Data Collection Templates

Surveys are the most common form of data collection. The first page of the survey is where you “greet” your participant and establish that trust, so you want to put your best foot forward!

Some more best practice considerations when building surveys: 

• Do not assume that survey participants know you, about your survey, or completely understand the constructs for which you are asking questions about. Experimenters tend to assume that everyone is as excited and willing to participate in their survey as they are!

• Know your audience and use age- culture- and context-appropriate language.

• Try to be as brief as possible, but do include the most vital information. The survey template shows the most basic information that should be provided.

• Use bold or other fonts to call out important information.

• Modifications to the language should be considered depending on if it is an online or paper survey (e.g., a phone number might be helpful for contact, and there would need to be different instructions for how to obtain a gift card, etc.)

• When in doubt- pilot test your survey with those who are familiar with the project, those who aren’t, and actual participants, to get suggestions on what does not make sense or where changes are needed.

Satisfaction with your organization's services / programming is a common evaluation metric for programmatic grantees. Ideally, a standardized post-program survey across all of your individual program can collect data to gauge how programs are doing individually, and compared to each other, and how you are meeting short-term outcomes.

Following a protocol is essential for moderating / facilitating focus groups or interviews to collect rich qualitative in a systematic way. Protocols ensure you are asking the right questions, can anticipate the prompts that will be required, and that you will collect the qualitative data you need in the time that you have with participants.