Hope you are in the ride of a Ph.D journey, that’s great! Have you confused at any point of your research? Yes, means I think probably at the point of data collection technique. In data collection process, you may get confused to differentiate survey and questionnaire. Am I right?
Let see why this confusion is? Many people think that both survey and questionnaire is for collecting data. Yes, of course, it is correct but slight core difference exists between questionnaire and survey. Let we see what is all about:
Questionnaire: It is about gathering information from people to gain opinion, view and so on through a set of framed questionnaire.
Survey: It’s also method for driving opinion from people but it uses statistical analysis for deriving conclusion
The survey also uses questionnaire collection of data but the thing is uses of statistical analysis to group the things derived from the questionnaire.
Type of Questionnaire:
Before start preparing your questionnaire for data collection you need to be very clear about the type of questions you going to be used. There are two ways of structuring your questionnaire, one is closed-end or open – ended questionnaire.
Closed-Ended Questionnaire: In this questions are provided with options where respondent need to pick options from available options alone. The options may be ‘yes’ or ‘no’ else rating of options with the use of Likert scale like ‘agree’, ’disagree’, ‘neutral’ and so on.
Open–ended Questionnaire: The options are not provided for such type questions; respondents need to fill the answer for the particular questions. Example for this type is names, working organization etc.
Type of Survey:
As said earlier, the survey uses questionnaire also as one mode of collecting data to drive conclusion from statistical analysis. The other methods are:
Survey through mail
Through telephone
Face to face interview
By adopting any of this method one can gather data and perform statistical analysis for particular research.
What should I use?
Ah! Still, you have confusion to use questionnaire or survey for your research…No problem. Both questionnaire and survey are primary data collection method here if your research is needed to find opinion or view of people alone means questionnaire is enough. In case if your research deals with finding a conclusion or hypothesis testing or identifying particular group opinion simply go with survey method. Keep in mind that conclusion needs to provide with statistical proof…Simple, get started with your data collection and complete your research work.