The purpose of pre-testing is to fine tune the questionnaire before full deployment.  Generally speaking, there are two levels of pre-testing which can be performed.

The first level revolves around the administration of the survey instrument. For example, on this level with a web survey, the pre-testing activities would focus on evaluating the:

• clarity of question working;
• relevancy of the response options;
• functioning of survey controls (e.g., skip patterns, back references);
• overall length, flow, and user-friendliness of the instrument; and
• non-response patterns for the questions.

A second level of pre-testing involves the evaluation of the statistical reliability and validity of the instrument itself. In this situation, greatest emphasis is placed on testing the reliability and validity of the individual items as well as any scales (behavioral/attitudinal) that might have been incorporated into the scope of the questionnaire. Larger sample sizes are required for this level of pre-testing in that the number of responses used for data analysis must be large enough to ensure a reasonable level of confidence.

Instrument pre-testing is typically conducted with a sub-sample of respondent frame, rather than a completely separate sample to ensure the generalizability of the pre-test results.

Once the questionnaire content has been pre-tested and finalized, Statistical Reasoning will custom program the survey for deployment via the Internet. Click here to learn more.

Click here to learn more about the features and capabilities of SR's online surveys.

Click here to learn more on how Statistical Reasoning can help you manage the online survey project from delivery of the email invitations to delivery of the final data file, and everything in between.