Hutchings N 2011 QUICK 116

8/3/2019 Hutchings N 2011 QUICK 116

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Summer 2010-11 Issue 116

QSITE award winnersPaul [lolland - 1 ife Member lO l lSuccess on purpose: The I!xperiences of a collaborativeapproach to revitalising a Year 7 Information Reportusing leTsKeltie Ayton. Sasha Ristic. Alex Delaforce, Pip Macdonaldlmproving outcomes for online self-reporting questionnaires in descriptive researchNathan Hutchings

Beyond Your Back Door! ReflecLions and celebrationson a coLlaborative online project.Fiona Banjer and lenni FewtrellDiscovery of leT helping special education students tosoarLarissa l3iJyal'dSharing the Kahootz ExperienceMeg JOhnSOIl


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Improving outcomes for online self-reporting questionnaires in descriptive researchNathan HutchingsSt John's Anglican College, Forest Lake

This paper will argue that selfreporting questionnaires fordescriptive research using amixed online surveys approach is aneffective and low cost method ofconducting research in comparison tosolely mail, telephone or personaladministration of surveys. A case will bepresented that some of the difficulties ofemail and web-based data collectionmethods such as, parti cipants lack ofaccess to email and the internet, lowresponse rates, abandonment ofresponses, multiple replies from thesame participants' and inability to

(2007) research indicating a rapid increasein Internet usage.

Next, low response rates will beaddressed. Work by Couper, Kapteyn,Schonlau and Winter (2007) will providean insight into addressing low responserates in senior demographic populations. Research conducted by Beebe,Locke, Barnes, Davern, and Anderson(2007) will provide evidence of a mixedmethod approach to dealing withparticipant response rates of a professional (Medical Doctors) demographicpopulation.

Furthermore, Truell 's (2003) work

Zhang's (2000) investigation of how toreduce participant multiple responseswill be discussed.Participant lack of access to email andthe internetGay, Mills and Airasain (2006) state that,'not everyone has email' (p. 165) but inorder for an online self reportingquestionnaire to be successful participants at the outset need to be able toaccess email or the Internet. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (2007) and datafrom National Statistics (2007) in theUnited Kingdom indicate that Internet

explain survey items in depthcan be reduced or mitigated .Both email and web-basedonline survey approaches willbe discussed 'howeverweb-based mixed surveyapproaches will be presentedas the most effective atnegating some of the disadvantages of online researchdata gathering.

. ..populations for online research areoften chosen because of their ability toaccess and use email or the Internetrather than being representative of aspecific population; this is conveniencesampling at its best.

access and usage has grownrapidly over the past three yearstherefore Gay's et al. (2006) criticisms may need to be revised.Despite Gay et al. (2006)concerns about participantaccess to emaiL online surveyresearch has become increasingly popular. Lyons, Cude,Lawrence and Gutter (2005)believe that the reasons for the

Initially participant lack of access toemail and the internet wUl be addressed inlight of the now ubiquitous email and webbased survey techniques as detailed byLyons, Cude, Lawrence and Gut ter (2005).Increased popularity of email and webbased survey techniques will discussedwith reference to difficulties encounteredby Schonlau, Asch and Du (2003) andDiment and Garrett-Jones (2007).However the growth in the popularity ofweb based survey techniques and thedifficulties encountered will be foregrounded by Australian Bureau of Statistics

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will provide inSight into why participants abandon survey responses;Granello an d Wheaton's (2004) findingswill also provide further insight intoreasons and ways to reduce abandon-ment of survey responses. In addition,Heerwegh's (2003) research intogather ing client side paradata will be putforth as an approach to collecting dataabout respondents' interactions prior tosurvey abandonment. In addition toanalysis of participants' lack of access toemail and the internet, low responserates, and abandonment of responses

increasing appeal of online surveyresearch are access to larger sample sizes,reduced or automated data-processingand lower costs.

Schonlau, Asch and Du 's (2003)research supports Lyons, Cude, Lawrence and Gutter's (2005) more recentobservations; Schonlau et a1. (2003) alsoraise the issue of non -representativesampling of populations. Schonlau et a1.(2003) posit that populations for onlineresearch are often chosen because oftheir ability to access and use email orthe Internet rather than being represent-


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ative of a specific population; this isconvenience sampling at its best. Inorder to reach participants' that do nothave access to access email or theInternet and improve the possibility ofobtaining a more representative samplepopulation a mixed online surveysapproach needs to be used.

A mixed online survey approachcombines online, mail and telephoneapproaches. Schonlau, Asch and Du's(2003) research, and more recentlyDiment and Garrett-Jones (2007)research conducted on an Australianpopulation, found that when participantsare first contacted by mail and given theoption to respond via mail or onlineeffects caused by lack of access to emailor internet are reduced. Interestinglyresearch by Bandilla, Bosnjak, andAltdorfer (2003) also found that datagathered via online methods andpersonal administration of mail surveyswhere almost identical. Therefore the useof a mixed approach increases theresearchers' ability to obtain a

variable of their study, these findingsupport similar findings by Bandilla,Bosnjak, and Altdorfer (2003).

Couper, Kapteyn, Schonlau andWinter's (2007) research populationwere persons 50 years and older, apopulation that the researchersexpected to be resistant to usingonline research approaches. Incontrast to Beebe, Locke, Barnes,Davern, and Anderson's (2007)participants Couper et al (2007)participants where enthusiastic aboutcompletely an online survey. Couperet al (2007) found that lack of accessto email or the Internet was the mainreason that this research populationwould be under represented ratherthan unwillingness to participate.Therefore a mixed online researchapproach would be necessary whenresearching this population in orderto actually reach more participants'and improve response rates.

Participant preference for mail based

Participant abandonment of surveyresponseSo far this paper has argued that a mixedonline survey approach can counterproblems of lack of online access andimproving participant response rates.Unfortunately even if these two problemsare countered or minimized there is stilithe possibility that the participant will notcomplete a survey response. Despite thepossibility that participants' will abandona survey response TrueH (2003) foundthat online surveys have higher responsecompleteness in comparison to mailbased surveys. Using online methods togather survey data enable researchers togather paradata, data about how aparticipant changes or modifies aresponse prior to submitting the onlinesurvey form (Heerwegh, 2003). Para datacan be used to inform survey design forexample if participants commonlyabandon the survey at a specific questionor time then this data can be used toimprove the response rate.

more representative sample byreaching non-email and nonInternet users and despite presenting the survey in a differentformat, online verses mail, the datagathered will not be overly affectedby the survey format (Bandilla etaI., 2003).

Low participant response ralesA key issue for any researcher is

Participant preference for mailbased surveys rather than onlinesurveys and difficulties with access-ing online technologies despitehaving the willingness to useonline surveys both can contributeto low response rates.

Reducing multiple responsesfrom online participantsResearchers who address issues oflack of access to email or Internet,low response rates and abandonment of survey response the issueof duplicate or multiple responsesfrom single participants can occur(Sue & Ritter, 2007). Participantscan deliberately or inadvertentlyrespond twice or multiple times tothe same survey and thereforehe response rate of participants.

Response rates for mail surveys aretypically 30% to 50% (Gay, Mills &Airasain., 2006). Response rates foronline surveys are typically lower thanmail surveys (Granello & Wheaton.,2004). Reasons for low response ratesfor online surveys are not solely becauseof lack of access to email or the interne tBeebe, Locke, Barnes, Davern, andAnderson (2007) found that theirpopulation sample - Medical Doctors -who had access to email and Interne t,preferred responding to surveys viamail. Beebe et al. (2007) found thatresponse rate where slightly higher whenparticipants where sent the mail surveythen a follow up reminder online survey.Beebe et al. (2007) also found that thetype of survey response completed byparticipants did not affect the key

surveys rather than online surveys anddifficulties with accessing onlinetechnologies despite having the willingness to use online surveys both cancontribu te to low response rates. Using amixed online research can address theseproblems however Truell (2003) alsofound that low participant response ratescan be improved if contacted by mail ortelephone after an online or mail surveyhas not been returned. For participantswho have email or Internet accessGranello and Wheaton (2004) foundthat email reminders just as effective asphone or written reminders at eliciting aresponse from participants. Granelloand Wheaton (2004) also report theoptimal time to elicit a response andimprove parti cipant response rates wasfour days after the initial contact.

affect he validity of the survey data. Inorder to control this problem all onlinesurveys approaches must whereverpossible incorporate a form of userauthentication (Zhang, 2000).Condu ionSelf-reporting questionnaires fordescriptive research using a mixedonline surveys approach is an effectiveand low cost method of conductingresearch if and only if issues of participant access to online tools are taken intoaccount, low response rates are countered, survey abandonment is minimized and multiple responses arereduced or eliminated.BibliographyTruell, A. T. (2003). Use of Internet tools

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for survey research [Electronic Version].Information Technology, Learning, andPerformance Journal, 21(1) ,31-37.Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2007).Patterns of internet access in Australia,2006. Retrieved April 12, 2008, fromhttp://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/8146.0.55.0011

Beebe, T. J. , Locke, G. R., Barnes, S. A.,Davern, M. E., & Anderson, K. J. (2007)Mixing Web and Mail Methods in aSurvey of Physicians [ElectronicVersion] . Health Services Research,42(3) , 1219-1 234.BandiIla, w., Bosnjak, M. , & Altdorfer,M. (2003) . Surveys Using the ISSPEnvironment Module; Survey Administration Effects? : A Comparison ofWeb-Based an d Traditional WrittenSelf-Admin istered [Electronic Version] .Social Science Computer Review, 21,235-243Couper, M. P, Kapteyn, A., Schonlau,M., & Winter, J. (2007). Noncoverageand non response in an Internet survey

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[Electronic Version]. Social ScienceResearch, 36, 131-148.Darcy Haag Granel\o, D. H., Wheaton, J.E. (2004). Online Data Collection:Strategies for Research [ElectronicVersion]. Journal of Counselling andDevelopment. 82(4),387- 393 .Diment, K., & Garrett-Jones, S. (2007).Mixed-Mode Survey of AustralianResearchers; How DemographicCharacteristics Affect Mode Preferencein a Postal/Web [Electronic Version].Social Science Computer Review, 25,410-417Gay, L. R., Mills, G. E., & Airasain, P.(2006). Educational Research competen-cies for analysis and applications. (8thed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: PrenticeHall.Heerwegh, D. (2003) . ExplainingResponse Latencies and ChangingAnswers Using Client-Side Paradatafrom a Web Survey [Electronic Version] .Social Science Computer Review, 21,360-373

Lyons, A. c., Cude, B., Lawrence, F. c.,& Gutter, M. (2005). ConductingResearch Online: Challenges FacingResearchers in Family and ConsumerSciences [Electronic Version]. Familyand Consumer Sciences Research Journal,33,341-356 .National Statistics. (2007). InternetAccess 61 % of households had access.Retrieved April 13, 2008, from http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=8Schonlau, M., Asch, B. J., & Du, C.(2003). Web Surveys as Part of aMixed-Mode Strategy for Populationsthat cannot be Contacted by E-Mail[Electronic Version] . Social ScienceComputer Review, 21, 218-222.Sue, V. M., & Ritter, L. A. (2007).Conducting Online Surveys. London,United Kingdom: Sage Publications.Zhang, Y. (2000) Using the Internet forsurvey research: A case study [ElectronicVersion] . Journal of the American Societyfor Information Science; 51(1), 57-68.
http://www.abs.gov.au/ahttp://www.abs.gov.au/ahttp://www.abs.gov.au/ahttp://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nuggethttp://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nuggethttp://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nuggethttp://www.abs.gov.au/ahttp://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget

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Hutchings N 2011 QUICK 116