within the same survey, 70% of your respondents may have
to answer on average 10 single closed-ended questions and 1 open-ended
question (= path 1), and 30% may have to answer on average 20 single
closed-ended questions and 3 open-ended questions (= path 2). You can
therefore indicate that 70% of your respondents will have to go through
path 1, and 30% will have to go through path 2.
Type of questions
Here you have to indicate for each question type how
many questions of that type are to be found in each path of your
questionnaire.
Single
closed-ended questions
Single closed-ended questions are all types of
questions where respondents have to choose one or several answers in a
predefined set of answers.
Examples of single closed-ended
questions:
On a scale from 1
to 9, how satisfied are you with your purchase?
Matrix table questions
Matrix table questions are used when respondents
have to answer several questions using the same answer
scale.
Examples of matrix table
questions:
How
satisfied were you with the following aspects of
the service? (scale from 1 "not at all satisfied" to 5 "completely
satisfied")
-
Speed of resolution
-
Knowledge of representative
-
Solution offered
-
Friendliness of representative
For this question type, you have to indicate the
total number of items/question that respondents have to answer within
all matrix tables. In this example, the number of items/questions
respondents have to answer is 4.
Questions with
multiple choices
A question wit multiple choice is a simple,
closed-ended question type that lets respondents select one or multiple
answers from a defined list of choices.
Ranking
questions (drag-n-drop/drag-ranking, click-ranking)
A ranking question asks respondents to compare items
to each other by placing them in order of preference.
Open-ended questions
An open-ended question is a question that
respondents have to answer by using (and writing) their own
words.
Examples of open-ended question:
If you would like to add any further comments
concerning our service, please use the field below.
Pages with text
only
Sometimes respondents have to read a text before or
instead of answering a question. To estimate how long respondents need
to read a text, count the number of words the text contains and enter
the result in "text 1, number of words". (A quick way to count the
number of words of a text is to copy and paste the text in a word
document.)
Personalized
questions
Certain complex questions may necessitate more time
to answer. For example, respondents may have to watch a short movie,
they may have to read a long text first, make a complicated
calculation, etc.
It is difficult to estimate the time needed to answer such questions
without knowing the question itself. If you want to take such questions
into account in your estimation, go through the following two steps:
1/ indicate in “type 1: number” how often respondents will have to
answer this or a similar question.
2/ indicate in “type 1: duration” your best estimate of the time
respondents will take to answer this question.
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