If, When and How to Use Surveys in Education Scholarship
Join this workshop to strengthen your ability to use surveys wisely and effectively—so your survey tools produce data that advance both scholarship and practice in health professions education.
Want us to offer this event again?
Register your interest now
Description
Surveys are one of the most commonly used tools in education scholarship—but using them effectively requires more than just good questions. Thoughtful consideration of survey appropriateness and alignment with scholarly goals is critical, as it impacts both data quality and interpretability. Without thoughtful planning, surveys may yield data that are unhelpful, misleading, or ethically problematic.
This workshop supports participants in making intentional, informed decisions about when and how to use surveys in education scholarship. It provides practical strategies to assess whether a survey is the most appropriate data collection method for a given question and, if so, how to align survey design with research goals, audiences, and paradigms. Through interactive discussion and activities, participants will (a) clarify the purpose and audience of their surveys, (b) explore how survey methods align with different scholarly goals, (c) learn best practices for item development, survey administration, and data interpretation and (d) identify potential pitfalls in survey-based scholarship and how to avoid them.
By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
- Determine whether surveys are the right fit for their scholarly project
- Draft a preliminary plan for designing and administering a survey
- Apply foundational principles of effective question development and ethical design
- Recognize when to seek further expertise or collaboration
- Access key resources for continued learning and support
Who would benefit most from this workshop?
Health professionals, education or academic scholars who are currently using—or considering using—surveys in education scholarship, evaluation, or research.
Event Details
Recommended Events
-
1JunThis workshop is part of Education Week at Unity Health Toronto. This interactive workshop invites educators to explore how compassion shows up in everyday clinical care and how it is influenced by these competing demands. -
2JunJoin us for our Annual Member Event to celebrate our community, highlight ongoing educational work, and inspire new thinking in faculty development. -
9JunGenerative AI has disrupted the assumption that producing academic artifacts reflects learner engagement. This presentation argues that the integrity conversation, while understandable, is the least generative response available to us. The more important question — one that AI has finally made impossible to defer — is what the developmental activities of health professions education actually are.
