You may create closed-ended, open-ended, graphical, and scale items in the questionnaires. You can use just one style of questionnaire or a mix of them. Which form or forms will likely provide the needed data depends on the nature of the problem and the characteristics of the respondents.

a. Closed form

The closed form of a questionnaire usually consists of a prepared list of concrete questions and A choice of possible answers. To indicate his answer, the respondent simply marks ‘yes’ or ‘no;’ or checks one or more items from the list of answers. Often an alternative “Do not Know” is provided in items seeking opinions on highly controversial matters. For example, Do you think that a person known for his strong views against the maintenance of a peaceful atmosphere in educational institutions should be allowed to make a speech in your city on This subject?
•Yes
•No
•Do not know
Respondents may occasionally be asked to rate a range of claims, justifications, contributing variables, etc., according to significance or interest. Below is an illustration:
Why did you select this university to get your Master of Arts in EPM? Please list the top three reasons (1 being the most significant, 2 being the second most important, and 3 being the third most important) in order of significance.

• Convenience of transportation
• Advice of a friend
• Reputation of institution
• Expense factors
• Scholarship aid
• Other (please specify)

Closed-ended questionnaires are simple to complete and aid in maintaining respondents’ attention on the topic. However, they frequently fall short of disclosing the respondent’s motivations (the reasons behind his replies), they don’t always obtain information that is comprehensive and in-depth, and they might not be able to distinguish between subtler nuances of meaning. Respondents may be forced to take a stance on topics about which they do not yet have a firm view or to provide replies that do not fully capture their thoughts due to fixed alternative options. Let’s look at the following questions from a survey given to prominent national educators: Student unions should be free to voice their opinions on any political topic without limitations. YES/NO
This should happen right away in all English-medium schools. YES/NO
Only those who support or oppose “student unions” and “English-medium schools” could respond “yes” or “no” to these questions. Also, a thorough explanation of the various facets of the problems at hand by recognized experts in education would be more beneficial.
The dosed form of the questionnaire is a perfectly adequate instrument for obtaining specific kinds of information, notwithstanding the aforementioned drawbacks. It is also simple, quick to complete, keeps the responder focused, somewhat objective, and straightforward to tabulate and analyze.

Read: Research tools and its different types used in behavioral disciplines

b. Open form

The open form, also known as the unconstrained style of the questionnaire, allows respondents to freely react in their own words without pressuring them to select between tightly constrained options. For instance, the open-form items that follow look for the same kind of data as the closed-form items in the previously mentioned paragraphs 2.4 and 2.6.
What made you decide to pursue an M.A. in EPM at this particular university?
What kind of policy should student unions implement regarding their freedom to freely express their opinions on political matters?

What should be done about English-medium institutions that might wish to reduce their dosage?
Observe that no hints are provided. The responders are allowed to voice their opinions. This enables respondents to react in more detail, perhaps disclosing their context and motivations for their choices of words. It is challenging to retrieve the majority of the completed surveys since it takes more work on the side of the respondent. It might be challenging to evaluate, tabulate, and summarise this kind of data in a study report at times. The funnel is a unique kind of open-ended question. In actuality, It is a series of inquiries used to gather data about a single, significant issue or a single group of related topics. The funnel starts with a broad question and narrows down progressively to the important specific point.

Another form of funnel starts with an open general question and uses follow-up and specific types of closed questions. After asking the broad general question of policy about student unions, the questionnaire may include the following:
• Prevent all demonstrations outside the premises of the Institution.
Yes No
• Prevent demonstrations that are likely to strain our relations with some foreign countries.
Yes No
• Prevent demonstrations outside foreign embassies.
Yes No

There are several drawbacks to this instrument. For instance, respondents may inadvertently leave out crucial information or neglect to include enough details when responding to generic questions without any obligations to direct their reasoning. Subjects cannot offer meaningful data if they cannot express themselves clearly and the willing to evaluate issues carefully and thoughtfully. Even if they could have provided relevant information, their intricate and elaborate responses may have caused issues. These drawbacks can be reduced, though, provided the questions are correctly formulated, written, and used. In addition to being adaptable and having the potential to go deeper, open-ended questions can foster rapport and collaboration, improve estimations of respondents’ genuine goals, beliefs, and attitudes, and promote cooperation. Answers to open-ended questions may indicate to you. You can identify potential relationships and hypotheses by looking through the answers to open-ended questions. Answers from respondents might occasionally reveal relationships that you had not initially considered while creating the inquiry.

c. Pictorial form:

In place of written statements, some questions provide respondents with visual drawings and photos from which to select their responses. Additionally, they could give instructions verbally as opposed to in writing. This type of questionnaire works very well for gathering information from adults and children who struggle with reading. Images frequently draw respondents’ attention more quickly than words on paper, reduce subjects’ reluctance to answer, and pique their curiosity about the topic. Sometimes they allow for the accurate depiction of circumstances that are difficult to explain verbally, and other times they enable the detection of attitudes or data collection that would be impossible to get through other means. Pictorial techniques, however, possess, at least, two limitations:
1) their use must be restricted to situations involving distinguishable and understandable visual characteristics, and
2) they are difficult to standardize particularly when pictures are photographs of human beings.

d. Scale items:

