1 / 13

Online Surveys: Approach, Issues and Challenges

Online Surveys: Approach, Issues and Challenges. Mohini Singh PhD School of BIT. Online Surveys. Supported by technology (Internet) Quick Convenient (24*7) Reach – respondents at greater distances Cost savings – postage and printing Responses (submitted forms) Downloaded to a database

amaya-weiss
Download Presentation

Online Surveys: Approach, Issues and Challenges

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Online Surveys: Approach, Issues and Challenges Mohini Singh PhD School of BIT

  2. Online Surveys • Supported by technology (Internet) • Quick • Convenient (24*7) • Reach – respondents at greater distances • Cost savings – postage and printing • Responses (submitted forms) • Downloaded to a database • Portable -Can be transferred across to statistical packages for analysis

  3. Questionnaire • HTML form • Sections - pages • Programmed so that the respondents cannot proceed unless they have provided a response to each question • Can include text boxes, drop down lists and radio buttons for responses • Include a tracking number • For respondents to continue at a later time/day • For researchers to identify the responses

  4. How to Setup Online Surveys • Off the shelf software • Professional Quest $1540 • Statpac US$495 • Host of others • Limitations • Limited statistical analysis ability of the off the shelf packages • Database issues • Consultants $55,000 • High costs • Programmers

  5. E-Business Evaluation Project • VRI Funding $12,000 • HTML forms developed by a Computer Science student $4,000 • Programmed in HTML, supported by PHP and MYSQL • Questionnaire – sections (pages), tracking number, instructions, easy to read, colour (pleasant & professional) • Hosted on RMIT server, supported by ITS $90 for 3 months

  6. Research • Industry database purchased via RMIT Library • Sent an email to 1,300 organisations • Emails bounced back = 400 • Auto responses = 15 • Company policy not to respond to surveys = 15

  7. Research cont… • Responses in 7 days = 17 • Reminder email in 2 weeks • Responses = 37

  8. Other responses • “My time is valuable - $75 per hour. Please don’t waste it unless you can pay for it”... • “Sorry I can receive your email, but I can’t access the website. In order to do that, we need to use a separate machine which is dedicated for the Internet use. Sorry I can’t help you.”…

  9. Other Responses cont… • “If you wish us to participate in a survey either put it in your email or attach it. We do not chase around strange websites” • “We do not wish to participate, kind regards” • “Thank you but we do not wish to participate. Please remove us from your mailing list/database.”

  10. Alternative • Postal questionnaire survey - hard copies • Outcome • Online responses increased to 97 • Returned hard copies = 115 • Analysis • Approx 23% responses

  11. Issues • Benefits - useful research tool • Database – out of date, expensive for accurate information • ‘Clicks’ – new & unproven, a lack of trust, not utilised to its full potential

  12. Challenges • Population – technology savvy people will use it, others are reluctant • Getting respondents to accept online questionnaires (first experience, unable to follow instructions, difficult to share information) • New medium – took longer than expected to set it up • For this project – implications for e-business a major concern

  13. Conclusion • In this case ‘paper and online forms’ were used to complete the research • It is assumed that online research will work well with • focus groups • with technology savvy people • for quick and short responses (market survey)

More Related