2. Understand the Basic Structure of Survey Items
2.2 Survey items capturing facts or measuring perceived quality/value
Survey items can be designed to capture different types of information from respondents. Broadly, these fall into two categories:
- Factual information (what something is or was)
- Perceived quality or value (how someone feels about or evaluates something)
2.2.1 Capturing facts
Fact-capturing survey items focus on objective or descriptive information. These may include:
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- demographic information such as name, date of birth, gender identity, racial or ethnic background, professional and academic experience, and years of employment
- experiential information such as whether the respondent has completed a specific training program, used a particular tool, or participated in a project.
These items are not designed to assess opinions or judgments but to collect non-evaluative, concrete data. Although many of these survey items use closed-ended response formats, they typically do not use rating scales. Instead, they use options like checkboxes, dropdowns, or ‘select all that apply’ formats. Below are few examples.
What is your date of birth?
Month [ ] [ ] Date [ ] [ ] Year [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Which racial group(s) do you belong to? Select all that apply.
☐ White
☐ Black or African American
☐ American Indian and Alaska Native
☐ Asian
☐ Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
☐ Please describe: ______________
How many times have you used this device?
○ Never
○ 1-2 times
○ 3-5 times
○ More than 5 times
How did you find out about this position? Select all that apply.
- ☐ Job fair
- ☐ Newspaper
- ☐ Recruiter
- ☐ Friend/colleague
- ☐ Other source. Please describe: ________________
When did you start this program?
○ Spring, 2024
○ Summer, 2024
○ Fall, 2024
○ Winter, 2024
Did you have to use the help desk to get assistance?
○ Yes ○ No
2.2.2 Measuring perceived quality or value
Some survey items are designed to measure how respondents perceive the quality, effectiveness, or value of a program, product, service, or individual. These items typically use a rating scale and require respondents to reflect on their opinions, attitudes, or personal experiences. unlike fact-capturing items, these survey items are subjective and help assess how well something is received or evaluated by the target audience. Below are examples of survey items that measure perceived quality or value using rating scales:
How well did the trainer facilitate the discussion?
○ Very ineffectively
○ Somewhat ineffectively
○ Somewhat effectively
○ Very effectively
The program helped me understand the areas that I need to improve to become a more effective manager.
○ Strongly disagree
○ Somewhat disagree
○ Neutral
○ Somewhat agree
○ Strongly agree
The content of the program was easy to learn.
○ Strongly disagree
○ Somewhat disagree
○ Neutral
○ Somewhat agree
○ Strongly agree
Management seeks input from employees when making major decisions.
Very untrue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Very true
I am engaged in meaningful work.
○ Yes ○ No
How knowledgeable about the products was the salesperson?
○ Not at all
○ A little bit
○ Somewhat
○ Quite a bit
○ Very much
How was the service provided by the agent?
○ Totally ignored me
○ Was very slow and kept me waiting unnecessarily
○ Completed my request, but took longer than expected
○ Completed my request promptly, but made some errors
○ Completed my request promptly and accurately
Would you recommend this product to others?
○ Yes ○ No
Whether you are capturing factual information or measuring perceived value or quality, each survey item collects information about an abstract concept, also known as a construct. The following section provides further details on survey items designed to measure constructs.
