Principles and Techniques of Veterinary and AH Extension

Construction of Schedule / Questionnaire

SCHEDULE / QUESTIONNAIRE

• A schedule is a formal list, a catalogue or inventory of questions used to collect data from the respondents. These questions are usually referred to as items. A schedule, which is used while interviewing the respondent, is called interview schedule.

Types of questions/items

• Closed form: There are only fixed alternative answers for the question. The respondent has to choose one among two or more given alternatives.
  • Dichotomous
    • Ex: Do you rear animals Yes/No
  • Multiple choice
    • Ex: What is your occupation?
      • Farm labour
      • Agriculture
      • Dairy farmer
      • Service
      • Business
• Open ended: are unstructured questions, which provide free scope to the respondents to reply with their own choice of words and ideas.
  • Ex: What is your future plans to improve your dairy farm?

Criteria of a good schedule/Questionnaire

• Should be brief, attractive and clear.
• Should be arranged in predetermined categories.
• Should be objective-comprehensive and easy to answer.
• Contain simple questions in the beginning and complicated questions later.
• Contain clear-cut instructions to fill up each item.
• Should not contain ambiguous, leading and embarrassing questions.
• Should be easy to tabulate and analyze.