One of the main ways institutions learn about visitors’ experiences and opinions is through a post-visit survey. A properly administered survey can shed light on a variety of important topics, starting with the things you directly ask about (e.g., the quality of the student ambassadors and other staff, a student’s feelings about your institution after visiting, or the reason for visiting) and leading to the trends you can uncover (e.g., changes in what draws visitors to your campus, yield patterns, or consistency in the quality of your student ambassadors and staff).
The degree to which schools use surveys effectively to gain insight varies wildly, as do the format, length, and type of questions asked. Despite individual needs for surveys, there are key elements of a good survey that should be present. This tool is intended to provide necessary guidance to write a new survey from scratch or to revise an existing survey to better measure the information desired. It contains a four-step process for writing questions and an appendix resource with common question types.
This resource is part of the Improve the Campus Visit Experience Roadmap. Access the Roadmap for stepwise guidance with additional tools and research.
Before writing a single question, you need to brainstorm the answers you want to get from visitors. It is easy to dive into the actual question writing without really knowing what the end goal is, but the best surveys are built from an understanding of the desired output.
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