11/1

11/1
2
English for Academic and
Professional Purposes
(EAPP)

Q2/Q4-Module 6
Surveys, Experiments, or
Observations
What I Need to Know
Most Essential Learning Competency (MELC):
Conducts surveys, experiments or observations.
(CS_EN11/12A-EAPP-IIe-j-8)
Gathers information from surveys, experiments, or observations.
(CS_EN11/12A-EAPP-IIe-j-9)

Objectives:
At the end of this module, you are expected to:
1. identify methods in conducting a survey;
2. determine the importance of gathering information in various fields; and
3. explain the processes in gathering information

What I Know
Directions: Write TRUE if the statement is correct; FALSE if it is wrong. Write your answer
on the space provided before each number.

___________1. A survey is a method of gathering information from respondents through the

use of a questionnaire.
___________2. A survey is usually used to collect primary data.
___________3. The final stage in doing an experiment is to identify the research problem.
___________4. Participants should be selected depending on their level of education.
___________5. The first step in conducting an observation is to establish the objective.
___________6. An experiment may be conducted more easily with a telephone interview.
___________7. Sample represents the entire population.
___________8. People who take part in the survey are referred to as participants.
___________9. Defining variables is a step in the process of conducting an experiment.
___________10. Analyzing a result should be done after gathering of data.

LESSON 6 SURVEYS, EXPERIMENTS, OR

OBSERVATIONS

What’s In
Directions: Complete the following statements below on how to develop a questionnaire by
arranging the letters inside the parentheses.
1. Determine the _______________ (sraecher rolmepb) or the target
information.
2. Choose the type of questions and _______________ (thdemo) of
administration: (written, email form, telephone interview, personal
interview)
3. Determine the general question content needed to obtain the desired
_______________ (forinmaonti).
4. Determine the _______________ (rmof) of responses.
5. Choose the _______________ (ctexa) question wording.
6. Make sure that sequence of the questions is _______________ (ffecveiet).
7. Test the questionnaire and _______________ (viesre) if needed.
What’s New

Directions: Determine whether each research study uses a survey, observation, or

experiment as a research method.

_________________1. The local department of transportation is responsible for maintaining

lane and edge lines on its paved roads. There are two new EAPP Module
paint 6 – in
products Quarter II/IV, Page 1 of 11
the market.
Twenty comparable stretches of road are identified. Paint A is randomly assigned to ten of
the stretches of road and paint B to the other ten. The department finds that paint B lasts
longer.
_________________2. A researcher wants to learn whether or not there is a link between
children’s daily amount of physical activity and their overall energy level. During lunch at the
local high school, she distributed a short questionnaire to students in the cafeteria.
_________________3. A study investigated whether boys are quicker at learning video
games than girls. Twenty randomly selected boys and twenty randomly selected girls played
a video game that they had never played before. The time it took them to reach a certain
level of expertise was recorded.
_________________4. A study determines whether taking aspirin regularly helps to prevent
heart attacks. A large group of male physicians of comparable health were randomly
assigned equally to taking an aspirin every second day or to taking a placebo. After several
years, the proportion of the study participants who had suffered heart attacks in each group
was compared.
_________________5. As your statistics project, you collect data by posting five questions
on poster board around your classroom and recording how your classmates respond to
them.

What Is It
Hello once again, young learners! You are now moving to the next part of the lesson. This
time you will enhance your skill in gathering information from surveys, experiments, or observations.
Let us find out how are they conducted.

Survey is defined as the act of examining a process or questioning a selected sample of

individuals to obtain data about a service, product, or process. Data collection surveys collect
information from a targeted group of people about their opinions, behaviour, or knowledge.

An experiment is a data collection method where you as a researcher change some

variables and observe their effect on other variables. The variables that you manipulate are referred
to as independent while the variables that change as a result of manipulation are dependent
variables.

