LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEET 5

SURVEY - is a method of gathering information from a sample of people, traditionally with the intention of
generalizing the results to a larger population.
-Surveys provide a critical source of data and insights for nearly everyone engaged in the information
economy, from businesses and the media to government and academics.
-measures characteristics of interest about a population using a sample selected from the population.
A survey’s results can have errors. Some of the sources of errors are:
• Biased questions: The wording of questions in a survey can influence the way people respond to questions.
Survey questions need to be worded in a neutral, unbiased way.
• Interviewer effect: If an interviewer asks the questions in a survey, the person being interviewed may give
inaccurate responses to avoid being embarrassed.
• Nonresponse: Some people may be difficult to contact, or they may simply refuse to participate once
contacted. If nonresponse rates are higher for certain subgroups of a population, then those subgroups will be
underrepresented in the survey results.
There are 4 modes of survey data collection that are commonly used.
1. Face-to-face surveys
2. Cellphone surveys
3. Self-administered paper and pencil surveys
4. Self-administered computer surveys (typically online)

Here is a list of the most common question types:

1. Multiple Choice: Multiple Choice questions form the basis of most research. They can be displayed as a
traditional list of choices or as a dropdown menu, select box, etc.
2. Multi-Select: Multi-select is used when you want participants to select more than one answer from a list.
3. Text Entry: Text Entry is used to gather open-ended feedback from respondents. These responses can be
lengthy essays, standard form information such as name and email address, or anything in between.
4. Ranking Order: Rank Order is used to determine each respondent’s order of preference for a list of items.
These questions are best used when you want to measure your respondents’ attitude toward something.
5. Rating Order: Rating questions are asked to indicate their personal levels on things such as agreement,
satisfaction, or frequency
6. Matrix Table: Matrix Table is used to collect multiple pieces of information in one question. This type
provides an effective way to condense your survey or to group similar items into one question. An example is
the Likert scale.
7. Slider: Sliders let respondents indicate their level of preference with a draggable bar rather than a traditional
button or checkbox.
8. Side by Side: Side by Side questions let you ask multiple questions in one condensed table and provides an
effective way of shortening your survey while gathering the same amount of data.

EXPERIMENT
-It is a procedure carried out to support, refute or validate a hypothesis.
-A deliberate attempt to manipulate a situation, in order to test a hypothesis that a particular cause creates a
particular effect, in other words that varying input will affect the output.
- it provides insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a particular factor is
manipulated.
-researchers create a condition by imposing a treatment on some of the subjects of the experiment.
- For instance, an experiment might be conducted by having some people with eczema take a vitamin E pill
daily, and then observing whether their symptoms improve. In the experiment, taking the vitamin E pill is the
treatment
Step 1: Define your research question and variables. You should begin with a specific research question in
mind. You may need to spend time reading about your field of study to identify knowledge gaps and to find
questions that interest you.
Sample question: Phone use and sleep You want to know how phone use before bedtime affects sleep
patterns. Specifically, you ask how the number of minutes a person uses their phone before sleep affects the
number of hours they sleep.
Step 2: Write your hypothesis. Translate your research question into an experimental hypothesis, define the
main variables and make predictions about how they are related. Start by simply listing the independent and
dependent variables.
Research Question Independent Variable Dependent Variable
Phone Use and Sleep Minutes of phone use before sleep Hours of sleep per night
Step 3: Design your experimental treatments
How you manipulate the independent variable can affect the experiment’s external validity – that is, the extent
to which the results can be generalized and applied to the broader world. Phone-use experiment
You can choose to treat phone use as: - a categorical variable: either as binary (yes/no) or as levels of a factor
(no phone use, low phone use, high phone use). - a continuous variable (minutes of phone use measured
every night).
Step 4: Assign your subjects to treatment groups
Randomization
An experiment can be completely randomized or randomized within blocks or strata. In a completely
randomized design, every subject is assigned to a treatment group at random while in a randomized block
design (aka stratified random design), subjects are first grouped according to a characteristic they share, and
then randomly assigned to treatments within those groups.
OBSERVATION
It is a systematic data collection approach. Researchers use all of their senses to examine people in natural
settings or naturally occurring situations. Participant observation involves an intensive interaction between the
researcher and the participants. This means that as participant observer, the researcher joins the group he or
she is studying in their environment and participate in their activities.

