Developing questionnaires for educational research: AMEE Guide No. 87

TLDR

Questionnaires are widely used in medical education research, but their development processes vary in quality and lack consistent standards, leading to highly variable questionnaire quality. This AMEE Guide aims to provide a systematic, seven‑step process for designing high‑quality self‑administered questionnaires, focusing on survey scale development. The guide synthesizes multiple survey‑design techniques into a cohesive, seven‑step process that developers of all levels can use to create high‑quality questionnaires. Systematically following these steps increases the likelihood that survey designers will accurately measure their intended constructs.

Abstract

In this AMEE Guide, we consider the design and development of self-administered surveys, commonly called questionnaires. Questionnaires are widely employed in medical education research. Unfortunately, the processes used to develop such questionnaires vary in quality and lack consistent, rigorous standards. Consequently, the quality of the questionnaires used in medical education research is highly variable. To address this problem, this AMEE Guide presents a systematic, seven-step process for designing high-quality questionnaires, with particular emphasis on developing survey scales. These seven steps do not address all aspects of survey design, nor do they represent the only way to develop a high-quality questionnaire. Instead, these steps synthesize multiple survey design techniques and organize them into a cohesive process for questionnaire developers of all levels. Addressing each of these steps systematically will improve the probabilities that survey designers will accurately measure what they intend to measure.