An observation is a data collection method, by which you gather knowledge of the

researched phenomenon through making observations of the phenomena, as and when it occurs.
You should aim to focus your observations on human behaviour, the use of the phenomenon and
human interactions related to the phenomenon.

Gathering Information through Survey and Interview

Surveys are one of the most straightforward ways to collect data. Traditional methods for
administering surveys include telephone interviews, mail surveys, and personal interviews.
Nowadays, online surveys are one of the most popular ways to collect information about people.
A. Process in gathering information through Survey
Step 1: Determine your objectives
Each survey starts with a purpose or topic, which needs to be broken down
into objectives. Our objectives should be clearly defined, as they inform our questions
and data analysis. Make sure objectives are specific, measurable, and inform
actions. EAPP Module 6 – Quarter II/IV, Page 2 of 11
Step 2: Define the population (Population and sampling)
The group of individuals who are trying to research by conducting a survey is
called the population. It will start of by generating a list of all population members,
which we call a sampling frame. Respondents or participants are the people who
actually take part in the survey.
Step 3: Create a data analysis plan
Before designing a survey, an analysis plan is needed. This will ensure what
you think about everything needs to be analyzed, and how you can get statistical
results that will let you make an analysis. The easiest way to create an analysis plan
is to write out your survey objectives and how you plan to analyze each one.

Step 4: Designing the survey

By now you have determined the objectives, population, sampling strategy,
survey method, and analysis plan. These will all help with the next step: writing
questions and designing your survey. Most surveys collect the following information:

 Demographics of respondents, including age, gender, income, and level of

education, which can be used to describe the respondents and compare
groups of respondents.
 Quantifiable information that can be analysed statistically
 Open-ended question allows users to input their own answer and do not
provide predefined response options.
Example: What do you like best about your job?
 Closed-ended questions provide different types of response options from
which respondents can choose an option. In contrast to open-ended
questions, closed ended questions are easy to answer and allow us to
conduct statistical analysis on the results. A closed-ended question include:
o Multiple-choice questions.
What is your favorite subject?
□ Math □ Language □ Science □ History

o Dichotomous questions: Provide with two (or three) options, such as

“yes” and “no”. They can also contain a third option, such as “don’t
know”.
Do you like Korean dramas?
❍ Yes ❍ No

o Rankings: Allow you to rank how important you think something is,
compared to other options.
Please rank the following in order of importance, from 1 to 4, where 1
is most important.
Clean room ☐
Lively room ☐
 Quiet room with no distractions ☐
Fun room ☐

o Rating scales: Allow you to indicate how strongly you agree with
something or rate something.

Indicate to what extend you agree with this statement:

Having gadgets improves my interest in my studies
❍ Strongly disagree ❍ Disagree
❍ Neither agree nor disagree ❍ Agree
❍ Strongly Agree
Step 5: Pre-testing
It ensures the quality of responses that you EAPP
look forModule 6 – Quarter
problems, such asII/IV,
badlyPage 3 of 11
phrased questions and missing response categories.

To do this, here are the following steps:

1. Do some tests by ourselves.

 Check different computers, tablets, phones and browsers to make

sure everything works well. For example: Do rating scales work on a
mobile phone?

 Check whether any contingency questions are skipping automatically.

 Be sure images, graphs, sounds, links and charts work and load.
 Look for style issues. Can you scroll down? Is the font easy to read?
2. Assemble a small group of people who have not seen the survey
before. Then let them take the survey, without offering any help or clarification
if they have questions. Afterward, you can talk to them and look at their
responses to see if there are any problem areas in our survey that need
correcting.

3. Test the survey with a larger group of people and track how they do it.
You want to measure the time, it takes to complete questions and the entire
survey, and you will be looking of which questions was skipped.

Step 6: Conducting the survey

Different ways in distributing survey.