A scale item is a question that allows the respondent to indicate how much they agree or disagree. The respondent states his position on the scale, and scale items have set choices. As a result, the information on the English-medium universities might be shown as follows: All English-medium institutions should be closed forthwith.
• Strongly agree
• Agree
• Undecided
• Disagree
• Strongly disagree

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The research tools are frequently employed in carrying out a study. The four categories of research tools that are most commonly employed in behavioral research have been covered:

A. Questionnaire
B. Interview
C. Observation
D. Tests and appraisal instruments

A. Questionnaire

A questionnaire is a set of carefully selected and ordered questions prepared by an investigator to seek factual information from respondents or to find their opinions, Attitudes, or interests. Some authors restrict the use of the word questionnaire to a Set of Questions seeking factual information whereas those seeking opinions are called Opinionaire and those dealing with the attitude of the respondent are called attitude scale. However, it is generally agreed that isolating specific questions for the consideration of Respondents tends to objectify, intensify, and standardize their observations.

Objectives of a Questionnaire

These are effective instruments that support the collection of important data needed to make wise judgments.

To achieve this basic objective, researchers must formulate specific research questions that gather targeted and directly pertinent data within their field of study. Take a look at a survey designed to gather customer preferences for environmentally friendly goods. Surveys are helpful tools for learning about the viewpoints, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of both people and groups. Insight into certain problems and subjects is provided via responses.

Questionnaires are a common tool used by companies and service providers to assess client satisfaction and obtain input. By identifying areas for improvement, these surveys assist in ensuring better goods and services. In the hotel sector, customer satisfaction surveys assess worker behavior, cleanliness of the rooms, and overall client satisfaction. It is possible to identify similarities or differences in a sample by examining its patterns. For instance, studies examine the purchasing habits of various age groups and spot patterns in the relative popularity of online and in-store purchases.

Consumers have the power to strengthen or weaken a business’s reputation. You may learn about your audience’s tastes and wants by distributing surveys and taking appropriate action. Long-time clients receive loyalty surveys that gauge their reasons for being loyal as well as their propensity to refer others to the company.

Read: Commercial use of papers published under the Open Access model (CC-BY-NC)

B. Interview

Many people are more willing to communicate information verbally than in writing and, therefore, will provide data more readily and fully in an interview than on a questionnaire. Indeed you can have several advantages from the friendly interaction in an interview that cannot be obtained in limited, impersonal questionnaire contacts.

Probably the oldest and most common method the man uses to get knowledge is the interview. Face-to-face interactions take place as the interviewer poses questions to the responder, also known as the interviewee, with the goal of eliciting information relevant to the study’s concerns.

You, as the interviewer, may continuously support the interviewees in a face-to-face encounter by encouraging them to go further into an issue. You can get information from an interviewee that written responses cannot provide by listening to their accidental remarks, body language, and tone of voice. To get knowledge and extract private and secret information, the aural and visual cues also assist you in maintaining the pace and tone of the private discussion. The auditory and visual clues also help you keep the tempo of the tone of the private conversation to elicit personal and confidential information and to gain knowledge about motivations, feelings, attitudes, and beliefs.

Purpose of the Interview

Interviews differ in their nature, goal, and extent. They might be carried out for advice or study. You can limit them to one person or give them to several individuals. There are, in essence, three primary uses for interviews.

a. It may be applied as an exploratory tool to help find variables and relationships, provide recommendations for hypotheses, and direct the next research stages.

b. It is capable of being employed as a research tool. In this instance, the research will include questions intended to gauge its variables. Consequently, rather than being merely information-gathering tools, these questions are regarded as items in a psychometric instrument.

c. It can be used to supplement other methods used in a research study: to follow up unexpected results, to validate other methods, and to go deeper into the motivation of respondents and their reasons for responding as they do.

C. Observation

Direct observation may be a valuable tool for collecting data in descriptive research. You can get certain kinds of information best by looking them over directly. For instance, the materials used in construction, the number of rooms used for different purposes, the size of the rooms, the quantity of furniture and equipment, the presence or absence of certain amenities, and other pertinent details are some features of a school structure. By contrasting these facilities with realistic benchmarks that have already been established by expert opinion and investigation, their sufficiency may be ascertained. However, data collection by observation becomes considerably more complicated when studying human subjects in activity is involved.

Here you must know “what to look for?” and “how to look for.?” You must be able to distinguish between the significant aspects of the situation and factors that have little or even no importance to the investigation. This requires the selection of situations where observational techniques are useful. The overt conduct of people in everyday situations is the focus of observation. The overt conduct of individuals in everyday situations is a significant area of study in human observation. Under artificially controlled laboratory circumstances, it is not profitable to observe many significant features of human conduct. Descriptive research methods aim to characterize behavior in naturalistic settings.

Tests and Appraisal Instruments

Tests, inventories, scales, and other research-based assessment tools have been created recently and are widely utilized in research, especially in experimental and descriptive research in behavioral disciplines. These tools are intended to quantify and characterize a subset of specific facets of human behavior. These evaluation tools claim to evaluate a wide range of human potentials, accomplishments, behavioral inclinations, and talents. There are variances in the validity, reliability, and usefulness of these assessment tools. You can see the most recent Mental Measurement Yearbook edition for a comprehensive list.

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