How We Designed Our Educator Survey (And Why It Takes 15 Minutes)

The average education survey takes 20-30 minutes to complete. Most produce data that is interesting but not actionable. We designed our survey to be different: 15 minutes, 30 questions, and every question maps to a specific product decision.

Here is the methodology.

The Design Principles

1. Every question must justify its existence: If we cannot identify a specific product decision that depends on the answer, the question is removed. No "nice to know" questions.

1. Questions must be answerable in under 30 seconds: If a question requires the respondent to think for more than 30 seconds, it is too complex. We restructure it.

1. Response options must be exhaustive and mutually exclusive: For multiple-choice questions, every possible answer is covered. No "Other (please specify)" unless the set of options is genuinely unbounded.

1. The survey must respect the respondent's time: 15 minutes is the maximum. Research on online survey completion shows that completion rates drop significantly after 15-20 minutes (SurveyMonkey, 2024). We tested the timing with 10 educators before launching.

The Structure

The survey has 5 sections, each targeting a specific domain:

Section 1: Background (6 questions, 2 minutes)

These questions establish who the respondent is. They are answered quickly because they are factual: name, email, role, school type, state, years of experience.

Why we ask: Different respondent types have different needs. A curriculum coordinator in a state ministry has different workflows than a classroom teacher in a private school. A teacher with 2 years of experience has different challenges than one with 20. The background data lets us segment our analysis and build tools that serve specific user groups.

The school type question (public, private, government-approved, mission) matters because public and private schools have different resource constraints, different administrative requirements, and different technology access.

Section 2: Curriculum and Resources (8 questions, 4 minutes)

These questions explore how educators currently create and use teaching materials.

Question: "How do you currently create your scheme of work?" Options: from scratch, adapt from a colleague, adapt from a textbook, use a template, other.

Why this question: The scheme of work builder is a core feature. If most teachers create from scratch, the builder needs strong generation capabilities. If most adapt from colleagues, the builder needs strong adaptation capabilities. If most use templates, the builder needs a rich template library.

Question: "How much time do you spend creating a scheme of work per subject per term?" Options: under 2 hours, 2-4 hours, 4-8 hours, 8-12 hours, over 12 hours.

Why this question: The time investment determines the value proposition. If teachers spend 12+ hours, saving even 50% is significant. If they spend 2 hours, the tool needs to be dramatically faster to justify switching.

Question: "What format does your school require for lesson plans?" Options: specific template, any format, no requirement, do not know.

Why this question: If schools require specific formats, the tool needs to support those formats. If there is no requirement, the tool can offer its own standard format.

Section 3: Technology and Workflow (7 questions, 4 minutes)

These questions establish the technology context.

Question: "What device do you primarily use for creating teaching materials?" Options: desktop computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, combination.

Why this question: Device choice determines the editor design. If most teachers use smartphones, the editor must be mobile-first. If most use desktops, a desktop-first design is appropriate.

Question: "How would you describe your internet connection?" Options: reliable 4G, unreliable 4G, reliable 3G, unreliable 3G, mostly offline.

Why this question: Connection quality determines the technical architecture. If most teachers are on unreliable 3G, offline-first is essential. If most have reliable 4G, online-first is acceptable.

Question: "Which of these do you currently use?" (checkboxes: Microsoft Word, Google Docs, spreadsheets, WhatsApp, email, printed materials, other).

Why this question: The tool needs to integrate with existing workflows. If teachers share via WhatsApp, the tool should generate shareable links. If they use spreadsheets, the tool should import and export spreadsheets. If they use printed materials, the tool should support print-friendly output.

Section 4: Assessment and Examination (5 questions, 3 minutes)

These questions explore assessment practices.

Question: "How do you create assessment questions?" Options: write from scratch, adapt from past exams, use question banks, AI tools, other.

Why this question: The assessment feature design depends on this answer. If most teachers adapt from past exams, the tool needs a question bank aligned with examination patterns. If most write from scratch, the tool needs generation capabilities.

Question: "Which external examinations do you prepare students for?" (checkboxes: WAEC, NECO, JAMB, none, other).

Why this question: The tool needs examination-specific features. If a teacher prepares students for WAEC, the assessment tool should align with WAEC patterns. If they prepare for NECO, NECO patterns apply.

Section 5: Future Needs (4 questions, 2 minutes)

These questions explore what educators want from a tool.

Question: "What would save you the most time?" (checkboxes: scheme of work creation, lesson plan creation, assessment creation, resource discovery, content generation, other).

Why this question: This directly determines the feature priority. If scheme of work creation is the top time-saver, it is the first feature to build. If resource discovery is the top need, the ecosystem is the priority.

Question: "Would you use AI to help create teaching materials?" Options: yes, if it understands my curriculum; yes, if it saves significant time; maybe, if I can review before using; no, I prefer to create my own; no, I do not trust AI for this.

Why this question: This determines how prominently AI features are presented. If most respondents say "yes, if it understands my curriculum," AI is a primary feature. If most say "no, I do not trust AI," AI is a secondary feature that is available but not highlighted.

The Completion Rate Strategy

We designed the survey to maximize completion:

1. Progress indicator: A visual bar shows how far through the survey the respondent is. Research on online surveys indicates this can increase completion rates by 15-20% (Qualtrics, 2023).
2. Save and continue: Respondents can pause and resume. Their progress is saved locally. This handles interruptions (a student walks in, a call comes in).
3. No required fields except background: We want complete responses, but we would rather have a partial response than no response. Only the background questions are required.
4. 15-minute target: We timed the survey with 10 educators before launch in August 2026. The average completion time was 14 minutes and 20 seconds. We set the target at 15 minutes.

How We Will Analyze the Data

The analysis will produce:

1. Segmented profiles: [Resource creation workflows](/blog/how-teachers-actually-create-schemes-of-work) by school type, region, and experience level. Not just "how do teachers work" but "how do public school teachers in the North work versus private school teachers in the South."

1. Feature priority matrix: Based on time-saved and frequency-of-need, we will rank features by their expected impact. The feature that saves the most time for the most teachers wins.

1. Technical constraints report: Device distribution, connection quality, and software usage. This directly feeds into the engineering team's priorities for [low-bandwidth optimization](/blog/building-for-low-bandwidth).

1. Market sizing: How many teachers need each feature? What percentage of the 2,000 respondents are in our target user group?

1. Qualitative themes: Open-ended responses will be coded for themes. If multiple teachers independently describe the same frustration, that frustration is a priority.

The survey is not the end of the research. It is the beginning. The quantitative data from 2,000 responses will be followed by qualitative interviews with 50-100 educators to understand the "why" behind the numbers.

This is how research should work: systematic, purposeful, and directly connected to product decisions.

Take the Survey

If you are a Nigerian educator, your experience directly shapes what Curriva builds next. The survey takes approximately 15 minutes. You can participate without creating an account. Take the educator survey.

Related Reading

For what we plan to learn from the survey, see What 2,000 Educators Should Tell Us. For the workflow we are researching, see How Teachers Actually Create Schemes of Work.