Now Let's Talk About Me.

Week 4 was all about Surveys, polls and questionnaires. Admittedly I wasn't looking forward to this week's activities. As soon as anyone says the word 'compulsory' I immediately seem to harvest resistance. None the less, I filled my quota. First, I went through the list of surveys in the thread and scanned all the titles. I wasn't sure where to start so I decided that I'd start with the surveys that looked MOST interesting/relevant to me. Doing this highlighted the number one importance of having an appealing survey title, otherwise you simply don't get the respondent numbers that you might hope for. In all honesty, I didn't even bother with survey topics that I wasn't interested in - EXCEPT one! Why? Reflecting revealed to me that it was the catching title that sucked me in. Therefore, lesson learned.

In regards to all of the surveys, areas that were generally done well:

• Most topics were highly relevant to Bentley students that study internally.
• Surveys were based on 'hot topics' or themes that are currently trending
• Well formatted surveys, clear structures (Most if not all, used survey monkey)
• Most people used more than one style (multiple choice, rating, net promoter score)

Areas that could generally be improved:

• Few titles were enticing for less popular topics
• Logic was unclear, it felt like the survey was asking questions for the sake of asking questions
• General survey feedback was positive but not very critical or costructive
• Some survey titles needed to better reflect the subject of the survey
• Opportunities for participants to freely express an opinion

Areas that were generally absent:

• A survey description where the titles were not very specific
• Expectation-setting at the start of the survey (I looked at (and did 6)) of 7 surveys and I think only 2 had it)

'Let's Talk About You' 

(A Reflection On My Survey)

I created mine - remembering what I liked and didn't like from the other surveys. The strategy for my survey was:

1. To attract a high number of respondents
2. To raise awareness
3. To inform 

Objectives were:
1. To create a title that appealed to the audience ('generation me')
2. To understand existing awareness 
3. To convey specific information 


I met these objectives by thinking from an organisational perspective. I chose the Student Wellbeing Advisory Service as the program I pretendingly work for. The tactic was to get participants talking about their feelings first, then seamlessly introducing them to what I am trying to raise/gage awareness about. In only one day I have had 5 responses. That is a good indicator that students are doing my survey because they are interested in the topic, rather than because it's compulsory. This means I am more likely to get accurate information from respondents.

When I designed the survey, I intentionally used a variety of formats that were at my disposal because I wanted to gain a more in depth understanding of my audience (it helps create a holistic picture). However I only used those which were obviously beneficial. For example, the multi' choice question about study load would help me benchmark which student-type is more likely to be highly stressed or at risk of compromising their well being (overloaders?). This would help me target the group specifically when attracting students to the use of the service later on. Some designs were not suitable however. For example, net promoter score is not something you would use when gaging awareness, because it would be inaccurate information coming from a person who didn't know about or has not used the service. The insight from such a question would be irrelevant and misleading.It would disrupt my results. 

Overall, I am satisfied with my survey and the results. My only concern now is that of 4 participants, Only 1 has left feedback for my actual survey. While I love positive feedback (which it was), there was nothing highlighted for me to improve - which becomes problematic now as I write my blog because it is harder for me to identify what I could have done better.