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Warning note for tutors
Dear Tutor,
This document gives you an example of tutor feedback to an EP103-FA2 assignment. You may find useful to look at it, as well as to other examples posted on the EP staff website, to see a range of styles that have been adopted by different tutors when preparing their feedback. You can also refer to the document entitled ‘Marking and giving feedback on DL Epidemiology (EP) assignments’, available on the EP staff website, to find helpful guidelines and tips on feedback preparation.
Please note that FAs are changed frequently. As a result, the questions and solutions found in the example below may be different from those included in the FA you are currently marking. This example should thus be treated onlyas an illustration of the wayfeedback can be given. Please do not use it as an example for feedback content for this FA.
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Course: Practical Epidemiology – EP103 – FA 2
Student: XXXXX
Marked by:XXXXX
Grade: 3
Overall comments
Dear XXXX,
Well done for preparing this good assignment! You have developed a clearly laid out questionnaire, with a short simple introduction, guidelines for the interviewers, and the most important questions. This shows that you have thought of the logistics related to questionnaire design – good! However, you might consider obtaining with your questionnaire more information about the pregnancies and give more details about how you will get the information about the outcomes of the pregnancy (e.g. answers related to stillbirth, death in infancy, abortion, etcmight need to be introduced gently as they might be threatening for the respondents). Finally, you could consider ways of making the data entry stage the most efficient possible, for example by adding a column for coding on the right hand side of the pages. In a real study, preliminary work and the pre-testing of the questionnaire could help you decide on the final choice of questions, wording and method of administration. I have included below various suggestions on how your questionnaire could be modified. Please do not hesitate to write if you have any question. Well done for working through this FA!
Detailed comments
You will find below a checklist that covers most points that I was looking for when assessing your FA. These correspond quite closely to the points described in the solution sheets. I have indicated in the last 3 columns how your questionnaire reflects these points and added some short comments within the table (in the first column in capital letters). I have also added specific comments directly within your TMA (below); my comments are highlighted in yellow.
ITEM ASSESSED
/ Addressed in questionnaire?Yes / Some-what / No
Questionnaire Structure / - / - / -
Does the questionnaire contain? / - / - / -
An introduction (statement read by the interviewer) covering (e.g.): / X
Details of research organisation/ who is doing the study / X
Who the interviewer is / X
Research topic / x
Confidentiality / X
Purpose of the study / X
Survey length/ what is expected from respondent/ invitation to participate / x
Instructions relating to specific questions or measurements to be taken (*) / X
Linking phrases between topics / X
Skip patterns / not applicable (n/a) options for relevant questions (*) – YOU COULD ALSO ADD SKIP PATTERNS TO BRING THE INTERVIEWER TO THE END ONCE INFORMATION ON ALL PREGNANCIES HAVE BEEN COLLECTED / x
Acknowledgement to the respondent – YOU CAN PREPARE A SHORT STANDARDISED PARAGRAPH FOR THIS / X
Space for comments / X
(Need for consent – or is this implicit) / X
Time at which the administration of the questionnaire started/ended (for interviews) / X
Items covered/ contents / - / - / -
Is the length of the questionnaire adequate? / - / - / -
Does it include all relevant information? – YOU COULD ALSO TRY TO GET INFORMATION ON PREGNANCY RELATED HEALTH PROBLEMS/COMPLICATONS / X
Does not have more questions than needed? (not too long?) / X
Type of questions / - / - / -
Were types of questions (open-ended, close-ended) chosen adequately? – THE QUESTION ABOUT NUTRITION MIGHT BE A BIT TOO GENERAL / x
Question format / - / - / -
Attractive, easy to identify, code and enter - YOUR QUESTIONNAIRE IS INDEED ATTRACTIVE. HOWEVER, YOU MIGHT CONSIDER HOW TO FACILITATE PRE-CODING / x
Separate type faces for QUESTION, alternative answers and instructions / X
Vertical answer formats / X
Specific instructions and prompts for interviewers (*) / X
Pre-code all closed questions / X
Same code number for particular response category (e.g. 1=Yes, 2=No, throughout) – NOT APPLICABLE AS YOU HAVE NOT USED CODE NUMBERS
Record of responses / circling / space or boxes / X
Easiness of data entry / computer column codes / X
ID on all forms and pages / X
Numbering of questions / X
Not too congested/ enough space A LITTLE BIT CONGESTED WHERE LONGER ANSWER MIGHT BE PROVIDED (NOT MUCH SPACE FOR ANSWERS) / X
Use of matrix format if appropriate
Question order / - / - / -
Questions on the same topic grouped together / X
Going from general to particular YOU RIGHTLY STARTED WITH A GENERAL QUESTION ON WHETHER THE WOMEN HAD EVER BEEN PREGNANCY. / X
Logical sequence / backwards chronological order YOU PREFERED TO START FROM THE FIRST EVER PREGNANCY / X
Threatening questions at the end / X
Question wording / - / - / -
Simple and direct / no unknown abbreviations/ familiar to all/ slang avoided? / X
Too vague/imprecise terms avoided? ('regularly', 'usually', 'normally') / X
Unambiguous time reference? / X
Not too precise? / X
Not biased? / X
Not threatening? (Place threatening questions late in questionnaire, use familiar words, broad categories, context to soften impact (break up into a series of questions)) / X
Not more than one concept presented at once?/ double question? / X
No double negative? / X
Answers mutually exclusive? / X
All possible answers offered, or space left for alternative answers? – YOU COULD ADD ‘OTHERS’ FOR ETHNICITY / X
Doest not assume too much about respondent’s knowledge or behaviour? (n/k, n/a) (*) / X
Not too demanding? / X
Not cryptic? / X
Applicable to all respondents? (skips, n/a, n/k used?) (*) / X
(*) Items marked like this may appear more than once in different sections.
