Follow the guidelines below to ensure success in administering scan forms.
General Points:
- How you administer forms affects your data (response rate, data quality).
- Procedures matter.
- Attitude matters.
- Achieving a 100% response rate is your goal.
- 50% is the minimally acceptable response rate.
Specific Actions to Take (Setting the Stage):
- Have a dedicated time for participants to complete the evaluation (preferably listed on the agenda).
- Generally it works better to distribute forms just before the evaluation rather than at registration.
- Mention the evaluation time at beginning of the meeting.
- Have a specific collection point.
- If using scan forms, a black or blue pen works best, but pencil works too.
- Have a supply of pens.
- Include an incentive to increase participation (i.e., a few door prizes with winners randomly selected among those who completed an evaluation). Or, make returning an evaluation a requirement for receiving CEUs.
- If using a pre-post strategy with matched ids, use a unique number that participants will remember but will be anonymous to you (i.e., last four digits of a phone number, etc.).
Specific Actions to Take (Communicating with Participants):
- Make sure any communication regarding data collection is done with a positive attitude!
- Emphasize that you want their most honest and complete responses.
- Mention that it is anonymous if that is the case.
- Emphasize its importance – that it helps you and them. Future programs will be improved as a result.
- If working with young children, you may need to guide them through the survey by reading aloud the questions and possible responses.
- Refer to the marking instructions on the scan form (below) that ask for bubbles to be filled in completely