How to Conduct Observations for Research

1. Identify Objective. Determine what you want to observe and why. Are looking to see how students respond
to a new environment? How customers interact with employees? How bosses interact with subordinates?
When conducting observations, you are trying to learn habits, patterns, behaviors, reactions, and general
information about people in a particular environment to better understand what they do and, hopefully
eventually, why they do it (though observations alone often won’t tell you the “why”).
2. Establish Recording Method. To make observations most effective, it’s important that you minimize or
eliminate any disruptive or unfamiliar devices into the environment you wish to observe. For example, it is often
least effective to video record observations in situations where the people being observed know they are being
filmed (but it’s usually unethical to film without telling them. Note-taking is the most common method, though in
some public spaces you can take photographs, audio recordings, and other methods.
3. Develop Questions and Techniques. Determine whether you are conducting an informal or a formal
observation (see explanations to the far right.) Knowing your objective, determine if there are specific
questions you have or if you are going in completely open-minded. What you hope to learn will help you know
what specifically to look for. Be prepared when entering an observation space by having a sound
understanding of the type of information you are trying learn.
4. Observe and Take Notes. Visit the space you are hoping to get information from. Be as unobtrusive as
possible, taking notes, photographs, audio, and film, only where it is allowed, you have permission, and it
makes sense for the research without disrupting the environment. If you are doing formal observations, will you
need to code certain behaviors, actions, words, visuals, and other observed data.
5. Analyze Behaviors and Inferences. Separate the difference between what you observed (which are
factual behaviors) and why what you observed happened. Typically, to make some sense of your observed
data, you will need to interview people in the environment you are observing, either during the observation
itself, or afterwards. Make connections between interactions, responses, behaviors, and other phenomena.

LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEET 6

SUMMARY
➢ A condensed form a specific text. It has the main idea of the text and is composed of your own words
➢ A good summary portrays your understanding of the text. Upon summarizing, you should acknowledge
one’s work.
➢ The other way of making text short is through visual summary.
VISUAL SUMMARY
➢ Uses image and graphics to help better understand the main idea of the text.
➢ This may be incorporated within the full report or as a separate sheet to be given as a handout or to be
posted online.
➢ A good device for attracting the readers in your key findings, especially those who doesn’t have time to read.
➢ Tips for creating a visual summary effective:
• Do a brainstorming of the plan, before making;
• Center your attention on the key findings, not in methodology;
• Do a contextualization of your findings;
• Graphics should enhance the understanding; and
• Keep it simple yet full of knowledge.
SUMMARIZING FINDINGS AND EXECUTING THE REPORT THROUGH NARRATIVE AND VISUAL/
GRAPHIC FORMS
A component of summary of the findings is to provide a discussion for each of the findings, using anchor
verbiage that justifies rather than distorts the intent of the findings. It tells us how the findings are important or
relevant based on the aim and scope of your study.
A summary is a synthesis of the key ideas of a piece of writing, restated in your own words – i.e., paraphrased.
You may write a summary as a stand-alone assignment or as part of a longer paper. Whenever you
summarize, you must be careful not to copy the exact wording of the original source.
Summarizing teaches students how to discern the most important ideas in a text, how to ignore irrelevant
information, and how to integrate the central ideas in a meaningful way. Teaching students to summarize
improves their memory for what is read. Summarization strategies can be used in almost every content area.
Due to clarity demand, summary of findings must contain each specific question under the statement of the
problem and must be written first to be followed by the findings that would answer it.
The findings should be textual generalizations, that is, a summary of the important data consisting of text and
numbers.
WRITING A SURVEY REPORT
Survey report
Is a formal piece of writing based on research. When reporting the results of a survey, the figures gathered
should be given in the form of percentages and proportions.
Survey
Is a method of collecting information or data in which people self-report their own opinion/behaviors in
response to the questions.
-The purpose(s) of writing a survey report is to study a research topic thoroughly, and to summarize the
existing studies in an organized manner. It is an important step in any research project.
Steps in writing a Survey Report
1. Break the report into separate sections with heading. Survey reports usually use headings for each section.
2. Write a 1-2 page executive summary paraphrasing the report.
3. State the objectives of the survey in the background section.
4. Provide background information by explaining research and studies.
A Survey Method is the technique of gathering data by asking questions to people who are thought to have
desired information. A formal questionnaire is prepared. Generally, a non-disguised approach is used. The
respondents are asked questions on their demographic interest or opinion.
HOW TO WRITE A SURVEY REPORT
A survey report is a formal piece of writing based on research.
I. Structure
-Introduction
State the purpose/aim of the report, when and how the information was gathered.
-Main Body
All the information collected and analyzed is presented clearly and in detail (break down the respondents into
groups according to sex, age and place of residence, state the main differences between groups).
Subheadings, numbers or letters can be used to separate each piece of information.
-Conclusion
Sum up the points mentioned above. If necessary a recommendation can be included as well (one way of
summing up is making some general comments).
II. Useful hints and phrases:
Present Tenses, Reported Speech and an impersonal style should be used in survey reports. Use a variety of
reporting verbs such as claim, state, report, agree, complain, suggest, etc.
When reporting the results of a survey, the figures gathered should be given in the form of percentages and
proportions. Expressions such as “one in four” or “six out of ten” can be used, or exact percentages e.g. 25%
of the people questioned, 68% of those who filled in the questionnaire, etc. Less exact expressions such as:
the majority of those questioned, a large proportion of, a significant number of, etc. can also be used.
III. Useful language for reports:
To introduce: The purpose/aim of this report, As requested, This survey was carried out/ conducted by means
of…,the questionnaire consisted of etc.
To generalize: In general, generally, on the whole, etc.
To refer to a fact: The fact is that…, In fact, In practice, etc.
To conclude/ summarize: In conclusion, All things considered, To sum up, All in all, it is not easy to reach any
definite conclusions, If any conclusions may be drawn from the data, It is clear that, The survey
shows/indicates/demonstrates, etc.