Google Forms: Creating Questions

Objectives and Overview

This lesson introduces Google Forms and provides a walkthrough on how to use the tool for data collection. 

Lesson Objectives

• Identify how to craft neutral questions
• Learn different types of question
• Learn types of questions that should be avoided
• Identify the difference between quantitative and qualitative data

---

Google Forms: Asking Neutral Questions

When crafting questions for your target audience, you need to remain neutral to ensure honest answers. Being unclear can result in participants not being able to complete your survey.

Let’s look at 5 things to avoid when writing your questions:

1. Speak the language of your Audience

• Formal language – These are words that aren’t used in everyday conversation. For example, “I was unabashed when I slipped in the water spill.” Unabashed means “not embarrassed”. 
• Confusing Words – These are words that mean different things to different people. For example, if I asked “True or False, you exercise regularly” —What does regularly mean? For some, it could be every day, 5 times a week, or even 1 once a week. What is regular for one person is different for the next.
• Abbreviations – Let’s say you wrote a question asking “What topics should YW cover?” You and I may know that “YW” stands for YouthWorks, but others may not. 

2. Leading Questions – This is when surveyors phrase a question that forces the reader to sway to one side (often to the benefit of the surveyor). 

• For example, “Do you want the $400 TV or the $600 TV”  vs “Do you want to buy a TV”
• “Do you agree her outfit doesn’t match?” vs “What do you think of her outfit?”

3.  Double Barreled Questions – This is when you ask two questions at the same time. This causes confusion and skewed data. 

• For example, “Do you agree or disagree, school is interesting and useful?” 

We’re asking two questions, “Is school interesting?” and “Is school useful?”

4. Using Absolutes – Absolutes make it impossible for your target audience to give useful feedback.

• For example, “Yes or No – You always eat lunch?” Does everyone always eat lunch? Do you skip if you’re not hungry? By always we’re implying since the day this individual was born they eat lunch every single day. This is likely inaccurate and can lead to skewed data. 

5. Loaded Questions – Loaded questions often suggest that participants have to select an answer that doesn’t relate to them.

• For example, let’s say you’re vegetarian and the survey asks, “Where do you enjoy eating chicken wings?” and gives 4 restaurants to choose from. What answer do you select? Keep this in mind when writing your own questions. You can also offer a “non-applicable option”. 

Google Forms: Question Structure

There are several ways to structure your questions. Each question will result in two types of data. 

Quantitative data – These are data points that are based on numerical data. When you see the “n” in “quantitative” data, think numbers. 

Qualitative data – These are data points that are based on experiences. These are descriptions of experiences, feelings, colors, and visual models like paintings.

Depending on how we phrase our questions, we’ll get quantitative or quantitative data. 

Let’s look at types of questions:

1. Open Ended Questions: These are questions that require more than one word to answer. These generally result in qualitative data. 
2. How did you meet your partner?
3. What’s it like to live in Baltimore?
4. What are your summer plans?
5. Close Ended Questions: These are questions that can be answered in a simple, one-word reply. 
6. What’s your favorite color?
7. Did you get takeout last night?
8. Did you have a good day at work?
9. Rating Questions: You probably see these often for apps- asking you to rate them in the app store. 
10. How would you rate this game?
11. How many stars would you give the movie?
12. Likert Scale: These offer a range for you to choose how much you agree with a statement. 
13. How satisfied are you with our service? : Dissatisfied, somewhat dissatisfied, neither dissatisfied or satisfied, somewhat satisfied, satisfied. 
14. How important is it that you have access to customer support 24/7?: very important, important, neutral, low importance, not at all important.

You can use a combination of these questions in your forms to get the data you’re looking for. 

Quantitative data is generally easy to work with. As we saw in the Sheets Lessons, we can easily sort and make calculations from our data when working with numbers. 

Qualitative data is a little tricker as we do not want to influence data with our opinions. We have to find ways to analyze this data objectively.

• Organize data 
• Group data that belong together (exp, responses to related questions)
• Interpret data – This involves looking at the data you collected but also conducting your own research to understand your data’s relevance
• Patterns – Identity patterns in your findings. Do people generally use the same keywordsin their replies?
• Analysis – Now that the data is collected and sorted we can identify relationships and make suggestions based on our findings. We have to be careful though, we generally don’t want to suggest cause and effect relationships. It is impossible to account for other variables that could be influencing your data. 

For example, you could say, “Our research suggests people would be more likely to visit the library if they had an outdoor reading area.” 

This is different from, “100 more people would visit the library if they created an outdoor reading area”. 

Google Forms: What’s It Good For?

Data is power. The more data you have on a specific subject, the better the result. There can be lots of reasons to develop a questionnaire or survey. 

Let’s check out a few examples:

• You want to measure the effectiveness of a tutor for a class of 5th graders. Before any tutoring sessions, you’ll create a pre survey or test to see what subject areas they are stronger or weaker in. Let’s say each student receives 3 tutoring sessions. After, they will take a post survey with the same or similar questions as the pre survey. Then you could compare their scores- did they improve?
• Things to consider: While survey data is very helpful and important, sometimes outside factors can influence our results.

For example, if students’ scores increased, was it due to the tutoring sessions or because they went home and practiced on their own? 

It’s often hard to draw absolute conclusions, we can only say “the data suggests tutoring is effective. After the tutoring sessions, student scores increased by 10%”

• The mayor wants you to conduct research on homelessness in your community, What could you ask?
• Have you experienced homelessness?
• What actions do you think the community could take to help homeless people?
• What do you think the homeless population is in your community?
• On a scale of 1-10, 1 being least important and 10 being a top priority, what value would you assign the need for action on homelessness in your community?

• Your Grandma wants to throw a party. She’s not sure what music to play. She’s asked you to find out what people like these days. What questions could you ask?
• What’s your favorite song?
• What bands do you follow?
• What is your favorite genre?

Question Activity

Your turn!

Copy and paste these scenarios into a Google Doc and generate at least 2 good questions for each example. 

• Your school wants to build a hang-out spot for clubs to meet after school. They’re not sure what the space should look like or if kids would even be interested. What questions would you tell them to ask?
• You’re writing a class on how to create surveys and want to measure the effectiveness of your course. What questions could you ask?