Care should always be taken to only use previous data when it is methodologically important to do so. Here are the 5 times that reusing data to enhance your survey is actually ok.
Most surveys of alcohol-use ask about behaviors and patterns that happen days, weeks months or even years ago. It’s all retrospective recollection from study participants. It’s useful for identifying general trends but it’s fraught with measurement errors. And when the topic of the study is binge drinking, errors involving memory can increase. — even if you’re asking the question the next day.
ext messages (also known as Short Message Service, or SMS) are more and more becoming the go-to medium of communication. This especially is the case for today’s college students, who seem to conduct their social and even business lives completely via their smartphone.
Scott Crawford and the team at SoundRocket looked at the data surrounding the efficacy of using SMS when surveying college students, resulting in a presentation at the 2013 American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Conference.
It has been a while since I have communicated about the importance of checklists. It feels that the time is right to do so again… as it will become a more and more important element to what we do as we grow.
Testing a web-based survey is one of the most detested activities to many in the survey research business. From a 2016 post, here are seven tips to better web-based survey testing practices for your next study. You’re welcome 🙂
We know your survey is exciting and will divulge important findings; you know your survey is exciting and will divulge important findings. But darn those who don’t know this and so don’t participate. Or worse – those who do know this, but choose not to participate for some other reason. Their nonresponse can create uncertainty in how accurate our survey results actually are. If only we could survey robots or well-trained dogs who followed our instructions instead of people!
A couple months ago, I listened to a podcast episode called “Sports Superstitions” on a wonderful podcast called Fearless Conversations with Abby Wambach (which, by the way, is a wonderful podcast on a variety of social issues from the perspective of a professional athlete). It brought back memories of long ago (high school) days when I used to pole vault. For a long time I blamed my youth for the rituals that I would perform before and during competition. How I removed the pole from its cardboard tube, the number of times I rocked back and forth before I started down the runway (three), and even the side of the pit that I used to jump off after I completed a vault (always the left)…
Testing a web-based survey is one of the most detested activities to many in the survey research business. It requires patience, persistence, and tremendous focus. Finding someone who enjoys testing and is good at it is a valuable asset to any survey research team.
A wonderful resource for many details about testing questionnaires (including a chapter on web-based surveys) is Methods for Testing and Evaluating Survey Questionnaires.
Here are seven tips to better web-based survey testing practices for your next study…
When you find yourself surveying a population where significant information is known about those who are in the study prior to them completing the survey (such as in a longitudinal survey, a panel, or when the respondents are part of a known group such as a membership organization), such data can be used as part of the survey instrument design.
While it is tempting to do whenever possible, when using such data, care should be given to how and when it is used…