 Send by email.
 Embed or advertise on a website or app, using a link.
 Using pop-up windows on a website or app.
  Posting on social media.
Each of these methods are connected to different sampling strategies, and
each will affect the data analysis options we have once we get the results. Online
tools we can use to help design and distribute our survey
include SurveyMonkey, Google Surveys and Typeform. These tools can help with
most steps in the survey process, including the sampling frame, designing the
survey, advertisement of the survey, and simple data analysis.

Several ways to improve response rates.

 Use an appealing invitation to (or advertisement of) the survey.

 Keep the survey short.
 Offer respondents something in exchange for filling out the survey, such as a
discount on a product (but note that this impacts the sampling error).

 Follow-up invitations to remind people to fill out your survey.

Step 7: Data analysis
Most survey tools include basic statistics and simple data analysis options.
Researchers should also analyze the way respondents took the survey.

Step 8: Reporting results

The last step is to report survey results. Depending on the purpose of the
survey, it might do things like the following:

 Write a report.
 Present the results in a meeting. EAPP Module 6 – Quarter II/IV, Page 4 of 11

 Use the results as part of a larger research project.

Ways of Interviewing Respondents
Once you have selected your sample and developed your questionnaire, there are several
ways you can interview participants.
1. In-person Interviewing
You meet with the respondents face to face and ask questions. This
technique has excellent response rates and enables to conduct interviews that take a
longer amount of time. It enables also to ask follow-up questions to responses that
are not clear. On the other hand, this method is expensive and takes more time
because of interviewer training, transport, and remuneration.
2. Telephone Interviewing
Using this technique, the respondents can be called over the phone and will
be interviewed. This method offers the advantage of quickly collecting data,
especially when used with computer-assisted telephone interviewing and data
 collection via telephone is cheaper than in-person interviewing.
This technique in gathering data has limitations; telephone interview had
difficulty in establishing trust due to this reason, this may result to inaccurate
responses or may introduce bias. Since phone interviews are generally kept short to
reduce the possibility of upsetting respondents, this method may also limit the
amount of data you can collect.
3. Online Interviewing
This technique is used widely because it is a low-cost way of interviewing
many respondents. Another benefit is anonymity; you can get sensitive responses
that participants would not feel comfortable providing with in-person interviewing but
the disadvantage of this technique is that you cannot seek clarification on responses
that are unclear.
4. Mailed Questionnaire
The printed questionnaires are sent to the postal address of the respondent.
The participants fill in the questionnaire and mail it back. This interviewing method
gives you the advantage of obtaining information that respondents may be unwilling
to give when interviewing in person.
The main limitation with mailed questionnaires is you are likely to get a low
response rate. The inaccuracy of mailing address, delays or loss of mail could also
affect the response rate. Additionally, mailed questionnaires cannot be used to
interview respondents with low literacy, and you cannot seek clarifications on
responses.
5. Focus Groups
In using a focus group as a data collection method, identify a group of 6 to 10
people with similar characteristics. The responses are captured by video recording,
voice recording or writing—this is the data you will analyze to answer your research
questions. Focus groups have fewer resources and time as compared to interviewing
individuals.

Gathering Information through Observation

Observation guides may be useful in documenting what is being observed. Various types of
these guides may be developed, depending upon the purpose of the observation. They are
particularly useful in situations where the researcher wishes to observe specific activities over a long
period of time or in repeated observations.
In an observational data collection method, it acquires data by observing
EAPP Module 6 –any relationships
Quarter II/IV, Page 5 of 11
that may be present in the phenomenon being studied.

Four types of observational methods

1. Cross-sectional method collects data on observed relationships once. This
method has the advantage of being cheaper and taking less time as
compared to case-control and cohort. However, cross-sectional studies can
miss relationships that may arise over time.

2. Case-control method creates cases and controls and then observes them. A
case has been exposed to a phenomenon of interest while a control has not.
After identifying the cases and controls, it will move back in time to observe
how the event of interest occurs in the two groups.

