Handouts from 2011 Summer Institute - Session Description: Develop higher-quality surveys! This workshop is designed to teach participants how to improve survey reliability, thus increasing their utility of and confidence in the data they collect. We will look at surveys to elicit factual information as well as ones that ask about subjective and abstract concepts. Through the use of hands-on activities, mini-lectures, and demonstrations participants will understand what is meant by reliability with respect to surveys and will learn ways to improve it during the survey design phase for both types of surveys. Next, using a case example and SPSS we will explore ways to use pilot test responses to assess the reliability of subjective / abstract survey constructs by conducting confirmatory factor analysis and calculating Cronbach’s alpha. We will work together to understand what our findings tell us as well as what they don’t tell us. You will receive a workbook and SPSS screenshots to help you remember how to perform many of the computations we will perform. Participants will be surprised by how easy it is to improve survey quality through a few easy to implement steps! #2011Institute