Asking Questions - The Definitive Guide To Questionnaire Design ...

ASKING QUESTIONS THAT EVALUATE PERFORMANCE 231
and so on. After instructors choose their items, items are inserted
onto a printed answer sheet along with two standard items. The
back of the questionnaire is reserved for open-ended responses. Figure
7.7 illustrates a subset of the SRL question bank questions used
to evaluate an instructor’s communication style.
Having only two standard questions is somewhat extreme. It is
more typical for schools to have a larger standard section of items
that apply to almost all courses and instructors with additional optional
item sections that allow the instructor to select specific (or
more diagnostic) items from the institutional pool. A more extreme
version of this can be found at schools that provide a small number
of standard forms (perhaps six to eight) that have some common
questions but that are tailored differently for courses depending
on whether they are primarily discussion-based, lecture-based, or
lab-based.
Finally, the third type of rating form is one used for all instructors
and all courses with no provision for additional items selected
by the instructor. Such forms are typically sponsored by the student
government association, and results are published campuswide.
(Figure 7.6 is an example of such a form.) Although efficient, these
forms do not offer the flexibility and diagnostic value of the more
stylized forms. In these cases it might be best for faculty members to
supplement these forms with their own questionnaire for diagnostic
purposes only. 1
It is important that an institution interested in implementing a
feedback form for its students seek the advice of individuals who
have experience in questionnaire design. This helps ensure a proper
design and more reliable and valid measures from the outset. It also
helps avoid questionnaires with too narrow applications and poorly
defined responses.
Types of Items
The items used to evaluate learning can be classified in terms of
(1) their content, (2) their level of inference, and (3) the type