A cross-sectional survey is administered at one point in time and can be thought of as a snapshot of a group of people or organizations. It is most often used to assess people's opinions or preferences in relation to current programs or proposals for future programs. If you are looking for input or feedback in order to make an informed program decision, the cross-sectional survey would be helpful. A limitation is that the data may become outdated fairly quickly.

A longitudinal survey design is used to assess change over a period of time. The same group of people can be surveyed at intervals, or the same cohorts of people, such as principals, students and parents, can be surveyed even though the individuals in the group may vary. In either case, inevitable changes in the people who are being surveyed and in the environment at the different intervals will affect the resulting data and will need to be considered.