July 29

Open-ended survey questions offer a valuable window into participants’ experiences, perspectives, and reasoning—insights that extend far beyond numerical patterns. Yet too often, these responses are overlooked, underanalyzed, or dismissed as anecdotal evidence rather than as a potentially rich source of qualitative data.

This one-day course helps researchers, evaluators, and practitioners tap into the full potential of open-ended survey responses. Participants will learn how to design these survey questions thoughtfully and analyze them systematically, with a particular focus on the stories they can tell and the possibilities of integrating qualitative insights meaningfully alongside quantitative survey findings.

We will consider five key questions:

1. Why do open-ended survey questions matter?
2. How can researchers make strategic sampling and integration decisions about open-ended data?
3. How can open-ended questions be designed effectively?
4. How can researchers introduce strategies to analyze open-ended questions both within individual participants’ full response set and across all participant open-ended responses?
5. What are common challenges encountered when designing, collecting, analyzing, and reporting integrated survey insights—and how can they be overcome?