Initial Survey Design

Develop an initial survey based on a topic of interest in your personal or professional life.

Required Resources

The following resources are required to complete the assessment.

Capella Resources

Click the links provided to view the following resources:

• Initial Survey Design Template.

SHOW LESS

Suggested Resources

The following optional resources are provided to support you in completing the assessment or to provide a helpful context. For additional resources, refer to the Research Resources and Supplemental Resources in the left navigation menu of your courseroom.

Library Resources

The following e-books from the Capella University Library are linked directly in this course:

• Naghshpour, S. (2012). Statistics for economics. New York, NY: Business Expert Press.
  • Chapter 1, "Descriptive Statistics," pages 1–28.
• Urdan, T. C. (2005). Statistics in plain English (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  • Chapter 1, "Introduction to Social Science Research and Terminology," pages 1–6.

Course Library Guide

A Capella University library guide has been created specifically for your use in this course. You are encouraged to refer to the resources in the MAT-FP2001 – Statistical Reasoning Library Guide to help direct your research.

Internet Resources

Access the following resources by clicking the links provided. Please note that URLs change frequently. Permissions for the following links have been either granted or deemed appropriate for educational use at the time of course publication.

• Easton, V. J., & McColl, J. H. (n.d.). Statistics glossary. Retrieved from http://www.stats.gla.ac.uk/steps/glossary/index.html
  • Basic Definitions.
  • Presenting Data.
  • Sampling.
• Lane, D. M. (n.d.). Online statistics education: A multimedia course of study. Retrieved from http://onlinestatbook.com/2/index.html
  • Introduction.
• StatTrek.com. (2014). Statistics tutorial. Retrieved from http://stattrek.com/tutorials/statistics-tutorial.aspx
  • What Are Variables?
  • Probability Distributions: Discrete vs. Continuous.
  • Survey Sampling Methods.
  • Introduction to Survey Sampling.
  • Stratified Random Sampling.
  • What Is Cluster Sampling?
• StatSoft, Inc. (2013). Electronic statistics textbook. Tulsa, OK: Author. Retrieved from http://www.statsoft.com/Textbook 
  • Getting Started With Statistics Concepts.

Bookstore Resources

The resource listed below is relevant to the topics and assessments in this course and is not required. Unless noted otherwise, this resource is available for purchase from the Capella University Bookstore. When searching the bookstore, be sure to look for the Course ID with the specific –FP (FlexPath) course designation.

• Bennett, J. O., Briggs, W. L., & Triola, M. F. (2014). Statistical reasoning for everyday life (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Assessment Instructions

Note: Complete this assessment and wait for faculty feedback before beginning Assessment 2.

Before rushing out to collect data, it is important to clearly define what you are trying to accomplish and what you are trying to answer from your study. This assessment provides an opportunity for you to demonstrate your ability to define your goals and begin to formulate a data collection strategy to meet those goals.

Using the Initial Survey Design Template linked in the Resources under the Required Resources heading, identify a topic of interest in your personal or professional life and explain your reasons for selecting the topic and your thoughts about the study design. As you fill out the template, keep in mind that surveys are usually done to answer some sort of question. This topic could be something based on your professional activities or your personal interests. In other words, you get to make the subject of the statistical study something to which you can relate.

Address the following in the template:

1. Describe the topic of your survey.
2. Explain why the topic is important. (How might the results of the study be used in your personal or professional life?)
3. Identify and describe the potential variables to be included in data gathering.
4. Define the population to be studied.
5. Explain why this is the best population for your study.

Initial Survey Design Scoring Guide

CRITERIA NON-PERFORMANCE BASIC PROFICIENT DISTINGUISHED Define a study topic in relation to its importance in one's personal or professional life.Does not describe a survey topic. Describes a survey topic, but does not explain its importance to one's personal or professional life. Defines a study topic in relation to its importance in one's personal or professional life. Defines a study topic in relation to its importance in one's personal or professional life, and provides specific examples of how the results could be used in one's personal or professional life. Identify potential variables to include in data gathering related to a survey topic. Does not identify potential variables to include in data gathering. Identifies potential variables to include in data gathering, but some of the variables are not relevant to the survey topic. Identifies potential variables to include in data gathering related to a survey topic. Identifies potential variables to include in data gathering related to a survey topic, and describes why they are appropriate. Explain why a specific population is appropriate for a study. Does not specify a population for a study. Specifies a population for a study. Explains why a specific population is appropriate for a study. Explains why a specific study population is appropriate for a study compared to other potential populations.