Potential questionnaire design and administration problems

Potential questionnaire design and administration problems

• Bias through wording and ordering of questions

Since the population under research is large, there is possibility of biased questions to the respondents. For instance, a series of questions querying the respondent on the food usage patterns in different areas and their preferences on food in question may result to a biased assessment.

• The use of open ended questions

Since a large sample size is involved, the use of open ended questions when designing questionnaire may result to a varied range of answers making the comparison meaningless. This is because the topic on food usage patterns and preferences is wide and may require a detailed information. For instance, the study of senior citizens in USA may demand clear understanding on statistical characteristics of the population (Fraser et al, 2015). Other information that may be required include; understanding the current market and future trends. This may result to complications.

• Questions in which respondents may have incomplete knowledge

When designing a questionnaire, there is a possibility of asking questions that some senior citizens of USA food programs may not answer. For instance, it may be difficult to get correct answers based on questions such as; the average estimate of income spend on food by the citizens.

• Asking of much information in a single question

The target population is too large, therefore, problems may obviously arise on the questions asked under a single question. For example, a single question may be asked in the questionnaire requiring an identity of the daily amount of food used and their nutrient content. This can lead to incomplete answers from the respondents.

Solutions to the problems

• Problems on wording and ordering of questions can be solved by concentrating on a specific subtitle at a time. This will counter repetition of questions under the same subtopic.
• Challenges based on the use of open-ended questions can be avoided by application of multiple choice formats (Zamfirescu, 2015). However, there should not be overlap of suggested alternatives in the multiple choices.
• The questions should suite the academic qualifications of the citizen being interviewed. By doing this, there is no possibility of getting incomplete answers on the questions asked.
• The questions should be specific, that is, a single question should not demand varied answers otherwise it will result to contradictions.

Questionnaire offered in Caldera industry

Caldera is a software based industry in USA. It is recognized for managing spot colors and print profiles. This industry has manufactured a varied software products such as Caldera Network Desktop and DR-DOS operating systems (Muscio et al, 2015). Most significantly, Caldera companies have been able to use sophisticated modelling tools to achieve cost effect, science based products solutions for erosive and corrosive applications. The companies have succeed in this through wide research conducted on questionnaire designs. Different researchers are assigned research projects and end with different results thus a varied products and methods of operations in the industry.

Caldera industry questionnaires involve open-ended questions based on the company’s operations. Additionally, the questionnaires are detailed due to wide company’ operations. Thirdly, the Caldera questionnaires are specified on the topic under research at a time (Caldera & Johansson, 2015). I would change the point on detailed information associated with Caldera questions as this will possibly lead to confusions to the interviewees. For example, questions about methods used by other companies, I would specify on the methods not any other topic.

 References

Caldera, A., & Johansson, Å. (2013). The price responsiveness of housing supply in OECD           countries. Journal of Housing Economics, 22(3), 231-249.

Fraser, L. A., Albaum, J. M., Tadrous, M., Burden, A. M., Shariff, S. Z., & Cadarette, S. M. (2015).        Patterns of use for brand-name versus generic oral bisphosphonate drugs in Ontario over a       13-year period: a descriptive study. CMAJ open, 3(1), E91.

Muscio, A., Quaglione, D., & Vallanti, G. (2015). University regulation and university–industry   interaction: a performance analysis of Italian academic departments. Industrial and          Corporate Change, 24(5), 1047-1079.

Zamfirescu, C. (2015). Digraphs: Intersection, Transformations and Applications to Questionnaire            Design. Graph Theory Day 70, 1.