3. Cohort method follows people with similar characteristics over a period. This
method is advantageous when you are collecting data on occurrences that
 happen over a long period. It has the disadvantage of being costly and
requiring more time. It is also not suitable for occurrences that happen rarely.

4. Ecological method studies a population instead of individuals. Using

ecological method saves time and money because data is already available.

Gathering Information through Experiment

An experiment is a data collection method where you as a researcher change some
variables and observe their effect on other variables. The variables that you manipulate are referred
to as independent while the variables that change as a result of manipulation are dependent
variables.
Designing a study
1. Identify the variable (or variables) of interest and the population of the study.
2. Develop a detailed plan for collecting the data. When using a sample, you need to
make sure that the sample is representative of the population.
3. Collect the data.
4. Describe the data using descriptive statistics.
5. Interpret the data and use inferential statistics to make decisions (or assumptions)
about the population.
6. Identify any possible errors (some potential problems can be identified earlier in the
process).

Collecting Data
This will focus on four methods for collecting data: Observational studies,
experiments, simulations, and surveys.

 In an observational study, a researcher measures and observes the variables of

interest without changing existing conditions.

 In an experiment, a researcher assigns a treatment and observes the response.

Sometimes, a control group (a group receiving no treatment or a placebo) may be
used to compare the effectiveness of a treatment.

 A simulation uses a mathematical, physical, or computer model to replicate the

conditions of a process or situation. This is frequently used when the actual situation
is too expensive, dangerous, or impractical to replicate in real life.

 A survey is used to investigate characteristics of aEAPP

population.
ModuleIt 6is–frequently used
Quarter II/IV, Page 6 of 11
when the subjects are people, and questions are asked of them. When designing a
survey, you must be very careful of wording (and sometimes ordering) the questions
so that the results are not biased.

Experimental Designs
Definitions and Terminology

 A confounding variable occurs when an experimenter cannot tell the

difference between the effects of different factors on a variable.

 The placebo effect occurs when a subject (or “experimental unit”) reacts
 favorably to a placebo when no medicated treatment has been given.

 Blinding is a technique used to make the subjects “blind” to which treatment

(or placebo) they are being given. A double-blind experiment is one in which
neither the experimenter nor the subjects know which treatment is being
given.

 Randomization is a process of randomly assigning subjects to treatment

groups. There are several different techniques for randomization:

oA completely randomized design assigns subjects to different

treatment groups through random assignment.

o Randomized block design is sometimes used to make sure that

subjects with certain characteristics are assigned to each treatment.

o Matched pairs design pairs up subjects according to similarities. One

subject in the pair receives one treatment, while the other receives a
different treatment.

 Sample size is the number of participants in the experiment. The larger the
sample, the more representative of the population the results will be, but the
costs of the experiment will also be higher.

 Replication is the ability to reproduce the experiment (and results) under

similar conditions.
Sampling Techniques
Definitions and Terminology

 A sampling error is the difference between the results of the sample and
those of the population.

 A biased sample is one that is not representative of the entire population.

Thus, it avoids biases.

 A random sample is one in which every member of the population has an

equal chance of being chosen.

 A stratified sample is used when it is important to have members from

multiple segments of the population. First, the population is split into
segments (called “strata”), then a predetermined number of subjects is
chosen from each of the strata.

 Cluster sampling can be used when the population naturally falls into
subgroups with similar characteristics. First, determine the clusters, then
select all the members of one or more of the clusters.

 Systematic sampling involves assigning a number to each member of the

 population and ordering them in some way. Sample members are selected by
choosing the first member randomly, then selecting subsequent members at
regular intervals after the starting number (for example, every 7th person).
This method is fairly simple to use but should be avoided if there are regularly
occurring patterns in the data.

 A convenience sample consists only of available members of the population,

but this often leads to biased studies.

A volunteer sample is a kind of convenience sample in which only

EAPP Module 6 – Quarter II/IV, Page 7 of 11
volunteers participate.

