SURVEY DESIGN/PROPOSAL

SURVEY DESIGN/PROPOSAL Order Description As explained in the attachment SURVEY DESIGN Word Limit: 3000 words. Deadline: 9th April 2015 In this assignment you are required to write a proposal to carry out a survey for the Department of Education on public attitudes to the funding of Higher Education in England. Your proposal must contain a quantitative survey as its core element, although the mode(s) in which the survey is conducted is free for you to decide. The survey is intended to provide cross-sectional information only. The client estimates that the survey will take approximately 25-30 minutes to complete. Your client at the Department of Education has produced two draft questions to give you an idea of the sorts of information they wish to acquire.  These are included at the end of this document.    The first part of your report should set out the problems with these questions, why they are problematic and detail how you would suggest amending them.  You should then implement these suggestions by producing a redrafted version of the questions to accompany your report.  In setting out the problems in the extract of the draft questionnaire it will be sensible to cite some authoritative sources from the survey methodological literature. The second section of your report should contain a description of how you propose to undertake the survey and justification for the design choices that you make, with reference to the survey methodological literature. All proposed design elements must be incorporated into your costings, so think about the cost effectiveness of your proposed design in relation to the aims of the research. Your proposal should include rough cost estimates, the total of which must not exceed £500,000. You should base your cost calculations for the survey on the assumptions set out in Table 1. The cost figures cover all costs associated with the conduct of the survey, including interviewer briefing, advance letters, programming, researcher costs etc. However, they do not include monetary incentives or pilot studies. Pilot interviews (including cognitive interviews) should be costed at the same rates as set out in Table 1. Also included in Table 1 are indicative expected response rates for general population surveys in the UK. Notice that no response rate is given for web surveys because there is currently no population list of internet users from which a random sample can be drawn. This does not mean that the survey cannot be conducted wholly or partially via the web. However, if you do propose a web survey you should indicate how sample members will be sampled and recruited. Table 1 Interview costs and response rates MODE    Cost per ACHIEVED interview    Indicative response rate Face-to-face    £220    75% Telephone    £170    45% Postal    £85    30% Web    £45    n/a The proposal should concisely set out how you intend to approach key aspects of the survey design such as sampling strategies, issued and achieved sample size, measures for maximising response rates, assessing sample representativeness, and any other methodological issues you feel should be addressed. You should consider the likely degree of precision and confidence interval from your completed survey of some key survey estimates for the population as a whole and for important sub-groups.  You should also include a feasible timetable for completion of the programme of work. Example using the information in table 1: if you were to conduct a postal survey which achieved 1000 completed questionnaires, this would cost £85,000. And to achieve the 1000 completed interviews you would need to have mailed questionnaires to 3333 addresses (1000/.30 = 3333). For a population proportion of 50% in this survey (e.g. if 50% of respondents agreed that tuition fees are ‘a good thing’, the 95% confidence interval would be 50%+/-3.1% (46.9-53-1%). Your report should not exceed 3000 words. The word count should include tables.  But references and the appendix should NOT be included in the word count. Your assignment should contain the following (all with reference to the survey methodological literature): 1.    An outline of the problems with the draft questions proposed by the Department of Education and an explanation as to why they are problematic. • An explanation of how you would suggest amending the questions to overcome these problems. • Redrafted questions to accompany your analysis (please attach these as an appendix). • This section should be a maximum of 500 words (out of a total of 3000 words). • Note: You are NOT required to produce a full questionnaire.  You are only required to amend the questions provided. 2.    A description of how you propose to undertake the survey and justifications for the design choices you make.  This should include:- • Survey mode • Sampling strategy • Issued and expected sample size (response rates) • Measures that could be taken to maximise response rates • Assessing sample representativeness • Consideration of the likely degree of precision of some key survey estimates (including confidence intervals) • Any other methodological issues you feel should be addressed. 3. A timetable for the design and completion of the survey.