This two-day course is aimed at those who need to plan and design questionnaire-based surveys and those who need to analyse the data collected. The first day covers the vital activities of designing a quality survey and obtaining a good sample. It covers the following topics.

• Defining your sample Choosing the right sampling methods to obtain a representative sample (e.g. stratified sampling, cluster sampling, multi-stage sampling,
• Deciding on the best way to collect your data (e.g. online, face-to-face, postal questionnaire,
• Designing questions to get good quality answers Deciding on the sample size needed to get estimates that have sufficient accuracy Using effect sizes and power to decide the sample size needed for statistical tests

The software G*Power will be used to demonstrate sample size calculations.

The second day will cover summarising the results of your survey, presenting the results and undertaking statistical tests. It concentrates on those analyses which are particularly appropriate for the sort of data commonly collected using questionnaires. It covers the following topics.

• Creating graphs and charts
• Calculating summary statistics
• Testing for differences between groups
• Investigating relationships between variables
• Fitting regression models

The software Excel and SPSS will be used to demonstrate sample size calculations.

See our full range of courses (and options for bespoke courses) at https://go.herts.ac.uk/sscu or contact the course organiser, Professor Neil Spencer, at statistics@herts.ac.uk.

There is no formal assessment as part of this course.