B087 Electronic IEQ survey

Use of electronic questionnaire surveys for indoor environment quality assessment in classrooms

Brief:

Sustaining indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in the classroom is a factor that influences teaching quality. The IEQ assessment consists of four fundamental indoor environmental qualifiers, namely, thermal, air quality, visual and aural comfort respectively. However, there is a lack of a suitable instrument to measure the physical parameters of IEQ and to record the simultaneous occupant subjective responses in the classroom. The conventional method of paper questionnaires not only consumed a lot of paper, but also included some mistakes by article input. This study proposed an electronic questionnaire and instrument to facilitate the continuous monitoring of the state of IEQ to investigate the satisfaction level of IEQ in the classroom.

One tablet PC is installed with an electronic questionnaire written by Delphi program to directly input the selection by the investigator. The physical parameters and the subjective responses are all automatically logged for analysis. The results can provide performance feed back to the investigators and indoor manager in real time, and also improve the IEQ immediately or keep the parameters in the original conditions. According to our survey in the classroom, the results by investigators were accurate and each investigator finished their electronic questionnaire and environmental parameter measurement within two minutes. The development in this study facilitates building managers in sustaining their target IEQ levels.

Further Information:

Lee MC, Wong LT, Mui KW, 2009. Use of electronic questionnaire surveys for indoor environment quality assessment in classrooms, 10th Asia Pacific Conference on the Built Environment, Green Energy for Environment, November 5-6 Ambassador Hotel Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Paper B03, pp. 1-6.