Open-ended questions are a type of survey question that allows respondents to answer in their own words. They are often used to gather more detailed information about a respondent's thoughts, feelings, and experiences (Reja et al., 2003). Open-ended questions can also be used to learn about various topics, including customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and product usability.
Open-end questions for my research:
Open-ended questions can be a valuable tool for gathering information from respondents. However, weighing the advantages and disadvantages before deciding whether or not to use them in a survey is essential (Tasker & Cisneroz, 2019). Some open-ended questions that could be helpful in my research project about construction pollution:
- What are the primary sources of construction pollution?
- What are the environmental impacts of construction pollution?
- What are the health impacts of construction pollution?
- What are the best practices for reducing construction pollution?
- What are the challenges to reducing construction pollution?
- What are the opportunities for lowering construction pollution?
Open-end questions & Likert scale:
Open-ended questions can supplement a Likert scale in a survey. Likert scales can provide quantitative data, such as the percentage of respondents who agree or disagree with a statement. Open-ended questions can provide qualitative data, such as why respondents feel the way they do (Nemoto & Beglar, 2014). An example of construction pollution:
Likert Scale Question: How concerned are you about the environmental impacts of construction pollution?
1 - Not concerned at all
2 - Somewhat concerned
3 - Neither concerned nor not concerned
4 - Somewhat concerned
5 - Very concerned
Open-Ended Question: If you are concerned about the environmental impacts of construction pollution, please explain why.
By asking both of these questions, we can better understand how concerned the respondents are about the environmental impacts of construction pollution and what they think could be done to reduce these impacts. This information can be used to develop policies and programs to reduce the adverse effects of construction pollution on the environment.
Conclusion
According to Zhou, Wang, Zhang & Guo (2017), there are several advantages to using open-ended questions in surveys. First, they can provide a more in-depth understanding of respondents' thoughts and feelings. Second, they can help identify areas where respondents struggle or have questions. Third, they can provide valuable feedback that can be used to improve products, services, and processes. However, there are also some disadvantages to using open-ended questions in surveys. First, they can be more time-consuming to answer than closed-ended questions. Second, they can be more challenging to analyze and interpret. Third, they can be more likely to be answered with irrelevant or incomplete information.
References
Nemoto, T., & Beglar, D. (2014). Likert-scale questionnaires. In JALT 2013 conference proceedings (pp. 1-8).
Reja, U., Manfreda, K. L., Hlebec, V., & Vehovar, V. (2003). Open-ended vs. close-ended questions in web questionnaires.
Developments in applied statistics, 19(1), 159-177.
Tasker, T. J., & Cisneroz, A. (2019). Open-Ended Questions in Qualitative Research. Curriculum & Teaching Dialogue,
21(1/2), (Sp)119-(Sp)122. Retrieved from EBSCO Multi-search database.
Zhou, R., Wang, X., Zhang, L., & Guo, H. (2017). Who tends to answer open-ended questions in an e-service survey? The
contribution of closed-ended answers. Behaviour & Information Technology, 36(12), 1274-1284.