Open-response questions allow respondents to respond freely, which allows for issues or perspectives to emerge that you may not have anticipated. Below are some examples of open-response questions:

• What teaching strategies do you most often use in your classes?
• What role does technology play in your classes?
• How do you think your participation in the project improved your understanding of science content knowledge?

Note that to use open-response questions, you need to have the time and financial resources for coding to reduce the variety of generated responses into meaningful, analyzable categories.

Closed-response questions constrain respondents to selecting pre-determined choices. Below are some examples of closed response-questions:

Questions aimed at understanding what teaching strategies are being used in the classes.

How much of your teaching time is spent on group work? 75-100% 50-74% 25-49% 1-24% 0%

Questions aimed at understanding what role technology plays in the classes.

How important is technology now in your instructional program? Not at all A little Fairly important Very important

Rank the importance of these aspects of your instructional program. Rank from 1-5, where 1=least important, 5=most important. _____ Class Discussions _____ Wet Labs _____ Readings _____ Technology _____ Lectures

Questions aimed at understanding how important the project was to the participants.

The project helped me come up with ways to use technology that I would not have been able to come up with otherwise. Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

The project helped me overcome logistical problems with technology. Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

Partially open-response questions partially constrain respondents to selecting pre-determined choices but also provide them with an opportunity to express an "other" if the alternatives you provided them do not fit.

Example:

Which is the most important aspect of your pedagogical program? Class Discussions Wet Labs Readings Technology Lectures Other (please specify) _____________________