In a previous post we discussed how to minimize survey breakoff. Surveys are a great way to collect data but when designing a survey it’s important to consider how much is too much. Today we are going to discuss satisficing, how to keep respondents engaged, and in...
From the LaunchPad
Welcome to The Launchpad, SoundRocket’s blog, where we share our insights and musings on the science of doing science (well), #soundscience.
Good Surveys Come With Subtraction, Not Addition: How Questionnaire Length Leads to Breakoffs
We often hear—so how long can our questionnaire be? While we love surveys, the reality is most respondents don’t share our enthusiasm, which means long questionnaires can be bad for data quality. Today we are going to look at how long surveys can lead to breakoff, and...
Graduate Student Collaborates with SoundRocket on Survey Creation and Data Collection for Thesis Paper
"The piece that has made my thesis and my study unique is being able to survey a representative sample of the U.S. population. This was made possible because of SoundRocket,” says Gabi. Gabriela (Gabi) Wen Hsuan Chen is currently a graduate student at the University...
Introducing Error Through Use of Web Survey Progress Indicators
In 1998, fascinated with the potential for the web to serve as a data collection platform, I wondered what sources of error may crop up with this new technology. Not surprisingly, we noticed early on that if participants did not finish a web-based survey in one...
What Led Us to Live Televideo Interviews (LTIs), and Why We Won’t be Turning Back
This post was written in collaboration with Jesus Arrue Why develop live televideo interview methods? In simpler times, pre-pandemic, we conducted user comprehension and other cognitive interview studies through in-person interviews. We would meet with research...
Is now a good time? Surveying higher ed students in a pandemic
One of the most common questions I am fielding today—with COVID-19 spreading across the nation, is now a good time to conduct surveys? Is the pandemic having an impact on response rates?
As one of my favorite grad school professors, Mick Couper, loved to say, “It depends.”
Whether one engages in a survey right now will depend on their current status. This may not be a good time to survey emergency department staff. Professionals who are engaged in conducting online surveys may also have their hands full of work (from home) and may not have much extra time to spare. But if you are surveying the general population, with exploding rates of unemployment, you may have better luck. Students in higher education have been ripped from their regular social routines and disconnected from others. They may welcome an opportunity to share their experiences . . .
Surveying College Students with SMS: Is it Feasible?
Text messages (also known as Short Message Service, or SMS) have become the go-to medium when contacting others. This is especially the case for today’s college students, who seem to conduct their social and even business lives completely via messaging service.
SoundRocket examined the data surrounding the efficacy of using SMS when surveying college students, resulting in presentation at a past American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Conference.
SoundRocket Founder to Speak at FEDCASIC Workshop
If you would like to spot some serious survey nerds while enjoying the Cherry Blossoms in Washington, D.C. this year, step on down to the Bureau of Labor Statistics where SoundRocket founder Scott D. Crawford will be presenting at the The Federal Computer Assisted Survey Information Collection (FEDCASIC) Workshop. Scott will be presenting “Best Practices in Consent to Capture Geolocation Data in Self-Administered Web Surveys” in the Wednesday afternoon session on Advances in the Use of Location Data.
ICYMI: Five Ways to Use Previously Collected Survey Data to Improve Quality in a Survey
An oldie but a goody!
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.