Learning and Evaluation/Archive/Learning modules/3Content Validity

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Part 1: Introduction

Welcome!
Why Survey?
Why Surveys Are Useful
Constructs
Operationalize
Survey instruments
Types of information
Attributes - a special case
Survey Objective and Planning

Part 2: Reliability & Validity

Reliability & Validity
Reliability
Validity
Face Validity
Content Validity
Criterion Validity
Construct Validity

Part 3: Question Construction

Writing Good Questions
Questions from Existing Surveys
Constructing your own Questions
Be Specific
Be Concise
Avoid Double Negatives
Minimize Social Desirability Bias
Avoid Double-barreled questions
Avoid abbreviations, jargon, technical terms, or slang
Avoid leading questions
Avoid loaded questions
Use appropriate wording
Ask useful questions
Rely on second-hand data sparsely
Use caution when asking personal questions

Part 4: Response Options

Question types
Fill-in-the-blank
Dichotomous pairs
Multiple choice
Check all that apply
Ranking
Scales
Choosing response options

Part 5: Questionnaire structure

Important considerations
Questions order
Additional Resources
Feedback

  Wikimedia Training Designing Effective Questions Menu

Content Validity

Do your questions cover the full range of the quality or value that you are trying to measure ?


Is the choice of questions and number of questions appropriate for each of the phenomenon being measured ?


Objective: A program leader wants to measure their participants' ability to edit Wikipedia in the future.


1. Very poor content validity: You ask only questions about a participant's free time.


2. Poor content validity: You ask questions about a participant's free time, academic resources, and wiki mark up skills to edit Wikipedia.


3. Better content validity: In addition to the above, you include questions about their ability to access the internet and a computer regularly.


Content validity is about making sure that you are asking enough questions, or the right questions, to capture the entirety of the measure you want. Sometimes, you can ask too many questions around a certain topic, which the third example above shows.