Exam Tips: Interviews vs. Questionnaires

An interview is a conversation, such as one conducted by a reporter, in which facts or statements are elicited from another.

 

Advantages of interviews

The main advantages of interviews are:

• they are useful to obtain detailed information about personal feelings, perceptions and opinions
• they allow more detailed questions to be asked
• they usually achieve a high response rate
• respondents' own words are recorded
• ambiguities can be clarified and incomplete answers followed up
• precise wording can be tailored to respondent and precise meaning of questions clarified (eg for students with English as a Second Language)
• interviewees are not influenced by others in the group
• some interviewees may be less self-conscious in a one-to-one situation. 

 

Disadvantages of interviews

1) they can be very time-consuming: setting up, interviewing, transcribing, analysing, feedback, reporting
2) they can be costly
3) different interviewers may understand and transcribe interviews in different ways.   


Questionnaire
List of a research or survey questions asked to respondents, and designed to extract specific information.

 

Some advantages of questionnaires
 The responses are gathered in a standardised way, so questionnaires are more objective, certainly more so than interviews.

 Generally it is relatively quick to collect information using a questionnaire. However in some situations they can take a long time not only to design but also to apply and analyse (see disadvantages for more information).

 Potentially information can be collected from a large portion of a group. This potential is not often realised, as returns from questionnaires are usually low. However return rates can be dramatically improved if the questionnaire is delivered and responded to in class time.


Some disadvantages of questionnaires

 Questionnaires, like many evaluation methods occur after the event, so participants may forget important issues.

 Questionnaires are standardised so it is not possible to explain any points in the questions that participants might misinterpret. This could be partially solved by piloting the questions on a small group of students or at least friends and colleagues. It is advisable to do this anyway.

 Open-ended questions can generate large amounts of data that can take a long time to process and analyse. One way of limiting this would be to limit the space available to students so their responses are concise or to sample the students and survey only a portion of them.

 Respondents may answer superficially especially if the questionnaire takes a long time to complete. The common mistake of asking too many questions should be avoided.

 Students may not be willing to answer the questions. They might not wish to reveal the information or they might think that they will not benefit from responding perhaps even be penalised by giving their real opinion.
Students should be told why the information is being collected and how the results will be beneficial. They should be asked to reply honestly and told that if their response is negative this is just as useful as a more positive opinion. If possible the questionnaire should be anonymous.