"Ideally, a survey should gather data on every single person in the target population. For example, a survey about learning outcomes at a small school could track the test scores of every student.Collecting data on everyone in the target population is the best case scenario, since it ensures that ev ... erybody who matters to the survey is represented accurately. However, this is only possible if the population is small enough and the researchers have sufficient resources to reach out to everyone. This often is not the case, so researchers have to identify a subset of the population to survey. How you choose this subset of the target population is crucial to the quality of your data. The group must be carefully identified and representative of the larger population, else your data will not be useful for drawing inferences. If done right, survey sampling can save time and money while allowing you to draw interferences about a large group of people." (Introduction) more

"What is the purpose of your survey? What data are you looking to collect? How can you best collect that data? What sort of survey and research methodology should you use? How should you write the questions in your survey? Who should you survey? This ebook is designed to take you through these quest ... ions and help you design a survey that will give you high-quality data. Chapter 1 will help you think through the purpose, outcomes and indicators of your survey. Chapters 2 and 3 will help you determine what data collection method you should use, as well as whether you need a qualitative or quantitative survey. Chapters 4-8 address writing the questions in your survey — what you want to ask and best practices around how to ask it. Lastly, Chapter 9 covers all aspects of sampling your population — sampling methods, best practices, and a quick sample size formula." (Page 5) more