Certificate programme
Survey methodology
A survey is expensive. It mobilises enumerators, vehicles, time, sometimes several million francs. And yet a considerable share of the surveys conducted in the Sahel produce results that no one can really rely on. Not because people worked badly, but because decisions taken very early on, often without anyone paying attention, doomed the reliability of the whole exercise.
- Duration
- 5 weeks, 8 sessions, 40 hours
- Format
- In person or online
- Credential
- Training certificate
Tuition185,000 XOF
By the end of the programme, you will be able to
- Turn a need for information into clear survey objectives and measurable research questions
- Build a conceptual framework, define the indicators and write the analysis plan before collection
- Master probability and non-probability sampling methods and justify your choice
- Compute a sample size, draw a sample and calculate weights
- Design a rigorous, short and tested questionnaire, along with interview and focus group guides
- Digitise a questionnaire with KoboToolbox or ODK, with checks and skip logic
- Organise, train, supervise and monitor a team of interviewers in the field
- Clean a dataset, document the processing and produce a tidy, reusable data file
- Analyse, interpret and present the results in a complete, defensible survey report
- Respect the rules of ethics, consent and data protection owed to the people surveyed
Who it is for
Target audience
The course is for those who commission, design, run or use surveys: monitoring, evaluation and MEAL specialists, research officers, statisticians, researchers and doctoral students, independent consultants, NGO and development project managers, staff of statistical services and ministries, epidemiologists and public health workers, market research managers.
It also concerns those who hire consultants to run surveys: being able to read a methodological note and spot what does not hold up is a skill in itself, and it saves paying dearly for unusable results.
Prerequisites
Three requirements:
- Hold at least a three-year post-secondary degree (BAC+3), or have proven professional experience in running or using surveys
- Master the elementary notions of statistics: mean, percentage, proportion, variance, the idea of a confidence interval
- Have a personal laptop and an Android phone for the mobile collection part
No prior experience of KoboToolbox or of a statistical package is required. The work done in class uses Excel and KoboToolbox, both within everyone's reach, so that the methodology stays at the centre and is not hidden behind the tooling. Participants who want to go further in statistical processing are pointed to the SPSS, R or Stata courses in the catalogue.
Teaching method
The course runs over five weeks: two sessions a week in weeks 1 to 3, then one session in weeks 4 and 5 — eight five-hour sessions and 40 supervised hours. Each session falls on a Saturday or a Sunday, from 8.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. Personal work takes two to three hours a week, and three to four during the project weeks.
The format is hybrid: pre-recorded video capsules, given to every participant, are watched remotely before each session, at any time, for one to two hours. Theory and demonstrations go into the capsules; the sessions are given over to practice on real cases. Each session has a "going further" section covered in the course material. Sessions can be followed in person or online and live, as each participant prefers, at the same price.
The tools are Excel, for the sampling and weighting calculations, and KoboToolbox, for designing and deploying the forms. The choice is deliberate: survey methodology depends on no particular software, and working with accessible tools keeps the technique from hiding the reasoning. Sample size and weighting calculations are first done by hand, then reproduced in Excel. Each participant brings a laptop and an Android phone, the latter used for the real collection exercise in session six; a phone can be lent on request made at enrolment, subject to availability.
Every participant leaves with:
- The complete methodological material in PDF, organised session by session
- The pre-recorded video capsules for each session, to keep
- A ready-to-use Excel workbook for sampling calculations — size, draw, design effect and weights
- Questionnaire, interview guide and focus group grid templates
- Ready-made KoboToolbox forms, importable straight into your account
- An interviewer's manual template and a field supervision grid
- An operational plan and collection budget template
- A survey report template, with the outline of the methodological note
- A quality checklist for every stage of the chain
- An annotated bibliography of the standard methodological references
Detailed program
8 sessions · 40 h of teaching
Week 1 — Framing, design and methodological choices
2 sessions · 10 h- Read three real terms of reference critically and spot what makes them unusable
- State a general objective, specific objectives and a measurable research question
- Define the scope, the unit of observation and the target population of a real case
- Weigh a census against a sample survey in terms of cost and precision
- Take stock of existing data sources and assess their limits
- Exercise: write the scoping note of a survey — objectives, scope, population and timetable
- Going further, in the course material: longitudinal surveys and panels; repeated-visit surveys
- Build a conceptual framework and identify the dimensions to be measured
- Check the quality of an indicator: definition, formula, source, frequency
- Tell output, outcome and impact indicators apart on real examples
- Classify variables by their nature and level of measurement
- Write the tabulation plan, table by table, before any collection
- Exercise: build the indicator matrix and the analysis plan of a real survey
- Going further, in the course material: the variable dictionary; the detailed indicator sheet
Week 2 — Sampling
2 sessions · 10 h- Assess the quality of three real sampling frames: coverage, duplicates, updating
- Draw a simple random sample in Excel, step by step