NEPAL HILL REGION SURVEY ON PREGNANCY
LondonSchool of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Keppel Street
London, WC1E 7HT
Tel. xxxxxxxxxxxx
The aim of this survey is to help us learn more about pregnancy in this region. This questionnaire asks you some questions about yourself, followed by some questions on any pregnancies you have had.
The interviewer will complete the questionnaire with you, by asking questions and recording your answers in this booklet. Your name will not be recorded on this questionnaire. Please be assured that all your answers will be kept strictly confidential and will only be used for research. It will not be possible to identify you.
Thank you for your participation in this survey.
[Well done for preparing a short introduction for your questionnaire! I really liked the fact that you used very simple terms, which is very important as the level should always be kept simple and in this particular case, the women are likely to have a relatively low education level. However, as you are expecting the study participants to read the introduction, you might want to check the literacy level of the study population –if it is low, you might decide to have the interviewer read an introduction and questionnaire. The interviewer could alsogive a bit more details of who is conducting the study, about who they are (introducing themselves), of why the study is important (this might help get their cooperation, and of what is expected from them (e.g. in addition to saying that they will have to answer questions, which is good, they could also say that weight and height will be measured and how long the interview might take approximately).]
Participant ID
Date Questionnaire completed
Interview conducted by
[Well done for thinking about including the participant ID on each page of the questionnaire, the date when the interview took place and who the interviewer was. You could also include the time at which the interview started (at the beginning of the questionnaire) and ended (at the end of the questionnaire). This helps control how long the interviews last.]
[Excellent idea to include summary instructions for the interviewer! However, in a real life situation, you will also probably have prepared some training material for the interviewer and the interviewers will have been trained in using the questionnaire. Such information is thus useful for an interviewer-based questionnaire but instructions would be even more important for a self-completed questionnaire.
Some of the information provided in your instructions could be included within the questionnaire (this way you are sure that they won’t be forgotten!). For example, you could include standardized statements to thank the participants at the beginning and end of the interview. You could also put with the questionnaire how various data should be entered (e.g. weight, height, dates, etc) – for the dates, for example, you could write DD, MM, YYYY below the box where the data should be entered, i.e. _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _
DD MM YYYY
Instructions for Interviewer
General
Please be familiar with the entire contents of the questionnaire prior to commencing interview.
Please write clearly, in block capitals using a black or blue ballpoint pen. To make any corrections, please strike through the incorrect item and write corrected information as close as possible to original entry. Please do not obliterate incorrect data. Please initial and date all changes.
Please use UNK to record unknown data, do not leave fields blank.
Please ask questions of the participants exactly as they are recorded in this questionnaire.[This is indeed very important – good!]
Please record all dates as DDMONYYYY, for example 27FEB2007.
Please begin and end each interview by thanking the participant for their cooperation.
Specific Instructions
Part A Demography
The Nepali calendar is different to the western calendar, so we are asking for age and date of birth in order to validate each other. Please estimate age from the date of birth and confirm it with the participant.
If the day and/or month are unknown, please record UNKUNKYYYY eg UNKUNK1970
Part B
Weight – please measure weight to one decimal place in kg, measure without shoes or heavy clothing.
Height – please measure height with no decimal place in cm without shoes
BMI will be calculated from these measurements during data processing.[This is not really important for the interviewer and could be dropped.]
Pregnancy General
If the respondent has never been pregnant please conclude the interview.[There could ideally be a last section with a standardized conclusion for the interviewer]
If the respondent has had pregnancies, please complete Part D for each pregnancy.
Part D for each Pregnancy
Please record the pregnancy number in the box provided. Space is provided for 5 pregnancies. If this is insufficient, please complete Part D of a second questionnaire, including the participant’s identifier and continue recording details of pregnancy, eg Pregnancy number 6 onwards etc
Please ask the questions in relation to EACH pregnancy:
Record the answer by selecting one option from options provided.
Question on weight change: Slightly more/less = change <6kg, much more/less =change>6kg. These changes will be applied to BMI calculations during data processing.[I am not sure why you specify this information as this variable will probably be coded at the analysis stage]
Participant ID
Participant ID
Participant ID
When asking about pregnancies, I thought that it was excellent to start with a very general question. This will help screen women. I also likedyour short linking statements between the different sections of the questionnaire – they tell the women what is coming next.
I liked the fact that you are asking about health before and during pregnancy. You could also consider exploring further potential health problems/complications related to the pregnancies (which might explain the outcome of the pregnancies). Your question about diet is interesting but I think that it might be hard to obtain the information you want with an open-ended question. Could you think of more specific questions that you could ask? What type of information do you want to obtain from this question? Finally, I would like to have a bit more details of how you would get information about the outcome of the pregnancies. The term ‘outcome’ might be a bit complex and you might need to suggest potential answers if you want precise answers. It might thus be a good idea to write down what the interviewer will say. But this also means that sensitive topics (e.g. abortion, miscarriage, etc) might need a short softening introduction. Local terms might also need to be used and this would be investigated before the study.
With regards to questionnaire format, while the questionnaire is nicely printed, I would suggest you to try using ways that would facilitate the later coding of the questionnaire and data entry (e.g. include code numbers besides each possible choice of answer). You will also see in the solution sheets an example of a matrix format for data entry on each pregnancy. However, as you are exploring various factors related to each pregnancy, it might have been harder for you to use such format.
Finally, you could include at the end space for comments from both the interviewer and interviewee.
Well done once more, ‘firstname of student’!