When designing a survey for close ended questions, researchers are riddled with the amount of options available to pose the question. They have to choose the words and options that will yield the highest number of answers, will be easy for respondents to answer, and would also help them collect the right type of data for further analysis. This blog article will show all the various options and what each kind of multiple choice question can be used for.
This careful consideration is important so that accurate data is collected and there is very little need of repetitive data collection.
What is a multiple choice question?
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) include a statement and list of options from which the respondent can select one or more as their answer. They are an excellent way of obtaining feedback from a target audience, like a marketing survey from users of a service or product. They can be used in questionnaires, polls, forms, academic tests, quizzes, etc.
There are three main parts of a Multiple Choice Question (MCQ):
- The stem
- Distractors
- The answer
For example, the question is phrased as
What is the capital of Australia?
- Sydney
- Canberra
- Melbourne
- Perth
Stem:
What is the capital of Australia?
Distractors:
- Sydney
- Melbourne
- Perth
Answer:
Canberra
Yes or No
This kind of MCQ is useful when the researcher does not require any reasoning or motivation behind a certain choice and quick, simple to answer options are given as yes or no so that they can be easily collected and processed for decision making.
For example: Are you satisfied with our service? a) Yes b) No
True or False
True or False questions are an extremely engaging technique to test the critical thinking of the respondents. It will stop them in their tracks and make them actually think about the statement in the stem of the question.
For example: Climate change is affecting us all equally a) True b) False
Odd one out
These types of questions are used to test how good the respondents are at creating relationships between different ideas and then choose the one that does not fit. This is useful for psychographic data.
For example: Which of the following doesn’t fit?
- Banana b) Mango c) Cashew d) Guava
Answer: Cashew
Best answer
This is a good strategy to evaluate the extent of knowledge of the respondents. It is a little bit challenging and will require them to think after the first glance. It can also reveal the preferences of the respondents.
For example:
What is the best use of getting rid of old clothes?
- Upcycling b) Donation c) Thrift sale
Image based multiple question
This can remind everyone of the online test to check if the user is human (captcha test). Several images are shown and the user has to pick the answer from the images shown. The biggest advantage of this is that it is appealing and will not let respondents abandon the questionnaire but on the other hand, it will exclude visually impaired users. For example, four pictures of animals will be shown and you might be asked to pick the one who lives in a tropical habitat.
Single select multiple choice question
There is a list of options presented to the user after the question and they must select one right answer. This is good for straight forward answers like answering which city they live in. It is quick to just type the first letter and choose the answer. Therefore, this is perfect for demographic surveys.
Multiple select questions
Unlike single select, this option gives more flexibility to the survey respondents as they can select more than one option and even select all of them. This can be applied to questions where the answer can not be one option necessarily. For example, the question ‘Which books have you heard of?’ can be answered with names of multiple books or one. Giving the liberty of selecting one or many gives you accurate results whereas limiting to one option will yield inaccurate results.
Star rating multiple choice question
Stars relate to achievement and seeing this visual makes the respondents answer faster especially when they have to rate the performance of some service or product that made them satisfied (or not)
For example:
How satisfied are you with today’s counseling session?
Matrix table multiple choice question
As the matrix table shown above, the options are arranged in a neat table so it is visually less distracting and the Likert scale makes it easier for respondents to choose. However, there should be extra consideration given to the visual design of the table so that the options are easy to click/tap.
Slider multiple-choice question
The slider gives more flexibility to the user to express their opinion as it is more visual so people who are not good with numbers or words can find it very quick to answer questions with this option as the answer.
Thumbs up multiple choice question
For a quick binary response, this is an excellent option. You can record the response quickly but you will not be able to see the reason behind their choice.
Conclusion
Multiple Choice questions are the best choice for surveyors who want to collect data quickly while avoiding subjective answers so that it can be compiled into statistics easily.
