Online Surveys and Questionnaires

Do you really trust everything you see and read online?

Supposedly the anwer will be NO - as the question itself is suggestive.

Not only obviously naive people make easy prey for intentionally misleading sites. In may cases, the internet-based information  may be even dangerous, if you apply it without common sense and without a wider knowledge of the problem - e.g. information about health problems connected to hardselling sites.

Nevertheless, we can also find theories and questionnaires are more or less trustworthy, at least for the purpose of orientation. The analysis of personal learning styles is one of them.


Felder - Learning Styles and Strategies Inventory
theory: http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSpage.html
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Everybody is active sometimes and reflective sometimes. Your preference for one category or the other may be strong, moderate, or mild. A balance of the two is desirable. If you always act before reflecting you can jump into things prematurely and get into trouble, while if you spend too much time reflecting you may never get anything done.

If you overemphasize intuition, you may miss important details or make careless mistakes in calculations or hands-on work; if you overemphasize sensing, you may rely too much on memorization and familiar methods and not concentrate enough on understanding and innovative thinking.

In most college classes very little visual information is presented: students mainly listen to lectures and read material written on chalkboards and in textbooks and handouts. Unfortunately, most people are visual learners, which means that most students do not get nearly as much as they would if more visual presentation were used in class.

Sequential learners may not fully understand the material but they can nevertheless do something with it (like solve the homework problems or pass the test) since the pieces they have absorbed are logically connected. Strongly global learners who lack good sequential thinking abilities, on the other hand, may have serious difficulties until they have the big picture.
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TASK 1: Fill in the questionnaire at http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html.
What do the results tell about you? How do you feel about it? Insert your ideas into the comments to this blog entry.
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TASK 2: Using online questionnires to research data 

1. Choose a topic you are interested in; your research field is learning and teaching languages.

Formulate a Research Question or Hypothesis: e.g. "The commuting students have better study results."
Develop a real, interesting research question - be considerate! This task is not meant to become a mock-research. Try to imagine a topic you could develop into a bachelor thesis.

2. Prepare several  survey questions to get data which will help answering your Research Question or confirm your Hypothesis. Include also questions mapping the profile of your respondents (age, field of study...). Write the questions into a text editor, reconsider and reedit. Ask the tutor for feedback before publishing the research.

3. Explore the sites linked below, their requirements and the formats of input and output.
Make sure you will get your data in raw version - not just a summary in per cents. Choose a site you will use.
Put the questions online using any chosen free format.
Publish the link to your survey in your websitehere and here in the blog comments, and ask more friends (best by email) to fill in your online questionnaire. Each of you should have at least 25 respondents.

4. Go to each other's sites and answer the questions. 


5. Prepare an attempt of statistical survey for the next lesson.
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Suggested links:

Onlinequizcreator URL
examples of free and paid programs prices
do not miss the teacher-focused program! this site also enables creating games and learning quizzes.

7 Best Survey Tools URL
summary and evaluation of quiz-focused sites
helps you choose the right one

Oursurvey URL
a Czech server, available in 4 languages, offers statistically processed results

SurveyMonkey URL
a popular american site with wide variability of possibilities

Survio URL
another Czech site, available also in English; focuses on statistics; excel export enabled

FreeOnlineSurveys URL
user friendly, great graphics, good variability of formats

KwikSurveys URL
unlimited number od questions and respondents for free

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Tips for making a valid questionnaire:
- think first; imagine what your respondents could answer
- be clear
- ask about one issue only in a single question

- avoid open-ended (txt) questions - prefer multiple choice
- be consistent - focus on a single topic or problem
- avoid spelling mistakes
- avoid ambiguous questions