- Draw a systematic sample and check there is no hidden periodicity
- Build strata and allocate a sample three different ways, then compare
- Choose a sampling method and justify it to a client
- Exercise: build a sampling frame from incomplete administrative data
- Going further, in the course material: deliberately over-sampling a stratum; non-probability methods (quotas, snowball)
- Compute a sample size for a proportion and for a mean
- Build the design effect and the non-response rate into the calculation
- Draw a two-stage sample with probability proportional to size
- Select households and individuals in a real case: the pencil method and the Kish grid
- Compute sampling weights and compare weighted with unweighted results
- Exercise: compute the sample sizes of three surveys with different constraints
- Going further, in the course material: calibration on external data; comparing two groups
Week 3 — Collection instruments and running the fieldwork
2 sessions · 10 h- Spot and rewrite leading, double-barrelled or overlong questions
- Design a thirty-question questionnaire, test it and submit it to the group's criticism
- Choose a measurement scale and word a sensitive question
- Write a semi-structured interview guide and a focus group discussion grid
- Run a cognitive pre-test among participants
- Exercise: finalise the questionnaire and the guide for each participant's project
- Going further, in the course material: back-translation into Mooré, Dioula and Fulfulde; the pilot test
- Create a KoboToolbox account and build a form with constraints and skip logic
- Add a repeat group for a household roster, with automatic calculations
- Test the form, deploy it and collect offline in pairs
- Read a collection dashboard and spot an anomaly
- Write the supervision grid and the survey's fallback plan
- Exercise: export the collected data to Excel while keeping the labels
- Going further, in the course material: the ODK, CommCare and SurveyCTO platforms; translating the form into several languages
Week 4 — Processing, analysis and scoping the project
1 sessions · 5 h- Clean a real dataset seeded with deliberate errors, documenting every correction
- Apply the weights and produce the tables set out in the tabulation plan
- Read a confidence interval and tell a real difference from an effect of chance
- Write up the findings and the limits of the survey without going beyond the figures
- Scope your final project: subject, protocol to present, week 5 timetable
- Exercise: produce the analysis file, the variable dictionary and the cleaning log
- Going further, in the course material: thematic coding of qualitative data; combining quantitative and qualitative evidence
Week 5 — Presentation, defences and certificates
1 sessions · 5 h- Write the executive summary and the methodological note of your project
- Frame usable recommendations, addressed to a named recipient
- Answer a challenge to your results: what can be defended and what cannot
- Prepare a presentation for a non-technical audience
- Receive critical feedback from the trainer and from peers
- Exercise: defend your protocol — ten minutes of presentation, five of questions — then receive your certificate
- Going further, in the course material: data dissemination and archiving; reusing open data
Assessment and certification
This programme leads to a training certificate. It is awarded on an admission average out of 20, made up of three components:
- The certification exam (50%) — 25 questions drawn at random from a bank of more than eighty, in 75 minutes. Two attempts are allowed, seven days apart, and the better one counts.
- The complete survey protocol (30%) — presented in the eighth session.
- Attendance (20%) — recorded session by session. An absence announced at least three days in advance counts as half; an unannounced absence does not count.
The admission average is 12 out of 20. A mark below 8 out of 20 in the exam is eliminatory: neither the project nor attendance can make up for it. As soon as the average is reached, the certificate is issued automatically and becomes available in the participant's account.
The certificate is issued by Waaldé Impact, signed by the trainer, and states the course title, the 40 hours, the period, the list of modules completed and the subject of the survey protocol presented. Each certificate carries a unique number and a verification code allowing an employer to confirm its authenticity.
Participants who do not reach the average receive a certificate of attendance. They may retake the exam and present their survey protocol with the following cohort, at no extra cost.
Upcoming sessions
Next dates being prepared
Leave your email: we will let you know as soon as registration opens.
Frequently asked questions
185,000 XOF per participant. Training for a team or an organisation is quoted on request.
5 weeks, 8 sessions, 40 hours.
Yes: you can attend onsite or online, as you prefer.
Three requirements: hold at least a three-year post-secondary degree (BAC+3), or have proven professional experience in running or using surveys ; master the elementary notions of statistics: mean, percentage, proportion, variance, the idea of a confidence interval ; have a personal laptop and an Android phone for the mobile collection part ; no prior experience of KoboToolbox or of a statistical package is required. The work done in class uses Excel and KoboToolbox, both within everyone's reach, so that the methodology stays at the centre and is not hidden behind the tooling. Participants who want to go further in statistical processing are pointed to the SPSS, R or Stata courses in the…
Yes: participants who meet the completion requirements receive a Waaldé Impact certificate with a unique number that employers can verify online.
Fill in the online enrolment request: no payment is taken on the site. The firm reviews your application, then contacts you to confirm your place and the payment terms. No session is scheduled yet: leave your email on this page to be told when registration opens.
Join the next cohort
Cohorts are deliberately small to guarantee genuine individual support. Reserve your place or ask us your questions.