The greatest advantage of using an experiment is that you can explore causal relationships
that an observational study cannot. Additionally, experimental research can be adapted to different
fields like medical research, agriculture, sociology, and psychology. Nevertheless, experiments have
the disadvantage of being expensive and requiring a lot of time.
\
What’s More

A. Directions: Identify what is being asked in the following sentences.

_______________1. The act of examining a process or questioning a selected sample of

individuals to obtain data about a service, product, or process.
_______________2. A data collection method, by which you gather knowledge of the
researched phenomenon through making observations of the phenomena, as and when it
occurs.
_______________3. A data collection method where you as a researcher change some
variables and observe their effect on other variables.
_______________4. Using this technique, the respondents can be called over the phone
and will be interviewed.
_______________5. When this method will be used, you meet with the respondents face to
face and ask
questions.

B. Directions: Determine whether the statements below demonstrate observation.

Write “Yes” on the blank if it is observable and “No” if it is not.
__________1. A psychologist watches the reaction of a woman to her husband's confession.
__________2. A principal monitors a teacher delivering a lesson to her students in order to
assess her performance as a teacher.
__________3. Students' beliefs toward joining fraternities.
__________4. The parents' perspective on face-to-face classes.
__________5. A person who is people-watching while seated in a restaurant.

Assessment
Directions: Read each questions carefully. Write the letter of the correct answer on a
separate sheet of paper.
1. Which of the following does not describe a good objective?
 A. measurable C. realistic

B. specific D. smart
2. It is a process where researchers meet the participants face to face and ask relevant
questions.

A. panel interview C. in-person interview

B. virtual interview D. group interview

3. It is a method of collecting data where the identified 6 to 10 people with similar
characteristics are group together.

A. focus group C. control group

B. small group D. case group

4. These survey questions that comprise two or three options.

A. multiple- choice questions C. open – ended questions

B. dichotomous questions D. close – ended questions

5. These are questions that allow users to input their own answer and do not provide
predefined response options.

A. close – ended questions C. multiple- choice questions

B. open-ended questions D. rating scales

6. It is the observational method that follows people with similar characteristics over a
period.

A. ecological method C. cohort method

B. cross-sectional method D. case- control method

7. It is a method that creates cases and controls and then observes it. A case has been
exposed to a phenomenon of interest while a control has not.

A. ecological method C. cohort method

B. cross-sectional method D. case-control method

8. It is a sampling technique which every member of the population has an equal
chance of being chosen as participants.

A. random sampling C. systematic sampling

B. cluster sampling D. stratified sampling

9. It is a sampling technique that consists of available members of the population, but
this often leads to biased studies.
 A. bias sampling C. cluster sampling

B. convenience sampling D. volunteer sampling

10. It is the number of participants in an experiment.

A. Sample size C. Participants

B. Population D. Respondents

References
Online Sources

https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-observation.html

https://www.alcsny.org/cms/lib/NY01001789/Centricity/Domain/362/HW%2014.1.pdf

https://www.clarenceschools.org/cms/lib/NY01913587/Centricity/Domain/465/Notes%20Observational

%20Studies%20and%20Experiments.pdf

questionpro.com/blog/survey-data-collection

https://www.fortbendisd.com/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=176423&dataid=11081

1&FileName=Experiments-Observational%20Studies%20Notes.pdf

https://www.dataquest.io/blog/how-to-conduct-a-survey-and-collect-data-for-a-data-science-project/

http://www.math.utah.edu/~anna/Sum12/LessonPlans/Section13.pdf

ANSWER KEY:
WHAT I KNOW WHAT’S MORE
WHAT I CAN DO
1. True Answers may vary.
2. False
3. False ASSESSMENT
4. False
5. True
6. False
7. True
8. True
9. False
10. True
WHAT’S IN
1. research
problem
2. method
3. information
4. form
5. exact
6. effective
7. revise

WHAT’S NEW