Project and ContractSurvey Design and Field Data Collection
A survey produces numbers whether or not it was designed properly, and a badly worded question or an unrepresentative sample yields findings that are confidently wrong and impossible to detect afterwards. This course covers designing them soundly. Delegates work through defining what the survey must answer, sampling design including probability and non probability approaches and the size required for a usable margin of error, and questionnaire construction with the wording, ordering and response scale problems that bias answers. Enumerator training and supervision are covered, since field practice determines data quality. Digital data collection, validation and quality checks follow. Analysis and the honest reporting of confidence and limitation are addressed. The course closes on ethics, consent and data protection in field research.
Course objectives
- Define what a survey must answer before designing it
- Design a sample and determine the size a usable result requires
- Construct questions that do not bias the answer
- Train and supervise enumerators to protect data quality
- Use digital collection tools with validation and quality checks
- Analyse and report findings with their confidence and limits
- Meet ethics, consent and data protection obligations in the field
Who should attend
- Monitoring and evaluation and research staff
- Survey managers and field coordinators
- Government statistics and planning officers
- Market and social researchers
- Programme staff commissioning surveys
Course outline
- 01Confidently wrong and undetectable
- 02Defining the question
- 03Probability and non probability sampling
- 04Sample size and margin of error
- 05Questionnaire construction and wording bias
- 06Enumerator training and supervision
- 07Digital collection, validation and quality checks
- 08Analysis, reporting limits and research ethics
Scheduled sessions
| Dates | Venue | Format | Price | Register |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 to 21 October 2026 | Kigali, Rwanda | Classroom | USD 995 per delegate | Register Now |
| 24 to 26 February 2027 | Johannesburg, South Africa | Classroom | R14,950 per delegate | Register Now |
| 10 to 12 March 2027 | Online | Online | R6,500 per delegate | Register Now |