Questionnaire Design, Application and Data Interpretation

This course will run online. Content is delivered via a mix of live and pre-recorded lectures, live Q&A and practical tasks to be completed in small online breakout groups and participants' own time. Opportunities to meet other delegates are provided through group practical tasks, utilising online padlets and open Q&A sessions. Likely time commitment is approximately 5-6 hours per day. 

By the end of the course participants should be able to:

1. understand the basic principles of questionnaire design including developing and testing a questionnaire/outcome measure using qualitative and quantitative approaches;
2. understand the important aspects and key issues to consider for administering questionnaires and maximising response rates across a range of health care settings;
3. understand how to handle questionnaire data; and
4. understand how to explore and interpret qualitative and quantitative questionnaire data.

The course is intended for researchers, public health specialists, clinicians and other health care professionals who want to design and/or use questionnaires in a healthcare setting, or understand the processes involved in questionnaire design, application and interpretation.

This course will cover an introduction to the key topics of:

1. questionnaire construction: using qualitative methods to inform content and design, developing concepts to be measured, question type, wording and layout, and piloting;
2. using quantitative methods to assess the reliability of scales, validity, sensitivity to change and interpreting multi-item scales;
3. questionnaire application: choosing a questionnaire, maximising response rates, examples from case studies;
4. using different methods and technologies for questionnaire administration;
5. qualitative analysis of open responses; and
6. quantitative data management, data coding and cleaning.

Opportunities for delegates to discuss their own projects with course tutors and other delegates will be included.

This course is organised by Dr Christin Hoffmann and Dr Rhiannon Macefield. Tutors on this course are academics and clinical researchers experienced in developing, conducting and analysing questionnaire-based research.

Before booking this course, please make sure you read the information provided above about the target audience. It is important that you have access to the relevant IT resources needed for the course and meet the knowledge prerequisites to ensure you can get the most from the course.

Bookings are taken via our online booking system, for which you must register an account. To check if you are eligible for free or discounted courses please see our fees and voucher packs page. All bookings are subject to our terms & conditions, which can be read in full here.

For help and support with booking a course refer to our booking information page, FAQs or feel free to contact us directly. For available payment options please see: How to pay your short course fees.

Participants are granted access to our virtual learning platform (Blackboard Ultra) 1 to 2 weeks in advance of the course. This allows time for any pre-course work to be completed and to familiarise with the platform.

To gain the most from the course, we recommend that you attend in full and participate in all interactive components. We endeavour to record all live lecture sessions and upload these to the online learning environment within 24 hours. This allows course participants to review these sessions at leisure and revisit them multiple times. Please note that we do not record breakout sessions.

All course participants retain access to the online learning materials and recordings for 5 months after the course. 

University of Bristol staff and postgraduate students who do not wish to attend the full course may instead register for access to the 'Materials & Recordings' version of this course: Further information and bookings.

100% of attendees recommend this course*.
*Attendee feedback from 2026.

Here is a sample of feedback from the last run of the course:

“Comprehensive, clearly explained by all the tutors, plenty of examples, liked that we were able to interact with other people.” – course feedback, January 2026.

“Very interactive session and working in small groups encouraged discussion.” – course feedback, January 2026.

“Refreshed my knowledge of some concepts and added further knowledge. Instructors were clearly knowledgeable and presentations clear. Break-out rooms for practical exercises were useful.” – course feedback, January 2026.

“Use of blackboard was smooth and all resources easily accessible. Good combination of live, asynchronous, practical and group work - I really liked this approach.” – course feedback, January 2026.

“I have a better understanding of the entire process. I am just starting to design my survey questions, but now I understand how coding/processing of data will work at the other end of my project. This should help me design my questions.” – course feedback, January 2026.