Death by survey

STOP PRESS. UCAS are stepping up consultancy and looking to improve insight. And drum up business, no doubt. In a nod to the dangers of survey fatigue, UCAS have, however declared in the process of improving insight and making money, no applicant would be surveyed more than seven times.

Seven times.

Then there's Youthsight's Higher Expectations survey. And The Student Room's Options. Then there's the National Clearing Survey. There will be international barometers, open day surveys for every institution applied to - Beds included - then the Accepters (hoorah!) or Decliners (sniff...) surveys. And Buzzfeeds, paid surveys, forms which feel like surveys, forms which are designed not to feel like surveys etc.

All this before people choose whether or not they're going to enrol, when they'll be duly served by Welcome and New Student surveys.

Little wonder that surveys across many institutions are becoming less and less effective, as participation rates shrink and survey fatigued subjects either limp or sprint through forms, with their brains and emotions engaged purely on the carrotty incentive attached as a reward for completion. Surveying student views is incredibly important. The problem we face is that by the time we have students, the human beings have been asked so many questions that they're punch drunk.

For my own part, as a member of University staff, there's Beds Stars. A way for individuals to highlight other individuals who have provided exceptional collegiate support. I'm not surveyed anything like as much as students are, but I feel weary about Beds Stars. A begrudging degree of guilt and responsibility will push me towards filling in a few nominations, particularly because the Uni is full of excellent, friendly and helpful people. Many of us are, after all, stars, regardless of whether or not we're nominated. Surely. We deserve credit, but the Stars thing's a little arbitrary. Too important to lay on people who may not be especially informed about the starry qualities of people they're not nominating.

What if I deserve a nomination, but I work in a more isolated area, or the people I work with are less likely to fill in or even to have heard of the scheme?

Filling in some survey or other

Beds Stars feels a tiny bit like the Brexit referendum - individuals won't and can't know the bigger picture and may be confused or duped by propaganda. Beds Stars feels even more like market research, to be fair, in as much as it's a kind of answer for a kind of unanswerable problem. Fine as far as it goes, but not the be all and end all.

All that said, I hope to be nominated this year.

There's no place on Beds Stars to nominate teams. Which is a shame. Shouldn't we be thinking more of effective, silo-busting, friendly and co-operative teams? Or is this just a pipe dream of some busted guy who remembers when we talked rather than emailed, served tea from thee olde Clipper ships in china cups and weren't all beholden to fake celebration on social media?

Anyway, my partner's off this weekend, so I'll mainly be watching jazz in a Luton club, rock and roll in a Luton pub and steam trains and football in Bury, Greater Manchester.

To survey, or not to survey.....

Happy new year everyone. 

Hope you got through the turkey, Baileys and mince pies (other festivities/comestibles  available) and are  plugged in to take 2018 by the horns (other animal parts also available).

January often brings hope and expectation. Or a sense of tension and gloomy foreboding. Is such optimism/pessimism well-founded? One way to find out would be to do a survey. 

Meh.

In this blog, I’m going to look at when it's good to use surveys, their limitations and when you may be better off doing something else. Knocking a survey together is dead easy; crafting a questionnaire that delivers is a different prospect. It's like comparing Dairylea with Stilton. And so, ok, sometimes there's time for Dairylea......... if you're a maniac with no taste (see left).


Why survey?
Good question. One you should always ask yourself and/or your survey sponsor. If you don't have a  clear set of aims and objectives, scrap the idea. If the reason for doing the survey is anything like “It would be quite interesting to…..”, turn on your heel and FLEE.

Medieval fleeing

Surveys can confirm hypotheses and quantify suppositions, but rarely provide insight. If you're after insight or new ideas or have no idea of your audience views, you should chatting to them, not surveying. Listening rather than asking questions. Unless you have a good idea of your outcomes or potential outcomes beforehand, you’re on dodgy ground setting questions and expecting meaningful answers.

How do I confirm hypotheses and quantify suppositions?
Surveys. Though bear in mind, surveys are blunt instruments. The ideal market research survey should:

• be accessible (usually online - but do consider anyone without access to computers);
• be as short as possible - only ask questions key to the survey aims and objectives and keep open ended (non-precoded questions) to an absolute minimum;
• be piloted (tested). Get another set of eyes. I get fantastic help from colleagues in the CRM team, who have no problem telling me when questions or layouts don't work. I don't pretend to be Gary Gallup or Micky Mori, but would be happy to cast an eye over any survey you may be proposing - give me a shout;
• like I said, be AS SHORT AS POSSIBLE - if you don't need to know the views of different sexes or age/ethnicity groups, don't ask (it's good practice from a GDPR point of view);
• contain questions which are  clear and unambiguous, and easy to answer (remember, you can't explain things or correct any misinterpretations if you're not face-to-face). Here are some of the more common mistakes when drafting questions;
• be something which can be acted on – don’t ask about a la carte dining experiences if you’re researching locations for a grotty tea bar;



Keep questions as short as possible

• be something people will want to do. Offer incentives (very important for students; staff aren’t allowed a prize draw, although you could think about a charity donation based on the number of responses).

Check and share data early – an early check will confirm if an online survey is working. It may also prepare managers for any shock results if you're lucky/unlucky to get them.

Be prepared to be ignored
So. There will be times when minds are already made up. I recently carried out a survey looking at different choices of artwork. It was a good survey and gave a clear "winner". Inexplicaby, the third most popular design - there were four in all - was used. Fine. This isn’t a sob story. It does, however, illustrate how running a survey can be a waste, both in development and time spent by respondents. It’s always worth asking “will these results matter”? If not, why are you surveying?

Who do I survey?
You should be looking to represent the views and taking time to identify and reach a specific audience. This could, for example, be students, applicants or staff. It could be a combination of groups. Think about each audience's expectations – students and applicants may expect an incentive (immediate gratification), staff may be looking for feedback down the line to engender (so encouraging engagement and buy-in).

When should I survey?
Again, think about your audience and plan.

• For most audiences avoid holiday times;
• Check what else is going on, survey-wise. If you want to survey students, you need to contact the Student Experience team;
• If you want views on an initiative, it's best to ask the questions after the initiative;
• If you want to test the initiative, you may think about repeating questions before and after the initiative and check out the difference.

Anyway, this is all basic stuff. Quant 101. But then surveys should be basic.

Thanks for reading. This weekend, I'm going to have a shave and a haircut. i might think about The Ramones. Here's The Ramones with a top tune: