Premium Essay

Challenges of Onlne Surveys

In:

Submitted By mrtoilh
Words 1226
Pages 5


Overcoming Challenges to Conducting Online Surveys
Jiali Ye Georgia State University, USA

Chapter VIII

AbstRAct
The widespread use of personal computers in the work place and at home has created a new opportunity of conducting research. With the increasing accessibility of the Internet and e-mail, using the new medium to distribute surveys is gaining popularity among researchers. The online survey, however, is a “double-edged sword,” with the ability to access a large number of respondents at low costs, but the risk of increasing difficulties to evaluate the quality of the research (Couper, 2000). Concerns over response rates, sampling, and controlling the data collection environment have posed serious challenges to online survey researchers. The purpose of the present chapter is to offer suggestions for addressing these concerns. After a brief discussion on the formats of online surveys, the author will outline the challenges of conducting online surveys, and provide some strategies to overcome these challenges.

IntRoductIon formats of online surveys
Internet-based research may appear in various forms, but generally there are two formats for online surveys: e-mail surveys and Web-based surveys. E-mail surveys. According to Bachmann, Elfrink, and Vazzana (1996), e-mail questionnaires appeared almost simultaneously with the introduction of e-mail. E-mail surveys used to be restricted to population samples from within a company or a university. With the increasing number of e-mail users, e-mail surveys have been adopted by more

business and academic communities. Conducting an e-mail survey involves several steps. First of all, researchers need to collect e-mail addresses of prospective respondents based on their research purposes. For example, some researchers used the technique of collecting e-mail addresses from listserves or newsgroups (Berge &

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Online College in Brazil

...Legando Universidade (Legacy University) INVESTMENT IN EMERGING MARKETS Target Country - BRAZIL Country Industry - EDUCATION Proposal - DISTANCE EDUCATION COMPANY Legando Universade Country: Brazil 1 Contents Country: Brazil............................................................................................................................................... 2 Culture .......................................................................................................................................................... 2 Economy........................................................................................................................................................ 3 Brazil GDP.................................................................................................................................................. 4 Unemployment and Consumer Spending ................................................................................................. 6 Industry Analysis ........................................................................................................................................... 7 Secondary Education in Brazil ................................................................................................................... 7 Private Education ...................................................................................................................................... 8 Online Secondary Education...

Words: 4901 - Pages: 20

Free Essay

Global Dairy

...www.pwc.com Global Agribusiness Monthly commentary from our Agribusiness experts around the Globe. October 2014 Contents Regional views Did you know? Publications Calendar of events Prices Global Agribusiness contacts 2 8 11 13 14 21 Regional views Overview With teams around the Globe, this document sets out to give a flavour of what our local agribusiness experts are observing in their territories. This month we are reminded of the ever present impact of volatility on Global agriculture. We have seen significant falls in dairy commodities, grains and oils in 2014 with coffee soaring in the opposite direction on the back of a drought in Brazil. The moves have happened quickly (e.g dairy down over 50% in New Zealand since February 2014 and coffee spot prices up over 30% since August 2014) and this can be difficult for farm families or small holders to deal with. For example in the UK, dairy farmers have taken to public protests and blockades. At PwC we are bullish on the long term prospects for agriculture given Global population and wealth trends however we also recognise that this future optimism can be meaningless to a farmer when short term production costs exceed selling price. Agriculture is a volatile industry and participants have to put in place their own strategies to deal with this which are right for them, be it selling forward or hedging for budget certainty, insuring where possible against crop loss, keeping a buffer of cash or liquid assets which...

Words: 9275 - Pages: 38

Premium Essay

Work, Culture and Identity in Mozambique and Southafrica 1860-1910

...Acknowledgments ix Acknowledgments This book owes a great deal to the mental energy of several generations of scholars. As an undergraduate at the University of Cape Town, Francis Wilson made me aware of the importance of migrant labour and Robin Hallett inspired me, and a generation of students, to study the African past. At the School of Oriental and African Studies in London I was fortunate enough to have David Birmingham as a thesis supervisor. I hope that some of his knowledge and understanding of Lusophone Africa has found its way into this book. I owe an equal debt to Shula Marks who, over the years, has provided me with criticism and inspiration. In the United States I learnt a great deal from ]eanne Penvenne, Marcia Wright and, especially, Leroy Vail. In Switzerland I benefitted from the friendship and assistance of Laurent Monier of the IUED in Geneva, Francois Iecquier of the University of Lausanne and Mariette Ouwerhand of the dépurtement évangélrlyue (the former Swiss Mission). In South Africa, Patricia Davison of the South African Museum introduced me to material culture and made me aware of the richness of difference; the late Monica Wilson taught me the fundamentals of anthropology and Andrew Spiegel and Robert Thornton struggled to keep me abreast of changes in the discipline; Sue Newton-King and Nigel Penn brought shafts of light from the eighteenthcentury to bear on early industrialism. Charles van Onselen laid a major part of the intellectual foundations on...

Words: 178350 - Pages: 714